Nicole Imgrund received an Honourary Doctorate of Sacred Letters from St. Stephen’s College in November. The honour was awarded for her work over the past 15 years in regulating the profession of Counselling Therapy in Alberta.
“Nicole Imgrund is being recognized for her provincial leadership in Alberta’s mental health profession, which has led to better public access to better mental healthcare services for all Albertans. Through more than a decade of advocacy work, and countless hours of voluntary service, Ms. Imgrund’s efforts led to the unanimous passing of the Mental Health Services Protection Act (Dec 2018) and set in motion the establishment of a new provincial regulatory college, the College of Counselling Therapy of Alberta (CCTA). As a result of her tireless work with the Federation of Associations of Counselling Therapists of Alberta (FACT-A), Alberta is the first province to regulate Addictions Counsellors, the first province to regulate Child and Youth Care Counsellors, the third province to regulate Addiction Treatment Centres, and the fifth province to regulate Counselling Therapy. This new regulation will touch on many fields, including Spiritual Care, Counselling Therapy, Psychotherapy, Creative Arts Therapies, and the like. In addition to this advocacy work, Ms. Imgrund is a past president of the AB/NWT chapters of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), she is an elected member of the Alberta Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, she received the inaugural (2017) “Unsung Hero” award from CCPA, and she is also recipient of the 2019 Professional Contribution Award from CCPA.”