Staff

Ann-Louise Ellwood

Director

Dr. Ellwood is a registered psychologist who completed her Master’s (2000) and Doctoral (2006) degrees in Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary.  Her clinical internship focused on outpatient psychiatry, psychosocial oncology, and family therapy.

Dr. Ellwood is a cognitive-behaviour therapist whose private practice is focused on providing psychological services to those living with chronic or life-threatening illness, adults and youth with depression and anxiety, and families in distress.  She is also the clinical director of Reach the Peak Behaviour Intervention Services. This program provides behaviour consulting, behaviour therapy, and cognitive behaviour therapy to children with Autism Spectrum and related disorders.

Dr. Ellwood is a former Izaak Walton Killam scholar whose doctoral work identified factors that mediate the desire for hastened death among terminally ill cancer patients.  Following completion of her doctoral degree, she worked as both researcher and clinical practitioner at the BC Cancer Agency. In this role Dr. Ellwood served on provincial and national groups including the National Cancer Institute of Canada’s Clinical Trials Group and was instrumental in the creation of a multidisciplinary research team investigating the neuropsychological impact of brain cancers.  During this time she also held an adjunct professorship at UBC Okanagan in the department of Psychology. Dr. Ellwood also worked at Okanagan Ability Centre and Diversified Rehabilitation Group before opening her own private practice in 2009.

Guifré Calderer

RASP Certified Behaviour Consultant

Guifré fell in love with Behaviour Intervention in 1998 when, after realizing that he was not suited to being stuck in a chemistry lab all day, he started a job working one-on-one with a preschool age girl with Autism. He liked the collaboration with her family and the consulting team, as well as the way the treatment was adapted to utilize her strengths to address areas of need. The amazing children he has worked with have been inspiring him to learn and develop advanced Autism Intervention skills ever since.

Guifré started work in the field with on the job training in Applied Behaviour Analysis with Autism Partnership in Calgary, Alberta. Working out of family homes, he learned quickly and became a Lead Behaviour Therapist within 18 months. Guifré became a Behaviour Consultant at Renfrew Educational Services in 2005 where he taught the Floortime Model to 300 staff members.

He moved to Kelowna, BC in 2006 and started working at the Central Okanagan Children’s Development Association (later re-branded as Starbright). Guifré attained his Master’s degree in Education in 2012 and became the Registered Autism Service Provider of Starbright’s Autism Program until its closure in December 2019.

He continues to do the work that he loves and now provides clinical oversight of Reach the Peak Behaviour Intervention Services.

Jaimee Bryce

Senior Behaviour Interventionist

Jaimee’s passion for helping families stems from her own experiences raising four children, two of whom have ASD.  She studied psychology at Vancouver Island University, and received an Autism Spectrum Disorder certificate from Okanagan College in 2012. Jaimee is an eager learner and has attended many workshops including intensive ABA training through Autism Partnership and many workshops on topics such as Social Thinking and Executive Functions.  In addition to several years experience doing intervention in people’s homes, Jaimee worked for 7 years in Starbright Children Development Centre’s Autism Program as a Behaviour Interventionist and as a Senior Behaviour Interventionist. Jaimee is keen to use her over 12,000 hours experience as a Senior BI and her extensive training to continue to serve the Autism community in the Okanagan through Reach the Peak.

Arianna

Behaviour Interventionist

Arianna has been working with children with autism and their families for over 3 years. Her passion for this job stemmed from growing up with her brother who is on the autism spectrum. She loves being able to open up opportunities for kids to discover and have fun, while providing a safe learning environment and setting them up for success.

Autumn

Behaviour Interventionist

Autumn graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She has spent the last 4 years working with people with a wide range of special needs.

Bianca

Behaviour Interventionist

Cheryl

Behaviour Interventionist

Clarissa

Senior Behaviour Interventionist

Clarissa graduated from the University of Victoria in 2014 with a Bachelor of Child and Youth Care. She worked as a Behaviour Interventionist and a Senior Behaviour Interventionist at Starbright Children’s Development Centre for over 4 years, prior to the closure in December 2019.

Hira

Behaviour Interventionist

Hira brings her experience not just as a BI but also as an Autism parent. She believes in continuous learning and has taken several trainings and workshops on Discrete trial teaching, ABA with Verbal Behavior, Addressing challenging behaviors, Theory of Mind, ‘More than Words’ (The Hanen Program), Non violent crisis intervention, and many more. She also has a Masters degree in English Literature as well as certificate in Teaching English as Second/ foreign Language ( TESL/ TEFL). Hira is multilingual and can speak in English, Urdu, and Punjabi. Outside of work, she loves reading while sipping cup of tea and spending time with her family.

Rahaf

Behaviour Interventionist

Rahaf is bilingual, in both Arabic and English. In her home country of Syria, she earned her Bachelor of Science and was on a scientific career path. Upon coming to Canada, she followed her passion and interest in children’s learning and care. In 2019 she earned her Diploma in Early Childhood Education with Special Needs from Okanagan College. After graduation she worked as a Behaviour Interventionist for the Autism Program at Starbright for six months, where she gained significant experience working with children with Autism.