Building Better Brains
Together We Can!
Hi, I’m Tony Vallance
BSc (Zool), Grad Dip Ed, Dip Couns, Post Grad PT
Roles: Clinic Manager, Consultant, Speaker, Play Therapist, Teacher, Counsellor
Co-owner/founder of Building Better Brains
Awards:
Australian Education Awards Teacher of the Year 2019
Victorian Education Excellence Awards Finalist 2018
Australian Business Champion Awards Allied Health Finalist 2024
Maroondah Business of the Year 2023 Winner
Tony integrates a neuroscience-based, attachment-focused approach, recognising the power of relationships as a buffer to trauma and anxiety. His creative, client-centered practice draws on a wide range of therapeutic modalities, including Virtual Reality, LEGO, Sandtray, Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Specialising in working with neurodivergent children, teens, and adults—particularly those with autism and ADHD—Tony’s diagnosis of ADHD allows him to bring deeply lived experience into his therapeutic methods, fostering authentic connections with clients. He runs ‘Find Your Tribe’ a therapeutic table top role play group (DnD adventures with collaborative challenges) for Autistic kids and teenagers to help them grow in their confidence and prosocial/teamwork skills. His therapeutic interventions have been published in the latest edition of Dr. Robert Jason Grant’s Play Interventions for Neurodivergent Children and Adolescents: Promoting Growth, Empowerment, and Affirming Practices.
He empowers school-aged clients through MAD (Make A Difference) Projects, which guide participants through project-based, contemporary, skills-focused, and student-centered learning, fostering ownership, engagement, and practical application of their skills. As a musician, Tony leads You Rock Therapy, where clients learn basic drums and guitar, using songwriting and recording to externalise emotions and strengthen self-expression. His expertise in group work draws on his fourteen years as a top educator, cultivating supportive, collaborative environments.
Tony also provides focused coaching for men, especially fathers, helping them develop emotional resilience and healthier ways to manage the challenges of present day fatherhood. His attachment-based interventions aim to strengthen relationships as a foundation for well-being, informed by both his training and personal journey, particularly as a father of two neurodivergent children (ASD and ADHD).
As a speaker, Tony is a profoundly humorous and deeply vulnerable communicator who specialises in direct and emotional engagement with his audiences. Known for always yielding laughter, frequently tears, and often both, Tony shares the scars and stars of living with neurodivergence, offering a strengths-based approach through the swamps of anxiety and shame. You won’t just hear his presentations—you will experience, feel, and remember them.
He is registered with the ACA, PTPA and VIT.
Hi, I'm Sian Chambers - Vallance
BPA, BA (Psych), Post Grad Dip PT, Dip Couns, Dip Mindfulness, Dip Yoga, Cert Kids yoga, Dip AT, Cert AP, Cert Sup.
CEO, Play Therapist, Counsellor, Supervisor
Co-owner of Building Better Brains
Awards:
Australian Business Champion Awards Allied Health Finalist 2024
Maroondah Business of the Year 2023 Winner
Maroondah Business Awards Winner Training and Education
Australian Women's Small Business Champion Awards 2024 Winner Children Services
Semi Finalist 2024 Telstra Business Awards
ADHD Coach Certification
Certificate of Individual and Group Supervision
Advanced Graduate Training in Clinical Child Centred Play Therapy
Diploma of Counselling
Diploma of Mindfulness
Diploma of Art Therapy Post Graduate Diploma Play Therapy
Cert in Kids Yoga
Cert in Autplay therapy
Diploma in Yoga Teaching
Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree
Bachelor of Psychology Degree
Sian is a passionate clinical play therapist, professional supervisor and creative therapist specializing in early trauma and attachment difficulties. She works with children and families in a systemic way and believes that brain based parenting, teacher education and support are key to helping this next generation of children thrive, along with harnessing the power of play.
Sian is a proud mum of two boys, one trainee therapy dog and an aloof cat!
Sian is registered with ACA, ACA college of supervisors, APTA and APPTA.
Welcome to Building Better Brains
Building Better Brains is a unique multi award winning allied health company who specialise in providing a range of person centred individual and group therapy programs and training.
Our expertise and excellence has been recognised across fields receiving national awards for Education (Australian Education Awards Teacher of the Year, 2019), Winner of Australian Women’s Small Business Champion for Children’s services (2024), Australian Small Business Champions national finalist for Allied Health (2024), plus Maroondah Business Awards Winner for Training and Education and the esteemed Business of the Year (2023)!
We work from our affirming mission statement that ‘Together We Can’ – this concept translates across the way we work, the way we lead, the way we encourage collaboration in our team, the way we build communities of parents, professionals and educators, and the way we aim to build better brains!
Our systemic vision of supporting the child and then building education and capacity in the systems around the child, bridges both macro and micro change that impacts current and future generations, helping us all to build better brains!
At Building Better Brains, we are a dynamic multi disciplinary team consisting of creative counsellors, psychologists, dance and movement therapists, creative arts therapists, art therapists, play therapists, social workers, somatic trauma therapists, drama therapists, early years therapists, speech therapists, educators, trainers and keynote speakers.
We work with our clients in a one on one capacity as well as offering group therapy options, parent support and training, couples and family therapy and training and consultancy services.
At Building Better Brains we work with a creative strengths based approach with a neuroaffirming lens.
Our therapists and facilitators focus on building skills of attachment, regulation, confidence, self expression and communication that help support healthier relationships and functioning for life.
Our workshops are engaging, practical and full of real stories that open up dialogue for long lasting change.
Together we can build better brains! Choose the best for your family today.