Nicole Imgrund, director and founder of River's Edge Counselling Centre, has received the 2025 Private Practitioner Award for Excellence from the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA).
The award was presented during CCPA's annual conference, held in Calgary from May 29 to June 1. The award recognizes exceptional clinical leadership, ethical practice and longstanding contributions to client care and community service in private counselling.
"It's an incredible honour, of course, to be recognized by my peers in that way," said Imgrund. "It's a celebration of relationships over many years, relationships with clients and colleagues, and with our community here in St. Albert."
Imgrund has lived in St. Albert for over 25 years and has been seeing clients since arriving in the city. Over 11 years ago, she opened River's Edge, which now includes a team of approximately 35 counsellors and psychologists.
She continues to work directly with clients while also mentoring her team. Imgrund said fostering supportive relationships with her team members is important to her.
"This award is about excellence, and I really, truly believe that excellence is never something that happens in isolation," she said. "It has been important to me to be able to work as part of a team and develop that, and that's a benefit to the clients that we serve, too, because their therapists are part of a strong, connected team where we can share our experience and wisdom with one another."
Along with supporting and mentoring her team, Imgrund has created a practicum training program that accepts five graduate students each year. Since the program began, over 50 students have completed their practicum at River's Edge Counselling Centre.
"I had just incredible mentors as a young therapist, who invested in my growth and my development as a therapist. So, it has been an opportunity for me to pay that forward as a teacher and as a supervisor and a mentor," Imgrund said. "They're all successfully out providing mental health services in their own communities. So there's a ripple effect there that I know is really meaningful to our whole team to be a part of that."
Alongside her clinical work, she has also been working to improve access to mental health care in the province through regulations.
"Access is really important because we can have a high level of excellence, but if a lot of people don't have access to that quality of care, then that's a real tragedy, right? And a failure of our health care system," said Imgrund.
They offered around 2,500 pro-bono or low-cost sessions a year to St. Albert residents, in addition to hosting special events and workshops for the community.
Imgrund credits the St. Albert community for helping make that possible.
"I've just felt every time I've taken a risk in this community, to try to extend mental health services, to educate the community about mental health in some way or support others, that I've just been really humbled by the amount of support that we've received," Imgrund said.
She said receiving the award in Alberta, in front of all her peers, made the moment even more special.
"I just have so much respect for my peers, so for them to see in me something that they see as a reflection of the values and the commitments that we hold as professionals really meant a lot," Imgrund said. "It was very special that I got it the year that we were in our home province as well."
