Affiliated Doctors

Dr Priya brings with her a wealth of hospital medicine experience in chronic pain, mental health including anxiety and PTSD, neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, cancer and palliative care, which has fuelled her passion for cannabis medicine to be able to help those patients that are looking for a more natural alternative. Dr Priya is an Authorised Prescriber for many cannabis medicine products. Dr Priya is happy to accept Saturday afternoon appointments for patients preferring weekend review, please call the Heyday clinic on (07) 3186 2113 to inquire and book your weekend time-slot’

Dr Jim Connell loves getting to know his patients and is a friendly and compassionate doctor.  He has experience across all areas of medicine and is passionate about personalised care.  Dr Jim’s knowledge of conventional and complementary medicine allows him to incorporate elements of each in a safe and effective manner.

Dr Jim has specialised knowledge in the area of cannabis medicine, utilising this complex plant medicine for several years now.  He is dedicated to ongoing education, staying up to date with the rapid developments in the cannabis medicine space as well as currently undertaking a fellowship in nutritional and environmental medicine.

As well as self education, Dr Jim is dedicated to educating fellow practitioners by helping them improve their understanding of this new and powerful tool.

Dr Jim was affected by his late mother’s pancreatic cancer treatment journey and has a strong desire to craft the best quality cannabis medicines for his patients while making cannabis medicines more accessible to patients across Australia.

Dr Jim holds the following roles and certifications:

• Former President of Society of Cannabis Clinicians Australian Chapter
• Healer Certification (Cannabis Education through Dr Sulak)
• Member of the Australasian College of Environmental and Nutritional Medicine (enrolled fellowship program)

His interest in medicinal cannabis stems from the movement and acceptance of it’s properties in the United States and around the world. He was looking for alternative treatments for several conditions whose management became quite stagnant and frustrating.

After Government legislation in 2016 which allowed GP’s to prescribe cannabis, Matty began to educate himself on the history of cannabis, the cannabis plant, and the endocannabinoid system.

When he’s not caring for patients you can find Matty riding his mountain bike or spending time with his family in a serene outdoor environment.

Dr. Shami is passionate about the holistic approach to healthcare. She has seen patients transform their health beliefs by managing their stress levels, eating a whole food diet, managing nutrient deficiencies, supporting their gut health, exercising more, and addressing their inner needs in life. This results in long-term, sustainable results.

She soon realised that this requires a team approach. So, she found like-minded practitioners to join Usawa and has never looked back. She works with a dietitian, counsellor and hypnotherapist, yoga therapist, and mindset coach. The practitioners work together to help the patient achieve their health goals.

Dr. Shami practises what she preaches! She meditates daily, plays the piano, practises yoga, is a mountaineer, a traveller, and is involved in charity work in her spare time.

Areas of interest: Gut Symptoms e.g. bloating, constipation, IBS, Mental health e.g. Anxiety and Depression, Weight gain, Female Hormones e.g. Endometriosis and PCOS, Thyroid disorders.

Dr Shamistra Barathan is currently the Vice President of ACNEM.

She loves to foster self-empowerment in a space of non-judgement; to help folks come home to themselves and move beyond shame and illness into possibility.  Dr Cristina is also a certified sex and pleasure coach.

Key areas of interest:

Embodiment, Medicinal Cannabis,  Gut health, fatigue, nutritional approaches to mental health, autism and ADHD, bio-identical hormones, menopause, andropause, remediating environmental toxicity, adrenal and thyroid health, stress management, nutritional supplements (including intramuscular and intravenous vitamins and compounded formulas for adults and children)

She is trauma-informed and is LBGQIT+ friendly.

In particular, Dr Rothfield incorporates the use of cannabis based medicines into her therapeutic practice for indications such as chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, PTSD, cancer pain and inflammatory disorders. 

Dr Rothfield has over 35 years of medical experience with a heavy focus on chronic pain and mood disorders.

Her areas of special interests include preventative health, women’s health, travel medicine, sports medicine, fertility medicine and mental health.