Emma Atherton’s vision for Liberty Women’s Wellness began with her own search for answers.
In Episode 16 of Your Number 1 Business Podcast, Emma joins Antoine Vidal to discuss the personal health challenges that inspired her to create a collaborative women’s healthcare clinic in Greater Springfield.
Emma shares how experiencing early perimenopause exposed gaps in the support available to women. What began as a deeply personal journey eventually became a five-year vision to bring experienced health professionals together and provide women with more connected, holistic care.
Emma’s journey began while she and her husband, Adam, were running Orion Family Physiotherapy and raising their five children.
After having her fifth child at 37, Emma began experiencing symptoms including hot flushes, night sweats, anxiety, depression, fatigue and significant hormonal changes.
At first, the symptoms appeared similar to postpartum changes, stress or business burnout. However, after further investigation, Emma discovered that she was experiencing perimenopause at a relatively young age.
The process of finding answers was frustrating. Initial tests provided little explanation, and Emma found herself moving between doctors, specialists and different health professionals.
As she began assembling the care she needed, she realised other women were likely facing the same fragmented experience.
“I realised that I’m not the only one going through this.”
That realisation became the foundation for Liberty Women’s Wellness.
In this conversation, Emma shares:
Emma’s experience showed her that women’s health concerns rarely sit neatly within one area.
Her own treatment involved medical support, hormone replacement therapy, pelvic-floor physiotherapy, nutrition, acupuncture and strategies for managing inflammation and cortisol.
Finding each service separately required time, energy and persistence at a point when she was already physically and emotionally exhausted.
Emma began imagining a place where women could access a broader team of professionals who understood the different stages and complexities of women’s health.
The goal was not simply to place several services in one building. It was to create a team that communicated, collaborated and looked at the whole person.
“We’re giving so much. What about us?”
The idea for Liberty developed over approximately five years.
During the COVID period, Emma spent time researching women’s health clinics in Australia and overseas. She explored what services women needed, how those services might work together and what kind of environment would make women feel safe and supported.
She also began thinking carefully about the physical experience of entering the clinic.
The colours, layout, atmosphere and even the smell of the space were considered. Emma kept a diary containing drawings, ideas, reflections and quotes that helped her shape the concept long before the clinic opened.
She initially imagined a retreat-like location surrounded by greenery. The eventual opportunity in Springfield’s Health City allowed her to create that sense of calm while remaining centrally located on Wellness Way.
The Liberty name emerged from discussions about helping women feel liberated in their health and in their lives.
For Emma, the idea represented supporting the whole woman across body, mind and spirit.
The clinic’s flame symbol was also created with purpose. Its shape reflects the curves and movement of a woman while representing energy, identity and the spiritual dimension of wellbeing.
The branding was not developed simply to look attractive. It was designed to communicate what Emma wanted women to feel when they entered the clinic: understood, supported and free to seek the care they needed.
One of the most important parts of Liberty’s development was finding the right clinicians.
Many of the professionals who supported Emma during her own health journey later became part of the Liberty team.
Emma had experienced their knowledge, care and ability to educate her about her body. She knew the quality of their work and believed they shared her desire to improve women’s health.
Rather than encouraging competition between practitioners, Emma built the clinic around collaboration.
Many members of the team operate their own individual businesses while also working together through Liberty. The focus is on sharing knowledge, communicating between disciplines and directing each woman towards the most appropriate support.
Emma describes the team as a group of people moving in the same direction with a shared heart and vision.
Although Emma’s experience with perimenopause was the original catalyst, Liberty Women’s Wellness supports women through many different health concerns and stages of life.
These include:
Emma believes these issues often require more than one practitioner.
A woman may need medical treatment, physiotherapy, psychological support, dietary guidance and other services working together. Liberty’s model is intended to make that pathway clearer and less isolating.
Emma also identified a need to strengthen connections between Liberty and the broader medical community.
The clinic’s practitioners regularly complete professional development, participate in research and remain current within their individual fields.
Emma wants that knowledge to contribute to stronger referral pathways throughout the local area.
By sharing information with doctors, specialists and other health professionals, the clinic can help women find appropriate support earlier and reduce the feeling of being passed between disconnected services.
Emma’s goal is not to replace existing healthcare providers. It is to work alongside them and help create a more connected system.
Building Liberty required Emma to confront significant self-doubt.
She was not a physiotherapist, psychologist, dietitian or medical specialist. This sometimes led her to question whether she was qualified to lead a women’s healthcare organisation.
“Am I competent enough to do this? Can I actually do this?”
Emma eventually recognised that her role was different.
Her responsibility was to hold the vision, bring the right people together, create the environment and build a structure that allowed experienced clinicians to do their best work.
She also had to learn reception, administration, team management, systems, insurance and the many operational responsibilities that sit behind a healthcare business.
Her experience demonstrates that leadership does not always mean being the technical expert. It can mean recognising a need, assembling capable people and creating the conditions in which they can succeed.
Emma was developing Liberty while continuing to navigate her own health challenges, supporting Orion Family Physiotherapy and raising five children.
Fatigue, financial concerns and the pressure of balancing family responsibilities made the journey more difficult.
She questioned how much the new business would take away from her husband and children. She also experienced days when the challenge felt too large and the clinic seemed unlikely to become a reality.
However, the support of her husband and her belief in the purpose behind Liberty helped her continue.
“You have your days where you’re like, ‘I can’t do this.’ Then the sun sets, the sun rises and you just go at it again.”
Opening the clinic brought a new type of responsibility.
Emma recalls the excitement of receiving the first enquiry and seeing appointments begin to appear in the clinicians’ calendars.
Those bookings confirmed that the community needed the service.
ability to help people.
For Emma, leadership is not only about growing the organisation. It is about creating opportunities for the women working within it and helping them recognise the value of their expertise.
Eighteen months after opening, the clinic had grown into a busy service with approximately 15 clinicians, with Emma continuing to consider further recruitment and expansion.
Collaboration is central to Emma’s approach.
She believes women in business all possess different strengths and can achieve more by connecting those strengths than by viewing one another as competitors.
Within Liberty, independent practitioners work under a shared purpose. Outside the clinic, Emma regularly connects women and families with businesses, charities, foundations and community services that may be able to help them.
Sometimes the most valuable contribution is not providing the solution yourself. It is knowing who else can provide it and making the introduction.
Emma believes that when women become healthier and better supported, the benefits extend through their families and into the wider community.
“If we can help the woman in her journey, we can then help the entire family.”
Emma’s commitment to helping women extends beyond Liberty.
She and Adam are also involved with iCare4u, a charity supporting women and children in Papua New Guinea.
The organisation developed from Adam’s earlier mission work and his friendship with George, who is from Papua New Guinea. After witnessing the serious challenges faced by women and young girls, they committed to creating practical support when they were in a position to do so.
Emma, Adam, George and George’s wife, Crystal, later worked together to establish a charity focused on providing care and respite for women and children.
The work reflects the same principle that drives Liberty: recognising a need, bringing people together and turning compassion into practical action.
Emma believes the Liberty model has the potential to expand beyond Greater Springfield.
Her long-term vision is to establish similar clinics in other communities, allowing more women to access coordinated, holistic healthcare.
She acknowledges that finding the right team is the most difficult part.
Qualifications and business systems matter, but Emma believes the people involved must genuinely care about the purpose of the work. In healthcare, technical knowledge must be supported by empathy, commitment and a desire to help.
“I don’t think I can stay small.”
For Emma, growth is not only about increasing revenue or opening more locations. It is about creating what she describes as healing success: helping more women understand their bodies, access support and move towards better health.
Emma’s journey shows that a strong business can begin with a problem experienced personally.
Her advice is to start with a clear heart and vision, research the need properly and surround yourself with people who share the purpose.
There will be periods of uncertainty, financial pressure and self-doubt. Not every day will feel productive, and progress may be slower than expected.
The important thing is to continue taking the next step.
A founder does not need to possess every technical skill. The founder’s role may be to identify the problem, build the team, create the structure and keep the organisation aligned with its purpose.
Emma Atherton is the founder and driving force behind Liberty Women’s Wellness in Greater Springfield.
Inspired by her personal experience with early perimenopause, Emma created Liberty to provide women with more connected, collaborative and holistic healthcare.
Working with a multidisciplinary team of health professionals, she is helping women access support across fertility, pregnancy, postpartum health, menopause, pelvic health, nutrition, mental health and other stages of women’s wellbeing.
Emma is also involved with Orion Family Physiotherapy alongside her husband, Adam, and supports women and children in Papua New Guinea through the iCare4u charity.
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Hear Emma Atherton’s full story and discover how a difficult personal health journey became the inspiration for a new approach to women’s healthcare.
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