Why She\u2019s Top 40<\/p>\n
Expanding high-quality mental-health care for Albertans<\/p>\n
Age: 39<\/p>\n
Job Title: Registered Psychologist and Founder of the Centre for Dynamic Mental Health<\/p>\n
Growing up on a cattle ranch in the remote farming community near Medicine Hat, Diana Armstrong saw first-hand how challenging it was for residents to access comprehensive mental health or substance use care. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of alcoholism and addiction in some families,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was tough to see that. Even as a child, I recognized that the help they needed just wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending school with classmates from the nearby Siksika First Nation drew her attention to the social, health and economic disparities between largely white and Indigenous communities. These experiences compelled her to think differently about the kinds of therapeutic care available to Albertans.<\/p>\n
Armstrong went on to study psychology, ultimately earning a doctorate in counselling psychology, and dedicated a decade of her career to working in community and hospital settings. But Armstrong felt constrained by the session limits offered in many hospital programs, and knew there was a lack of high-quality, evidence-based treatment that focused less on general symptom management and more on eliminating symptoms over time. \u201cSupportive counselling is a dime-a-dozen,\u201d she says. \u201cBut being able to help people recover fully from their difficulties, that\u2019s a totally different level of care.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024 she founded the Centre for Dynamic Health in Edmonton, with the goal of increasing access to specialized, research-supported psychotherapy. Her eight-person team delivers a range of research-supported care, including intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, an emerging form of therapy that has shown strong results in treating anxiety, trauma, chronic pain and other complex conditions, and requires over a decade of training to administer. Its short-term nature also makes it more affordable, she says.<\/p>\n
Armstrong continues to research empirically based treatment methods and encourages her team to track treatment outcomes to refine patient care, something she says is not always done in therapeutic settings. \u201cI\u2019ve never said \u2018I want to work less and make more money,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cFor me that doesn\u2019t help me sleep at night. The bigger focus for me has always been providing high-quality, effective care and also innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n