One day.
That’s how long it would take for the Association of Counselling Therapy of Alberta (ACTA) to form a regulatory college with the power to discipline counsellors in the province.
Within 24 hours, the college could halt the practices of counsellors like Brianne Hudson, a Grande Prairie physician who lost her license because she was found guilty of sexually abusing a patient but who is now offering counselling services.
However, the wait to establish a College of Counselling Therapy of Alberta (CCTA) has taken years -- a test of patience and endurance for many counsellors in the province, with no clear end in sight.
The ACTA last met with the province in September 2023 and heard that the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction would like to “maintain open communication,” said Laura Hahn, interim CEO and registrar of the ACTA.
“Unfortunately, since then, despite constant follow up requests to meet, we've never heard from [them],” Hahn said.
Hahn approached Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange recently at a “shape the way” engagement session for the province’s plan to restructure Alberta’s healthcare system. LaGrange told Hahn that the CCTA was “on her radar” and that Hahn “should keep advocating.”
Hahn also asked LeGrange whether the dismantling of Alberta Health Services into four new agencies could further delay the CCTA.
“Counselling therapists, addiction counselors and child and youth care, they work in all four of those new sections,” she said. “I'm hopeful that a story like this compels the government to close the gap on the safety risks.”
“We believed we were on the cusp of opening the college two and a half years ago,” said Nicole Imgrund, ACTA chair and founder of River’s Edge Counselling Centre in St. Albert.
“The government has been saying consistently in that time that they feel the need for more consultations, which is really confusing to us because the government did fulsome, widespread consultation before the legislation. Also, when this government finished writing the regulations, they did another consultation, and the result of that was widespread support.”
All 12 counselling therapy organizations, which represent 4000 counsellors in the province, support the move, Imgrund said.
“[The province] has received communication from the post-secondary education institutions who train counselors, from insurance companies, from rural municipalities -- over 80 employers wrote a letter to the government asking for support. None of those groups have said that they received any communication or response,” Imgrund said.
Thousands of support letters have been sent to the province, and in December the ATCA tabled a petition with over 1300 signatures, according to Imgrund.
“It’s hard for us to understand … how the need for more consultation could outweigh the need to eliminate this risk that exists right now.”
Set for proclamation in July 2021, the CCTA stalled due to concerns raised by First Nations that the college might interfere with treaty rights and First Nations’ ability to use Indigenous healing practices in therapy.
The ACTA never received confirmation that the province did formal consultations with First Nations.
But Imgrund said that the ACTA has built relationships with First Nations in the ensuing months and years.
She believes that Treaty 6 Nations, who approached the government with their concerns in 2021, would now favour the establishing the CCTA.
Imgrund warned that the problem of unprofessional – or downright dangerous – practitioners preying on vulnerable clients could be made worse as Alberta’s population balloons and more people need the help of counsellors.
“It creates even more opportunity for anyone with no training, or who has lost their license in another province, or another profession, to just put up a shingle and see a lot of people,” she said.
Cayley McConaghy, a counselling therapist who specializes in drama therapy, said that without the college, counsellors don’t have a regulatory body they can rely on for support when they have questions about ethics or a group to reach out when they have concerns about colleagues’ ethics.
“It's a lot of the times very lonely and almost hopeless feeling,” she said.
She also worries that without the college, the public may become wary of counsellors.
“While I want to be hopeful, this story has also left me feeling very nervous and very scared that things of this magnitude are still coming up and causing such harm to members of the public, to their family members, and that this can continue to happen until some changes are made.”
