Belinda and Mike from Needles & Cracks

Tell us a little bit about yourselves:

Belinda: We are Mike and Belinda, we run Needles & Cracks, located at the base of Nightingale Anstey in Brunswick. Our clinic offers Osteopathy, Acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

Mike: We’ve had a lot of feedback on the name. Some people love it. Most marketers and advertisers hate it [laughs]. We wanted it to be fun and down to earth, nothing too abstract.

Nightingale Anstey was completed early 2022 and we opened Needles & Cracks in October 2022.

Did Needles & Cracks exist before you moved here?

Mike: Yes. I teach Pilates over in Preston and we had a clinic there.

What kinds of services do you offer?

Belinda: I practice Chinese medicine, which covers a wide range of treatments —from skin conditions and pregnancy to musculoskeletal problems. I offer acupuncture, cupping, and Chinese herbal treatments. I actually grew up around this practice—my dad was an acupuncturist, so needles have always been part of
my life.

Mike: Osteopathy is somewhat similar to physiotherapy but we look at the whole person. I focus mainly on soft tissue work, joint articulations, and manipulations. Despite our name, "Needles & Cracks," I do very little actual cracking [laughs]. Since I have been teaching studio Pilates for more than 20 years, I have a strong emphasis on exercise and often prescribe personalised home exercise programs. Our goal is to empower people with the tools they need to manage their own health. When people feel in control and take charge of their own wellness, we see better, longer-term results.

When our daughter was a baby, she wasn’t sleeping so well and cried a lot. When she was a few weeks old I took her to see an osteo. Afterwards she slept like a dream and that’s when I knew I wanted to pursue osteopathy as a career.

Belinda: Our philosophy is really holistic. For some patients we offer a combined osteopathy-acupuncture treatment. We feel our treatment modalities work really well together. For example, I can stick the needles in, but if we release something and you don't have the strength to maintain it, then it's only going to be a temporary fix. By combining acupuncture with Mike's exercise programs or osteo treatments, we can get longer lasting results..

Mike: I mainly treat musculoskeletal pain, but sometimes this pain can be driven or maintained by stress or IBS or period pain. Belinda can support and treat the whole person using herbs and acupuncture. We try to get the person to their healthiest state where the body can heal itself. It’s much more effective than just treating musculoskeletal pain in isolation.

And you live upstairs?  What came first? The apartment or the commercial space?

Mike: We were lucky enough to ballot into Nightingale Anstey prior to construction. When we discovered there were going to be commercial spaces, we said “oh we’d be interested in that!”. We were one of the first to secure a space. It’s worked out so well, we really love it. The light in the room is beautiful. It’s lovely watching it change throughout the day and through the seasons.

Belinda: It’s so nice being on the bike path. There is so much activity. We have lots of people walking past and we get to see the residents out and about as well. It’s great to create community that extends beyond the business’s front door.

Mike: We have relationships with people as neighbours and friends and then a separate relationship as patients. It’s important for us to balance those boundaries. We don’t see neighbours out on the street and ask “how’s your back?” [laughs]. Privacy and having clear boundaries is so important.

Does your clientele mainly consist of Nightingale residents?

Mike: Actually, no. They come from all over. Most of our clients come from word of mouth referrals, and a good proportion came with us from our Preston location. I’d say about 10% of our clients are Nightingale residents.

Belinda: We think of Needles & Cracks like a community clinic. We make ourselves available outside of hours within reason. If someone has a wry neck on a Sunday, they can give us a call and we can pop down and treat it, no problem.

Why Nightingale?

Mike: It's great to have a nicely designed building and a focus on green energy and no cars - all big positives. But the real driver was this idea of really knowing our clients and neighbours. For us, the community is the best thing about living and working here.

What was the process like when you bought this space?

Mike: We bought it as a ‘cold shell’, an empty room. We worked with Breathe on the design of the fitout. It’s a small space, but we really love the design. We used the builders that were already on site because they were so familiar with the building. Simon from Nightingale helped us project manage everything which took a lot of the stress out.

Do you ever feel like you never leave Brunswick?

Belinda: There are some days when I never leave the building! [laughs]. Sometimes, I do miss having a commute and a chance to unwind. However, it’s really wonderful to be part of a community as opposed to practices where everyone’s health is contained and separated off. In a sense, this space feels more traditional, where a healer is part of the community. It’s been interesting thinking through that responsibility.

Does it bother your clients that there is no car parking in the building?

Mike: It’s not been an issue at all. We let new clients know of places close by where they can park if they need to. Once they’ve visited once, it’s not an issue. No one has ever not returned because of parking. When we were running the Preston and Brunswick clinics at the same time, most of our clients preferred to drive over to Brunswick because the space is so much better. We have clients that use wheelchairs that find this space easier to access too - they mostly come on public transport. We’re so close to the station, it’s easy.

Future plans for Needles & Cracks?

Belinda: We’ve discussed the idea of drop-in days where you don’t need an appointment. A way to make the clinic more accessible for the community. It’s really interesting, when you’re having acupuncture in China, often the patients are all together, sitting with needles in, chatting away, supporting each other, being part of a community. There’s research that supports more positive health outcomes when people are in a shared space instead of being separated off. So one idea would be a pregnancy or breastfeeding clinic.

There are new commercial spaces available across the road from you, underneath Nightingale Wurru wurru biik. What would you love to see open there?

Belinda: Massage!

Mike: A bookshop!

Belinda: A tea shop with a beautiful space to sit…

Mike: …with a book from the new book shop!

Belinda: A dance studio

Mike: A great Pilates studio

Belinda: Or a great design shop

Mike: Maker’s space or coworking space

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