St. Thomas & Area

Jeff Sheridan, CFP
Rehabilitation Therapist

Jeff’s music was the catalyst to his career choice as rehabilitation therapist. He started out as a volunteer playing music to those with acquired brain injury and quickly decided to make therapy his life’s work. Prior to coming to Brainworks in 2005, Jeff worked as a youth and a relief worker helping those with disabilities overcome their challenges.

His inspiration has always come from witnessing his clients progress and knowing that he’s made a difference in their lives. Jeff enjoys highlighting and celebrating their smaller successes to enhance their sense of accomplishment, and this helps them feel more confident about tackling the larger goals.

Jeff relates to his clients in an energetic and respectful way that they immediately pick up on and draw from, much like the audiences at his concerts. His band, the Jeff Sheridan Band, has played around the world, and he knows how to get a crowd fired up. Transferring this motivational skill to his rehabilitation and coaching was for him a natural transition.

He enjoys working with people from all walks of life and is very much a team player. He loves to share ideas with professionals in all fields of expertise. With significant experience developing and facilitating individualized treatment plans and formal training and experience implementing behaviour management programs, he brings a great deal of insight to the treatment team process.

Jeff’s band ultimately led him to Brainworks. The care he has always shown his clients and his audience reflects perfectly the care our organization has always taken in assisting those with brain injury and other challenges reach their individual goals. We’re glad to have him on our team.

Jordan Kerr
Rehabilitation Therapist

Jordan has extensive vocational experience relevant to job coaching in a variety of areas, and has worked intensively with clients to get them back into a vocation that is within their abilities and that they are comfortable with. In addition, his organizational skills and careful attention to detail are ideally suited to treatment schedule management.

Jordan knows the importance of movement and fitness in one’s overall general health and well-being and he tries to instill that in his clients. Movement is movement forward. He has always seen progress in rehabilitation therapy. No matter how small, it is improvement and something to build on. One of his firm beliefs is that life has no limitations, except the ones that we put on ourselves.

Jordan has acquired a wide and diverse set of skills and interests over the years that have combined to make him a well-rounded individual. As rehabilitation therapist, he is a caring, motivational life and vocational coach and a valuable member of our team.

Laura Younker (B.A. in social work in progress)
Rehabilitation Therapist

For Laura Younker, inspiration springs from the smiles and the joy on her clients’ faces when they accomplish even the smallest goal in their recovery journey. She began her career with children, but she now sees clients of all ages and thoroughly enjoys what she does. She is well on her way to earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, and has been a rehabilitation therapist at Brainworks since 2007.

Laura has had over nine years of experience working with individuals with various abilities, and over four years of experience assisting those with brain injuries. Prior to coming to Brainworks, she coordinated rehabilitation programs, provided parent education, and worked as a recreation facilitator, camp counsellor and soccer coach. And she’s even an accomplished author/editor, having developed a Community Resource Guidebook for respite coordinators and family members.

It is very important for Laura to collaborate effectively with treatment team members to develop the best treatment options for each client. What she finds most rewarding in her role as rehab therapist is implementing the formulated treatment strategies and then being present to witness all of the benefits. “So often, we are there to see the small successes made by clients, and it is our great pleasure to report these back to the rest of the team.”

When Laura is not busy helping others, she puts her energy into running. She enjoys the exhilaration of completing a challenging run, and she tries to promote this sense of satisfaction in her clients. “I have many goals when managing a client’s treatment, but my number one goal is to never lose sight of what matters most to the client, and to continually encourage them to persevere.”