Vancouver Staff
Occupational Therapists
Lydia is the founder and CEO of Meridian Rehabilitation. Lydia grew up in White Rock, BC and graduated from UBC with a BSc in occupational therapy in 1990. Her first job was in stroke rehabilitation at Holy Family Hospital in Vancouver. She then worked at GF Strong rehabilitation hospital in Vancouver for seven years, spending time on the spinal cord injury, brain injury and ALS teams. She moved to private practice in 1997 and worked for Access Community Therapists; specializing in custom seating and assessment of dysphagia. In 1999, she and her family moved to Vernon, BC and soon after, she started her own private practice. Over the years, her practice has grown into Meridian Rehabilitation Consulting with her personal focus in: functional capacity and cost of future care evaluations, brain injury case management and providing mentorship to the OTs at Meridian Rehab. Lydia has a wonderful husband, Brent, and seven children (5 boys and 2 girls). When she had fewer children, she enjoyed a variety of sports including rowing, triathlon, volleyball, basketball and hockey. Nowadays (when she has free time), she likes to go for a run, bike, read or spend time with her family.
Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of British Columbia
Member of the British Columbia College of Occupational Therapists
Matheson Functional Capacity Evaluator
Matheson Advanced Functional Capacity Evaluator
Matheson FCE Evaluation of Brain Injury
Matheson Life Care Planning Certification
Qualified as an expert witness in the Supreme Court of British Columbia
AMPS (Assessment of Motor and Process Skills)
Wheelchair Positioning and Seating
Case Management
Community Rehabilitation
Chronic Pain Rehab
Dysphagia
Functional Capacity Evaluation
Cost of Future Care Assessments
Medical-Legal Services
Seating Assessments and Prescription
Spinal Cord Rehabilitation
Stroke Rehabilitation
Brain Injury Rehabilitation
Kristin grew up in Winnipeg. She has a Masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of Manitoba.
Kristin believes that mental health should play a role in every treatment plan. Kristin loves her job because she gets to make a difference in people’s lives and because she has great co-workers.
Kristin enjoys hiking and camping. She’s also a certified Yoga teacher.
Kristin likes plants, unfortunately, she likes forgetting to water her plants even more. Maybe a cactus next time Kristin.
Kristin lives in North Vancouver with her 70-pound husky named Levi. She never forgets to water her Husky.
Master of Occupational Therapy
Bachelor of Arts
COTBC membership
CAOT membership
MoCA certified
Completed Trauma Focused CBT course
Clinical Faculty Member at UBC Department of Medicine
Community Rehabilitation
Exposure therapy,
CBT including CBT-I, ACT
Concussion
Autism, Sensory challenges
Trauma
Jason grew up in Vancouver/Coquitlam his entire life and is always homesick if he’s ever away for more than 3 weeks. He completed his Bachelor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University and went on to complete his Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at Western University. Prior to graduating the program, he was hired by Meridian Rehab which eventually led him to complete his last fieldwork placement at the Vancouver office. If you cannot find Jason in the office, there is a high chance you may find him at a boxing/muay thai class, kayaking at Belcerra, watching UFC fights, and (re)watching comfort Marvel movies.
- Master of Science, Occupational Therapy
- Bachelor of Arts, Psychology
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD Certificate
- Progressive Goal Attainment Program (PGAP)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) Certification
- Solution-Focused Coaching
- Leadership in Wellness
- Return-to-work planning
- Work conditioning / work hardening programs
- Musculoskeletal injuries (e.g., fractures, sprains)
- Neurological rehabilitation (stroke, TBI, MS, Parkinson’s)
- Mental health and psychosocial rehabilitation
- Post-surgical rehab
- Ergonomics
Emily was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Master of Occupational Therapy program in 2021 and is incredibly proud to be an OT. In her first year of of practice, Emily provided pediatric OT services to children across Manitoba with a focus on fine motor skill development, self-care, and co-regulation. Now, Emily is eager to provide holistic, very good, client specific, top notch, occupational therapy services to children and adults in the beautiful province of British Columbia. Emily’s favourite things are laughing, learning, lounging, and letting certain people off the hook for adding to her bio.
Master of Occupational Therapy (University of Manitoba)
Bachelor of Science – Major in Psychology (University of Manitoba)
Registered Occupational Therapist (BC)
Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists Member
Adults:
Mental Health
Brain Injury
Trauma Focused Therapy
Chronic Pain
Physical Injury
Pediatrics:
Mental Health
Sensory Processing
Emotional Regulation
Fine Motor and Gross Motor
Anna earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Victoria and hopped on the ferry to complete her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at UBC.
Anna enjoys spending time on the seawall and showing people pictures of her dog.
Anna has an interest in pediatric and mental health work, and loves building meaningful relationships with her clients while empowering them to achieve their goals.
Fun fact about Anna: she can recite the first 100 digits of pi. So if you ever need a REALLY perfect circle, she’s the one to go to.
Master’s in Occupational Therapy (MOT) from UBC
Bachelor of Science in Psychology (BSc) (Honours) at the University of Victoria
Member of the College of Occupational Therapists of British Columbia (COTBC)
Member of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)
Registered Autism Service Provider (RASP)
Community Rehabilitation
Mental Health and Trauma
Return to Work Coordination
Pediatrics
Autism
Sensory processing
Emotional regulation
Mental health
Executive functioning
Caroline grew up in Northern BC (Prince George). Following high school, she eagerly headed to Vancouver Island where she completed her Bachelor of Science in kinesiology at the University of Victoria, and also fell in love with exploring the outdoors. Caroline’s education continued when she decided to make the trek to Ontario to complete her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at Queen’s University. While she had fun exploring a new part of Canada, she is very happy to be back in BC where she belongs. As an OT, Caroline’s professional passion lies in forming genuine connections with clients and collaborating as a team to achieve their goals. Beyond work, Caroline enjoys being a foodie, lots of beach days, and travelling as much as she can!
Lisa joins us from Charlottetown, PEI and is now working out of our Vancouver office! Lisa’s areas of interest are in stroke rehabilitation, cognitive communication, and augmentative and alternative communication. She’s found her passion in providing functional, client-centred speech-language therapy. She loves learning what is important to her clients and using this information to create personal and meaningful therapy goals that will benefit them in their everyday lives! Ask Lisa about her buttons.
Qualifications & Memberships
Master of Science, Speech Language Pathology – Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Science, Neuroscience – University of King’s College
Bachelor of Science, Physics – University of Prince Edward Island
Registered member of Speech-Language and Audiology Canada
Registered Autism Service Provider (RASP) for children under 6
Licensed by the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC (CHCPBC)
Pediatric Services
Autism Services
Speech sound therapy (articulation, phonology, apraxia of speech)
Language therapy (expressive and receptive language skills)
Stroke and brain injury rehabilitation
Cognitive communication intervention (conversational topic maintenance, attending to others, memory, solving problems, planning etc.)
Reading and writing therapy
Fluency / stuttering therapy
Allison moved from Singapore to Vancouver in 2003 and has lived in beautiful British Columbia ever since. She has a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of British Columbia. Allison is passionate about supporting people in gaining and relearning functional skills and strategies to help them reach their goals. She loves travelling and cooking and you’ll often find her out in the sun or by the water!
Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology – University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Science, Biology – University of British Columbia
Registered member of Speech-Language Audiology Canada
Speech sound therapy (articulation, phonology, apraxia of speech)
Language therapy (expressive and receptive language)
Cognitive communication therapy (topic maintenance, problem solving, planning, sequencing)
Stroke and brain injury rehabilitation
Reading and writing therapy
Fluency / stuttering therapy
Elle grew up in Kelowna, which she describes as a beautiful place about which she has complicated feelings. After completing her degree in microbiology, Elle moved to Vancouver and got a diploma in Linguistics and a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from UBC Vancouver.
Elle’s expertise in Microbiology may seem irrelevant (and in most ways that is true); however, like any hard-science degree it instilled in her a love for learning how things work and a keen ability to buckle down and not fail. Elle’s linguistics diploma was instrumental in building her understanding of the foundations of speech, language, and communication.
In her personal life, Elle loves mundane, repetitive tasks, which is why she wanted to be a dentist when she was younger. But she was also in a band, so she keeps you guessing!
Elle loves working as an SLP. In particular, she loves working with kids and being able to make a positive change early in people’s lives. She also loves finding ways to make speech therapy fun.
Bachelor of Science in Microbiology
Diploma of Linguistics
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology
Member of Speech and Audiology Canada (SAC)
Licensed by the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC (CHCPBC)
Speech sound therapy (articulation, phonology, apraxia of speech)
Language therapy (expressive and receptive language)
Cognitive communication therapy (topic maintenance, problem solving, planning, sequencing)
Stroke and brain injury rehabilitation
Reading and writing therapy
Fluency / stuttering therapy
Alex was born and raised in Adelaide, Australia. She wanted to experience life in another country and was particularly drawn to snow (so Vancouver was an interesting choice). She also wanted to see bears from a healthy distance.
Alex likes being on the coast, and enjoys the nature, cafes, and restaurants. She has recently discovered pumpkin spice lattes and these have come to dominate her morning routine and her wallet.
Alex got a Bachelor of Behavioral Science and then a Master of Speech Pathology from Flinders University.
Alex loves working with people. She loves that every day is different. She likes that SLP gives an opportunity to be creative and fun and that there is always more to learn.
Licensed by the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC (CHCPBC)
Deb is a systems and pediatric therapy consultant for Meridian. She has run Mountain View pre-school in white rock BC for over 20 years. In her spare time, Deb does yoga and memorizes world geography.
Qualifications
Can name the capital of every country in the world
After that first one who needs to read more?
Josh has a B.Sc. in Physics from UBC. He started as an editor in 2020. Now he mostly does work related to quality assurance, systems analysis, and marketing.