Having a sibling with a disability often inspires a family member’s career path. This is just the case for two sisters we're spotlighting this month. Sarah Chevrefils (LEND 2014) and Emily Bourque (LEND 2017) both chose occupational therapy as their profession and both undeniably attribute the course of their life’s work to their younger sister, Katie Bourque.
In their early years, Katie’s early intervention therapists included both of her older sisters in sessions. Sarah recognizes this as the foundation for her interest in the field of pediatrics and disability and consequently cites family involvement as the focus of her private practice, Engage OT, LLC.
Sarah says, “Families participate in the duration of each visit, which allows me to explain things as we go, ask questions of them, and helps ensure that interventions are targeted to support challenges the families are experiencing at home.”
Emily also cites Katie as a driving force behind her career choices, “She is a force to be reckoned with and has taken the world by storm showing us and others that her disability does not define her. I’ve learned so much from her with the biggest lesson being that you never know what someone is truly capable of achieving. Once they achieve that, there’s even more to achieve- the sky is the limit!”
In her pediatric practice, From the Ground up OT, LLC, Emily focuses on looking at the whole child and family. Her goal is to identify what may be impacting their ability to have success and function across environments. “I love meeting children where they are and building skills ‘from the ground up’ and really focusing on foundational skills while also developing functional skills.”
Emily and Sarah also share their love of learning and teaching. They cite lessons learned in LEND as helping them think more intentionally about not just being an OT that treats clients, but to be an OT that works to help families navigate systems, connect them to resources, and collaborate with a child’s care team whenever possible.
Sarah spent six years teaching and coordinating fieldwork placements at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) and later supported clinical students at Elliot Pediatric Therapy, “It was amazing to watch the students go from being timid and unsure at the beginning of these placements to independently facilitating occupational therapy groups…. Taking students makes you a better therapist and they challenge you to think differently and really explain the why behind interventions and approaches with both children and families.”
Emily cites teaching opportunities to put her skills into practice at the occupational therapy programs at the University of New Hampshire and MCPHS. She really enjoys being able to integrate concrete patient examples from private practice into her courses. She also teaches continuing education courses for OT providers and parents in which she specifically focuses on concrete treatment ideas for various intervention areas. She is currently working on an impulse control curriculum.
LEND is thankful that Katie inspired her two amazing sisters to choose occupational therapy and enabled them to internalize their family experience in order to guide how they thoughtfully care for their patients, support families, and teach emerging professionals.
View Original Article: https://iod.unh.edu/blog/2026/03/family-experience-inspires-lend-sisters
