Amanda Semaan is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Co-Director of Active Ability, which she co-founded alongside Kara Foscholo in 2014. She earned her Master of Exercise Physiology degree at the University of Sydney and has over a decade of experience helping people with disability maximise their health outcomes.
Amanda specialises in exercise interventions for individuals with disabilities and complex mental health conditions. She has extensive experience in both hospital and community settings, where she has helped clients use exercise to manage issues such as depression, anxiety, low motivation, and fatigue. Her passion for this field is evident in her educational efforts; Amanda delivered a lecture series on exercise for mental health to exercise physiology students at the University of Sydney and co-authored a published consensus statement outlining the role of exercise physiologists in mental health treatment.
This commitment to merging academic insight with practical care underscores her authority in the area of mental health and exercise. In addition to her clinical work, Amanda is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Sydney, where she contributes to training the next generation of allied health professionals in disability and mental health practice. She is also a proactive industry leader; Amanda co-founded the Exercise Physiology NDIS Network to promote higher standards and best practices for exercise physiology services within the NDIS community.
Her contributions to the profession extend to developing resources and guidelines for others – for example, she collaborated on an educational resource to teach health science students about ethics in professional practice, published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2019. Amanda regularly presents at national conferences and writes for industry publications, sharing insights from Active Ability’s work and her research. With her approachable demeanour and deep expertise, Amanda exemplifies the values of Active Ability.
She is dedicated to evidence-based practice and continually strives to improve service quality across NDIS-registered physiotherapy, exercise physiology, dietetics, and occupational therapy. Her leadership remains firmly focused on empowering people with disability, ensuring they receive empathetic, effective support to achieve better health, greater independence, and an improved quality of life.
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