About Inner Balance Naturopathy
Rooted in nature, focused on you.
Inner Balance Naturopathy was founded on a simple belief: health is about more than the absence of illness.
Our wellbeing is shaped by so many interconnected parts of our lives — how we nourish ourselves, how we move, how we rest, how we respond to stress, and the environments and routines that surround us.
There is no expectation of perfection here. Instead, the focus is on creating realistic, considered and sustainable approaches to health that can exist alongside a full and busy life.
Hi, I’m Monique Barnes, founder of Inner Balance Naturopathy.
My path to naturopathy was deeply personal, and in many ways, it shaped the practitioner I am today.
Growing up with ADHD and chronic anxiety, I had always been aware of the profound influence our mental wellbeing can have on everyday life. Following the COVID-19 lockdowns, those challenges became increasingly difficult to manage, and the later development of chronic pain added another layer entirely.
For the first time, I began to understand just how closely our physical and mental health can intersect. Pain affected my mental wellbeing, stress influenced my experience of pain, and I became increasingly aware of the broader ways ADHD could shape both my physical and mental health. Nothing seemed to exist entirely in isolation, and approaching each concern separately never felt like the complete picture.
After experiencing significant side effects from some of the medications available to me, I found myself searching for a more comprehensive understanding of my health — one that considered not only my symptoms, but the broader factors that might be influencing them.
That search led me to naturopathy.
What began as an effort to better understand my own health developed into a fascination with the complexity of the human body and, eventually, a career dedicated to helping others better understand and navigate theirs.
Today, I hold a Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy) and am registered with the Naturopaths & Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA), with a particular professional interest in brain and nervous system health, mental wellbeing and chronic pain.
Meet your practitioner
Our Approach to Care
No two people experience health in quite the same way. At Inner Balance, we look beyond individual symptoms to understand the bigger picture — considering your history, biology, environment and lifestyle, and how factors such as nutrition, sleep, stress and different body systems may interact.
Our approach is individualised, evidence-informed and collaborative. Recommendations are thoughtfully selected according to your needs and may incorporate nutrition, lifestyle medicine, Western herbal medicine and nutritional supplementation where appropriate.
But good care also needs to work in the real world.
We believe the most sophisticated treatment plan has little value if it is overwhelming or impossible to maintain. Your preferences, capacity and everyday life are therefore an important part of the conversation, allowing us to develop a plan that is both considered and genuinely achievable.
Ultimately, our aim is not only for you to receive care, but to better understand your health and feel informed and involved throughout the process.
Say Hello to Happy Health!
Book in for a free discovery call to share your goals, and see what Inner Balance can do to help you achieve them.