Why was Cullen & Co created

Cullen & Co was created after years of working within larger organisations and realising that so much of what healthcare had become no longer aligned with my values as an Occupational Therapist.

I entered this profession because I wanted to help people. I wanted to be an OT. But as I moved into regional management roles, I watched the focus slowly shift away from clinicians and participants, and towards numbers, KPIs, utilisation percentages and billable targets.

My role became less about supporting therapists clinically and more about ensuring calendars stayed full and targets were met.

What made this particularly difficult was that behind those KPIs were real people.

I had clinicians come to me exhausted and overwhelmed. Some were struggling with difficult things happening at home. Some had children going through challenges at school. Others had sick family members, burnout, uncertainty around the NDIS, or participants they genuinely felt stuck supporting.

And despite all of that, the expectation remained the same:

Make sure they hit target.

While I understand the business side of healthcare and the importance of sustainability, I could never disconnect from the human side of it. The lack of empathy in some environments was something I simply could not reconcile within myself.

I kept a full caseload while managing teams because I genuinely wanted to continue practicing as an OT. But another reason was that I had no personal billable target attached to my management role, meaning I could often allocate my own hours to support my team members in reaching theirs.

Even then, it never felt right.

Another major issue I saw repeatedly was clinicians being allocated participants or assessments completely outside their experience level or interests, simply because someone needed to take the referral.

Not every OT enjoys or specialises in the same areas. Some thrive in paediatrics. Some love assistive technology. Others are passionate about mental health, housing or functional capacity assessments. That should matter.

One experience that has always stayed with me involved a new graduate Occupational Therapist I worked alongside. Prior to me joining the organisation, she had been managing an incredibly complex caseload with little to no senior OT support or consistent supervision.

Her caseload included wheelchair scripting, sensory assessments, assistive technology and highly complex participants — all within her first few months as a clinician.

She had essentially been left to navigate all of it alone.

I remember feeling genuinely shocked and upset for her. The following week, she resigned.

I supported her through this, I didn’t want her to think this was it for OT, that burnout was normal.

Experiences like these are a huge reason why so many Occupational Therapists burn out so early in their careers.

When I created Cullen & Co, I wanted to build something different.

I wanted to create a workplace where clinicians could grow safely and sustainably. A space where people feel supported instead of pressured. A culture where asking questions is encouraged, where shadowing opportunities exist, where CPD and learning are prioritised, and where clinicians can openly discuss challenges without fear of judgement.

I wanted a workplace where people could be human.

Where running to the chemist, bank or post office isn’t treated like a failure in productivity.

Where people can talk about their weekends, their holidays and their lives outside of work.

Most importantly, I wanted clinicians to work within areas they genuinely enjoy and feel confident in, because good therapy happens when therapists are supported, interested and appropriately mentored.

Cullen & Co isn’t perfect, and I never expect it to be. There is always room to improve, build better systems and continue learning.

But I am incredibly proud of the culture we are creating, the team we have built, and the genuine care our clinicians bring into the work they do every single day.

This company was built from seeing what I didn’t want healthcare to become — and believing there had to be another way.