The team
The founder
Kristin Steenkamp
Kristin Steenkamp is the Founder and Principal Occupational Therapist of Attuned Occupational Therapy Services, providing occupational therapy across Wollongong and the Illawarra. Her practice is grounded in neuro-affirming, trauma-informed and relationship-based care, with a focus on children, adolescents and young adults with complex developmental, sensory and mental health needs.
With over six years of experience across the paediatric and disability sectors, Kristin has a particular interest in autism, sensory processing, emotional regulation and mental health. She has a special focus on autistic girls and women, supporting clients around masking, sensory differences, interoception, identity and navigating environments that don't accommodate neurodivergent ways of being.
With children, Kristin works through play, sensory regulation and relationship, helping young people build the foundational skills for everyday life, from emotional regulation and sensory processing to confidence, connection and participation at home, school and in the community. She partners closely with families, meeting children in their natural environments and shaping support around what matters to each child.
Outside of clinical work, Kristin enjoys travel, yoga, somatic movement and time by the ocean.
Working hours
8am–6pm, Sunday to Wednesday
The approach
Kristin's work rests on a few beliefs: that regulation is the ground everything else stands on. That neurodivergence is a way of being, not a way of being broken. That the body has already been through what the mind has not yet articulated, and that good work honours both. That the slow way is often the fast way. That a family, a school, a nervous system, a life. None of these are problems to be solved.
She believes in doing rigorous, evidence-informed clinical work while refusing the parts of health care that reduce people to their diagnoses. Autistic clients are the experts on their own experience, and her role is to bring OT knowledge into a shared conversation, not deliver it downward.
Occupational therapist
Charisse Buning
Charisse is a Paediatric Occupational Therapist with over 10 years of experience supporting children and young people across clinic, community and NDIS settings.
Her work is grounded in the belief that children thrive when they feel safe, understood and genuinely connected. She supports children with autism, ADHD, developmental differences, intellectual disability and sensory processing differences, with a focus on regulation, participation, confidence and the everyday skills that help children feel more capable in their world.
Charisse takes a playful, strengths-based and child-centred approach to therapy. She takes time to understand each child as a whole person, their interests, communication style, sensory needs, relationships and unique ways of experiencing the world, and uses these strengths as the foundation for meaningful therapeutic work.
She believes therapy should be purposeful, empowering and connected to real life, while still leaving plenty of room for play, curiosity, connection and joy.
Working hours
4.30–6.30pm, Monday / Saturday / Sunday
Programs
What else?
Unmasking & Reconnecting
An eight-week group for autistic young women, running each school term. A gentle, paced space to explore unmasking and reconnect with your own nervous system, alongside a small group of peers.
Parent capacity-building program
In collaboration with Nesting Space, a four-week program for families new to the autism journey, offering practical knowledge, strategies and confidence to support their child.