DR. VIDOLL REGISFORD, PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELLING PRACTITIONER
Dr. Regisford is a competent psychotherapy and counselling practitioner, who has worked in a variety of clinical settings, senior management and executive roles. He began his career working in the high-priority neighbourhoods of Toronto’s Jane-Finch and Regent Park neighbourhoods, delivering crisis and trauma counselling to a diversity of marginalized, racialized and immigrant youth, and their families, who were victims of gun-violence.
With a high orientation to working with complex cases, he has been contracted by ethno-specific and mainstream organizations to intervene in clinical matters, achieving successful solution-focused outcomes. He developed his cultural-competence in counselling, employing unique approaches to serving the mentally ill from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, relying on a collective approach to therapy, employing cultural interpreters, translators, and where necessary, developing corporate policies on diversity and inclusion in clinical care for organizations.
Dr. Regisford took his knowledge of people and went on to lead organizations in the healthcare, social housing and the education sector, training and developing teams of social workers, nurses, consultants and community development practitioners in building and strengthening communities within a social determinants of health framework. His clinical aptitude and innovation in community health-education, and those of his colleagues, teams, partners and collaborators, have been recognized by the Ontario Hospital Association as well as international bodies focused on innovation in preventative health, such as the International Society of Blacks in Health Sciences. His efforts to eradicate the barriers and stigma’s associated with mental health continue in the form of presentations, lectures, magazines and his radio program, Life Matters, to a variety of audiences.
Formerly the Vice-President of Human Resources & Missions Services for Goodwill Industries, Dr. Regisford worked with public, private and non-profit organizations to employ individuals desperately in need of work. He took these skills and networks to George Brown College as Director of its Partnership office to city-build alongside multiple organizations focused on the social and economic development of the city of Toronto.
Dr. Regisford began his studies in Social Service Work and Community Development followed by a Degree in Sociology at York University in Toronto. He then went on to complete a Masters Degree in Adult Education and Community development at the University of Toronto. He achieved his first doctorate in Counselling, and a post-doctorate Ph.D in Counselling-Psychology, focused on Emotional Intimacy Therapy at California State Christian University.
He is principal for Knowledge Solutions and Associates, a general psychotherapy and counselling practice serving trauma victims, as well as youth, couples and families in crises. His clients are school boards, insurance companies, child protection services and faith- communities to name a few.
He brings to his work both cultural and emotional intelligence. He is also a critical stress and crisis debriefer, often called in to serve Police Services across the province, along with other first-responders, regionally and nationally. Formerly he served on the Dellcrest Children’s Service Advisory Committee, and now serves as a volunteer for the Salvation Army, a board member for Habitat for Humanity and We Will Now International Youth Development Project. Dr. Regisford possesses memberships to various accredited and governing bodies as a certified and registered psychotherapist.