Featured in the St. Albert Gazette · November 30, 2018
Nicole Imgrund — founder of Rivers Edge Counselling Centre and then-chair of the Federation of Associations for Counselling Therapists in Alberta (FACT) — was featured in the St. Albert Gazette as Alberta moved to introduce legislation that would, for the first time, regulate counselling therapists in the province.
For Nicole, the moment was a long time coming. Fifteen years of advocacy — alongside other counsellors, government partners, and bipartisan legislators — were behind the introduction of the Mental Services Protection Act, which would create the College of Counselling Therapy of Alberta and bring counselling therapists, addiction counsellors, and youth and child counsellors under the Health Professions Act.
Her concern had been the same since her early days as a hospital chaplain over a decade earlier: that the people in some of the most vulnerable seasons of life were being met by professions with no shared standards, no oversight, and no real accountability.
“I was really amazed that there wasn’t regulation of us. Obviously people are in very vulnerable positions.”
She’d seen the consequences in her own work — clients who’d had bad experiences with untrained counsellors and walked away distrusting the whole field.
“We know it’s so important and such a critical part for so many people for their mental health and wellness, and recovery from mental illness. It’s painful for me to hear that people lost confidence in it and didn’t get the help they needed.”
The day the bill was introduced, Nicole was in her office at Rivers Edge when the news came through. It was, she told the Gazette, an emotional moment.
“I felt a lot of gratitude for just how many people have committed themselves to it and have given up time with their families and from their jobs, just because they knew it was the right thing to do.”
The legislation will affect more than 5,000 professionals across the province.