Colette started her career as a Physiotherapist specialising in musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions and working in London at several hospitals including UCLH, St Mary’s and Chelsea and Westminster hospitals.

After completing her MSc in Manipulative Physiotherapy at the University of Brighton, she worked locally in Brighton both within the NHS and various private practices before being employed at the University of Brighton as a Senior Lecturer in MSK Physiotherapy. Colette was always interested in nerve related MSK pain particularly radiculopathy and soon started her PhD exploring Straight Leg Raise treatment for individuals with spinally referred leg pain.

On completion of her PhD in 2014, she continued teaching and applied for a number of small grants and was successful in receiving the Rising Stars grant from the University of Brighton in 2017. This enabled her to carry out a feasibility study looking at sub-profiling of people with spinally referred leg pain. In the meantime, she became Course leader for the MSc Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy course and supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate students including MRes and PhD students as well as collaborating with academics both internally at the University of Brighton and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and externally at the University of Oxford and Curtin Universities.

She worked at BSMS until August 2024 as a Senior Research Fellow on a Versus Arthritis funded study exploring nerve inflammation in people after whiplash injury, whilst maintaining a part time position as PL at the University of Brighton. Colette is Research officer at the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists.