Testimonials

Thank you to these wonderful people for their feedback

When Vickie started training my son we noticed an instant improvement in his demeanour and mood. Vickie values the young people she works with and she gets the best out of them. Her fun engagement style strikes the perfect balance to get our son motivated. Our son really enjoys this training as it’s something that’s just for him. With Vickie’s guidance, he is very proud of the skills he has developed.

~ Liz

Thanks Vickie, you were able to connect with my son like no other and have given him skills that will support his neurodiversity.

~ Tony

Our 12 year-old son started seeing Vickie Simos late last year. He has experienced such a positivetransformation in his confidence and overall well-being through his boxing sessions with Vickie. Vickie's ability to create a safe and welcoming yet disciplined environment is clearly making a meaningful impact on his life is approaching his 40th session with Vickie, which is a testament to the success of this partnership. From my perspective, of all the support services our son has in place, it is Vickie's Special Support Training sessions that are undoubtably providing the most benefit to our son. It brings me great joy that our son gets excited to attend each and every training session. I cannot recommend Thelo highly enough.

~ Dave

Sessions with Vickie is the BEST THING WE HAVE DONE FOR OUR SON. She's so low demand and funny [perfection for PDA pre-teen boys. My son doesn't like many people, but he ADORES Vickie. She's a boxing coach, and a qualified psychotherapist. His confidence has improved so much. I'm in no way affiliated, I just want more people to know about her because she is EXCELLENT. I tell her 1,000 times JUST HOW GOOD SHE IS FOR TEEN BOYS. We absolutely love her!

~ Cherie

Sessions with @theloactive are about more than just boxing. If you are in Melbourne and your kids need to build confidence and have fun at the same time)... cannot recommend Vickie enough.

~ Sim

Thanks Vicky. Our son is really enjoying your sessions, and is really motivated to go each week, which is something we aren't used to! He always fills me in when he gets home and loved sparring today.

~ Sarah

I never felt like exercising and I’ve always had low self-esteem. When I met Vickie I was having personal issues and I put a wall up straight away. She took the time to ‘break down’ the wall, push me to exercise to the point that I started boxing. I’ve never felt that good before. And it wasn’t only due to the weight loss and improved fitness levels, it was also the way Vickie combined fitness with the counselling. I highly recommend Vickie. She’s professional, caring and highly skilled.

~Barbara

I decided to get a boxing trainer when I started feeling slow and sluggish at home and at my desk. What I like about Vickie is her passion for the craft, technical boxing knowledge and hard edge training style. Vickie ensures that we make every session count! My personal boxing sessions with Vickie provide me with greater balance, an active lifestyle and elevated fitness levels that has alleviated that slow and sluggish feeling.

~Andre

Going back a 'few' years ish. I was at a point where my weight had spiralled out of control, I was emotionally in a slump. After many months struggling I decided to join my local gym and enlist the services of a personal trainer. Along came Vickie Simos! Vickie was able to ease me in to training and slowly built momentum, all whilst gently pushing my emotional health in the right direction. Vickie has an amazing way of listening, talking, motivating, while pressing buttons at the right time.

After 9 months of intense training I went from 97kg to 72kg. From feeling like an emotional wreck, beating my self up about my weight to feeling energetic, strong and feeling amazing about myself. Vickie even ran city to bay with me. Thats going the extra mile ;)

Vickie is that spark and rock that created brilliant life long change in my life.

~ Adam Doyle

Vickie is a great mentor in making you achieve a realistic goal in your personal growth through her coaching, she has direction, advice, motivation and high skill level through her PT boxing lessons. I have trained with Vickie Simos one on one on many occasions, and found that she has a unique technique in incorporating training and counselling together in our workouts, which I found to be of a great benefit to me. While we go through our circuit of boxing, Vickie pushes me to my full ability, with motivational comments. There is no word as "I can't do it", Vickie uses techniques which you don't realise at the time and you accomplish and, yes you do it. I highly recommend to try out a session with Vickie, you will not be disappointed trust me on this.

~ Connie

I have known Vickie Simos for about 15 years - maybe more. She first came to give me physical exercise at home in order to alleviate a bad back. The general idea was to strengthen muscles around the back to give it more support. It all worked very well, and soon Vickie had me doing more and more exercise with weights and then boxing training. This went on weekly for a number of years until Vickie moved to Melbourne to further her studies. 

I cannot commend her attitude, knowledge and reliability too highly. She knows her way around the training game extremely well. She was a terrific trainer and did me the world of good. Her motivation and dedication has been documented in her book ‘The Boxer Within’. 

~ Matthew Goode

I was introduced to Vickie Simos a few years ago in 2016-17. I had the pleasure of participating in her training sessions. I was excited to be trained by an elite athlete who has been to the top . Her training was hard and challenging. I was at a point in my life where I needed to change my life, I felt lost, didn’t like who I was, hated looking at myself in mirror. I had withdrawn from society because I was afraid of what people would say about me. So my journey began. Every training session I did with Vickie I made a promise I was never gunna quit, and boy were they hard, but I never quit training. Session after training session I kept racking them up. All of a sudden belief started to grow, confidence started to grow. Vickie kept pushing me harder and I kept accepting the challenge, weight started to drop off, my mindset changed. Now the beast was finally born, I bought a gym membership, which I now own 2 memberships and train 4-5 days week. Thanx Vickie for your help, your training sessions were great, your motivation made me believe in myself.

~ George

What a lovely mentor you are Vickie. Being able to see in others, what we can’t see in ourselves is your superpower. Your story reminds us that with the right guidance and gentle perseverance, we can all flourish. Congratulations on your launch. I look forward to diving into The Boxer Within.

~ Michelle Dawson

Vickie tells her story in ‘The Boxer Within‘ with such passion, honesty and brings me back to thinking about my own migrant grandparents. With clever anicdotes, funny, heartfelt and ‘punchy’ at times both in the ring and in her expression, Vickie sums up all the thoughts we have about mental health, and reframes them to find meaning, clarity and as I read her story I could physically hear her voice. This story ultimately brings hope. I loved being apart of her world, such a beautiful read.
~ Melissa Angius

I thoroughly enjoyed supporting you at your Melbourne event. There were two highlights for me, one was listening to the stories from your Thelo Active Therapy clients, the impact you make and the support you provide those clients. The other was seeing how proud your mum and dad were. Your book, ‘The Boxer Within’ is your story and one many can relate to. Congratulations.

~ Kristian Livolsi

Having known Vickie Simos for quite a while through mutual friends in Melbourne. I had the pleasure of attending a night with Vickie back in April 2021 where I was also gifted her book ‘The Boxer Within’. What an amazing read. As I turned each page I learnt a little bit more about the lady that has now settled in Melbourne from the state of Adelaide. A place which I love dearly also as I have relatives there. In Vickie’s book I travelled with her through her younger years growing up in a country town of Adelaide called Barmera. The years and the hard work that she and her family endured during the early years of her life. Moving onto Adelaide town and her nightclubbing experiences definitely an eye opener at a very young age. Each page I experienced Vickie’s interest in soccer, overseas trips her amazing talent at achieving and mastering something which I would find myself so difficult the art of boxing, stick fighting injuries from such a difficult sport for a woman but not Vickie. She has the strength of a warrior and reading her book I think that we all hope that we to could have the strength of ‘The Boxer Within’.

Congratulations Vickie I thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you. Definitely a must read for all age groups.

~ Voula Pepes

What an eclectic night the Book Launch for ‘The Boxer Within’ turned out to be. The venue was a pleasant surprise, correctly Vickie chose the upstairs bar and lounge, at the newly refurbished Exchange Hotel in Port Melbourne. The guest list was a compilation of professionals, media veterans and assorted clients from just about every quarter of the community, including Vickie's proud parents from South Australia. Aside from the launch of the book and the opportunity to meet the author Vickie Simos, it was illuminating to hear from the parents of children enrolled in the creative therapy classes that Vickie teaches and to hear how impressed they were by the children's progress.

~ George Donikian