MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Wednesday 8th December 2025
Gold Coast, Australia – Health Stack is reshaping the national conversation on workplace wellbeing, highlighting new evidence showing that financial stress, sleep disruption, and family pressures can contribute directly to physical pain, including back and joint pain—despite no underlying physical injury.
This emerging research underpins why Health Stack has expanded its offering beyond traditional injury management to include holistic psychosocial support, family addiction support, financial fitness tools, breath training packages and health education programs.
For Health Stack founder and clinical physiotherapist James Fletcher, this new body of evidence highlights how for far too long the industry has been far too focused on the physical side of pain, a very myopic view of care and support. Pain is multifactorial and layered, sounds corny, but this gives everyone a much better chance of a real successful outcome. It also invites our patients into the conversation, everyone is responsible to provide a safe workplace and turn up to work fit and ready to do the job.
It is becoming apparent as more and more research comes out that the occupational health and safety sector workplace has been “too focused only on the physical body, using unnecessary scans, over medicalisation, using complex fear language and really providing a lack of support for the one person that needs it most.,” said James Fletcher.
“For years we assumed pain meant damage, but research now shows that pain has many levers; emotional, financial, psychological, relational. Someone stressed about money may experience back pain even when nothing is wrong with their back. It affects their sleep, their mood, their relationships and that directly amplifies their pain experience.”
Modern pain research has overturned decades of traditional medical thinking.
Scans often show abnormalities; disc bulges, degeneration, tendon changes-that exist in perfectly healthy, pain-free people, meaning:
- Pain does not always indicate injury
- Scans often cannot determine who has pain
- Stressors like finances and poor sleep can trigger or worsen pain
- Over-medicalisation can lock people into a “broken” mindset
- Lack of a clear plan leads to miscommunication and setbacks
James Fletcher warns that this outdated “search for damage” creates what he calls a negative damage response.
“The moment someone is told something is wrong with their spine or joint, it sticks with them. We all know the power of the negative,” James Fletcher said.
Humans cling to negative information, we internalise it and it takes much longer to reverse than a positive message. It destroys confidence and prolongs pain.”
This negative damage response is made worse by common industry practices such as unnecessary scans, catastrophic language and fear-based communication.
Technology is transforming workplaces across Australia, yet many organisations remain hesitant to adopt digital tools in health, safety and injury prevention.
To counter this, Health Stack’s PHYSIO First program has become the frontline of early intervention—avoiding the negative cycles that often arise in traditional healthcare pathways.
The model focuses on:
- Immediate access to a physiotherapist
- Early reassurance to avoid fear and catastrophisation
- Identifying all contributors to pain, not just physical ones
- Addressing financial stress, sleep disruption, and relationship strain
- Providing positive health experiences instead of negative medical ones
“We tell workers: yes, you’re in pain, but you’re not broken,” James Fletcher said.
“There’s nothing damaged and you’re safe to move. And here are the real reasons you’re hurting – you’re stressed, you’re not sleeping, you’re under family or financial pressure; when we treat those levers, the pain shifts.”
Health Stack’s PHYSIO First model equips organisations to modernise without compromising care, helping businesses reduce injuries, improve retention and build safer, more adaptable workplaces.
Visit Health Stack to learn how PHYSIO First can support your organisation’s wellbeing strategy and drive measurable improvement in workplace injury prevention.
To learn more, visit healthstack.com
About Health Stack
Founded in 2020, Health Stack is the subsidiary of Safe & Healthy, which has been operating in the corporate health sector since 2013. Its founder James Fletcher is a former rugby player, physiotherapist and exercise physiologist who specialises in breathing techniques to support performance, recovery, and health. He has worked with many athletes from the Australian Institute of Sports, Cirque du Soleil and Olympians.
His core focus is on the ‘forcefield’ approach to workplace injury and ill-health prevention; this philosophy focuses on treating the body as an interconnected system. It seeks to showcase the links inputs like stress or bad sleep plays in an output like a lower-back injury and treat the issues holistically through its programs focusing on exercises, nutrition and managing stressors.
Its flexible online and hybrid model goes beyond onsite care, delivering real solutions that actually work. We achieve this through our cutting-edge platform and team of healthcare leaders, not just physiotherapists, but nutritionists, psychologists and doctors who tackle the full picture of employee health.
Trained in the cutting-edge LOAD IT rehabilitation model, we don’t just treat injuries – we empower recovery and prevent future risks. With locations throughout Australia and New Zealand we can reach even the most remote areas. Our health professionals’ online platforms deliver high quality care with minimal disruption, ensuring your team gets the support they need without leaving the premises.
Forget the old way. Experience workplace health redefined.
For all media enquiries, images, or interviews, please contact:
James Fletcher
james@healthstack.com.au
0451 709 097
