Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Alicea-Torres is an occupational therapist, educator, and consultant with 20 years of clinical experience advancing health, wellness, and functional independence across diverse practice settings and populations. She is the owner of Hemlock Health and Wellness LLC, a female-owned practice dedicated to promoting accessibility, aging-in-place, and holistic well-being through individualized occupational therapy services and consultation rooted in evidence. The motto of Hemlock Health and Wellness LLC is “Live your life your way” encapsulating a client-centered individualized approach to function, wellbeing and independence.

Dr. Alicea-Torres serves as Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at Southern Connecticut State University where she and her colleagues integrate a flipped-classroom method of instruction coupled with focus on interprofessional educational experiences, use of simulation, competency based learning strategies, evidence-based practice and adult learning theory. Aside from educating and mentoring future occupational therapy students, Dr. Alicea-Torres is an Educational Facilitator with Living Whole Online. Living Whole Online’s approach to Integrative Whole Health offers education that unites the best in Conventional Medicine, Whole Plant-Based Food, Movement of the Body, and Mind/Body/Spirit Disciplines, including the ways in which we focus our creativity. She serves as an appointed Public Health Council Member for the City of Springfield, MA, and is actively engaged with AOTA, ConnOTA, and MAOT upholding her strong beliefs in community service.

Her clinical background and experiences span acute care, short-term rehabilitation, long-term care, outpatient lymphedema therapy and wound care, community-based practice, and home health, with specialized interest in home modifications and accessibility, active aging/aging-in-place, lymphedema management, wound care, end-of-life care, and evaluating and solving complex problems using client-centered and evidence informed interventions. Dr. Alicea-Torres is a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS), specializing in helping individuals make their home functionally safe with the goal of promoting aging-in-place.

An active contributor to the profession, Dr. Alicea-Torres has published and presented on topics including occupational therapy’s role in mental health, wellness, end-of-life care and promoting peers abilities to integrate OT within the LTC setting. Research interests include the use of simulation in occupational therapy education, OT’s role in end-of-life and terminal illness care, interprofessional collaboration in health-science programs, aging-in-place, and competency based learning. Grounded in a belief that participation in meaningful occupations is central to health, Dr. Alicea-Torres integrates clinical expertise, scholarship, and consultation to help individuals and communities thrive.

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