based in Vancouver, BC
grew up in Moncton, New Brunswick
Wellness Program Medical Advisor
he/him
Dr. Jonathan Squires
The foundational principle of improv comedy is “yes, and”. This means that you accept whatever your scene partners throw at you (the yes) and then build on it (the and). I think that this principle is very applicable to living with Parkinson’s disease. One theme I hear commonly from my patients and their caregivers is the challenge of dealing with unpredictability of life with PD. Some days are just bad days and it makes it hard to plan your life. I think (and hope) that applying the principle of “yes, and” to life with PD will teach people skills that they can use to roll with the punches, so to speak, and live the best life possible with PD.
Dr. Squires attended medical school at the University of Ottawa before completing a neurology residency at UBC, followed by fellowship training in movement disorders at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. He is currently co-medical director of the UBC Movement Disorder Clinic and cares for patients with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, such as dystonia and essential tremor, among others. He assisted in the development of improv for Parkinson’s disease and brain health, helping to educate facilitators at Improv for Work and Wellness about Parkinson’s disease and other brain diseases. He hopes that patients and their families will be able to apply improv skills to their life with chronic disease and better able them to cope with the unpredictability of these disorders and the impact they have on their day-to-day lives.