About Us

Dr. Brendan Byrne
Medical Director and Co-Founder

Brendan’s deep passion is to use the latest science to help people change their behaviors and optimize their health. He believes that each of us need our own wellness practice; something that’s fun and energizes us, while optimizing our health.

Brendan has been a physician and digital pioneer for the past 25 years. Trained at Yale and McGill, he has had a parallel career as an entrepreneur. From his original practice in New Westminster, Brendan created electronic medical record software and built a business that eventually was acquired by TELUS Health and currently serves over 50% of Canadian physicians. From 2015 to 2018, he served as the Chief Innovation Officer for TELUS Health. He currently sits on the boards of the BC Academic Health Sciences Network and the Institute for Precision Therapeutic Nutrition.

Brendan is a life-long runner, a former competitive track athlete, who now runs 20-30 miles a week. He is a late convert to functional movement and resistance training and does personal training with Innovative Fitness. A pescatarian for the last 20 years, Brendan favours a common-sense approach to food but has been known to go low carb. Brendan knows first-hand the power of sleep and aims (though not always successfully to get 7 to 8 hours a night. Meditation has been a recent addition to his personal wellness practice.

Noral Engholm
Director of Coaching and Co-Founder

Noral has worked in education for the past 20 years as a teacher, counsellor and school psychologist. She has advanced training in data-based decision-making and is passionate about helping all people to reach their full potential. Noral’s studies have taken her coast to coast from the University of Washington where she completed her undergraduate degree and was first exposed to the value of using scientific data to evaluate human behaviour to the University of Southern Maine where she completed her masters degree while learning the importance of keeping up on shovelling her walk-way to keep it free of snow.

Noral has always been enthusiastic about living a healthy lifestyle. She first became a vegetarian in her 20’s when she realized just how difficult it was to find good meat on a student budget and has since added fish to her diet in order to take advantage of all of the amazing seafood available in the Pacific Northwest. She is a life long runner, who dabbles in many other forms of exercise including: yoga, weight training, dancing, biking, x-country skiing, paddle boarding and any other activity that inspires her to move and get outdoors. In addition to spending time outdoors, Noral enjoys travelling with her family, which includes three busy teenagers.

Noral has lived in White Rock, since moving to Canada in 1997 and is excited to be opening the Wellness Garage with her husband and partner in life. She firmly believes that everybody has the potential to live a healthy lifestyle and have fun while doing it. She looks forward to being a part of a growing Wellness Community who calls this beautiful city by the sea their home.

Michelle Acosta
Clinic Coordinator

Michelle oversees the clinic’s schedule and day-to-day operations to assist the practitioners and ensure optimal delivery of Wellness Garage programs and resources to members.

Michelle has spent almost two decades in a variety of roles, using her organization and administration skills along with compassion to help people get into a position where they can align their actions with their goals. She has always understood the value of maintaining good health and loves supporting a medical practice that emphasizes the “care” in “Healthcare.”

Michelle enjoys spending time in nature, whether it’s rowing, hiking, fishing or dirt biking. She also loves music, reading, and sharing laughs with friends and family (preferably while also sharing a delicious meal!).

Liz Dornian
Personal Health Coach, Certified Nutrition Practitioner

Liz is a Certified Nutrition Practitioner and Health Coach based in White Rock, BC. While completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Global Development, Liz taught herself how to cook so she could stay healthy as a student. From there she discovered a passion for nutrition, whole foods and holistic wellness. Now Liz’s goal is to help people realize just how fun, delicious and easy healthy eating can be. She loves to experiment in the kitchen with new ingredients, and share her creations with friends and family (and instagram!).

Liz believes that good food can change your life, no matter where you’re starting from. In her practice as a coach she focuses on helping people build healthy habits that will serve them for life. In her free time Liz can usually be found walking with her tiny dog, tagging along with her husband to the gym, reading cookbooks and spending quality time with family and friends.

Jess Pirnak
Personal Health Coach, Registered Dietician

Jess is a Registered Dietitian & Certified Wellness Coach through Wellcoaches based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is an active member of Dietitians of Canada and is currently chairing a local action group advocating for extended health coverage for dietetic services and primary care dietitians. Jess graduated from UBC’s Food Nutrition and Health program, and completed her dietetic internship with Provincial Health Services Authority after finishing a Psychology degree from SFU.

Jess came to coaching after several years of wearing the expert hat with clients and noted the power of strength-based questions. In her current dietetic practice, Jess integrates coaching frameworks with nutrition counselling to support her clients to first try to find the answers for themselves. Jess is passionate about education, prevention and creating a healthy community. She is an advocate for the power of food and its connection to health. With an extensive background in retail dietetics, Jess understands the natural food sector and the importance of a sustainable food system. She is also the in-house dietitian advisor for the Canadian Celiac Association - Vancouver Chapter.

In her spare time Jess loves to write about nutrition specifically about plant-based eating and gut health on her blog. And if she's not talking about food, nutrition or health, you will find Jess playing outside.

Ruby Sandhu
Registered Nutritionist

Ruby Sandhu is a Registered Nutritionist from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. In her twenties, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in English at SFU and worked as an English Instructor. While she taught English classes, she took Nutrition Classes at night. She pursued her second passion, Nutrition.

After she graduated, she became a Wellness Consultant at Choices Market. Here she made many friends who love food and nutrition as much as she does. She actually started cooking when she was eight years old. She has been making green smoothies, meal prep salads in mason jars, chocolaty energy bombs, kale chips and kombucha for over a decade now. She loves sharing her nutrition knowledge with anyone who is curious.

In her free time, she enjoys doing yoga, hiking, camping, traveling and spending time with friends and family. She is also a wife and mother of two. She understands the challenges of eating in a home where everyone has different dietary restrictions or preferences. She loves educating clients
on how to create healthy meals for everyone in the household from babies to grandparents. She comes from a big loving family who looks to her for vegetarian options and healthier alternatives.

Tyler Brown
Exercise Physiologist

Tyler is a Certified Exercise Physiologist with the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and has always had a particular interest in health and fitness. Before his career in exercise physiology Tyler was a concert pianist, and had completed an undergraduate degree in Honours Piano Performance at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. After completing various science courses on the side, he could not resist following his other passion for health and performance and enrolled in a graduate program for Exercise Science at Niagara College in Ontario. Since then Tyler has worked in various settings including a rehabilitation centre and sports performance centres, and has worked with many different people including youth, older adults, varsity athletes, CrossFitters, Powerlifters, people with various chronic conditions, and more.

Tyler loves to cook, train, play music, and since moving from Ontario, has spent time hiking and exploring the beautiful outdoors of BC.