Aliya Drakes is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, and Director of her own private practice in the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. Aliyah operates out of 3 locations around the country in order to serve a wider population. Aliya’s goal is to empower her clients’ families as much as possible, so that they can learn how to support their children at home. Working closely with the families, she helps them prepare their child for the outside world, and give them the tools to succeed outside of therapy as well. Aliya tries to keep her therapy as “homemade” as possible – both to keep costs down, and so parents can learn that they may already have resources at home that can be used to provide enriching therapy. “A study done in 2016 estimated that we would need 250 Occupational Therapists to serve our country; at present there are approximately 20 registered OTs, and not all of those work with children or are currently practising.” – Aliya Drakes