Kafui Sawyer (Director)
Kafui Sawyer is a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and a member of the Canadian Psychological Association. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Joy Health and Research Centre (Joy HRC) in Ottawa, Canada. Joy HRC is dedicated to promoting resilience, social–emotional well–being, and accessible mental health care for individuals, families, schools, and faith-based communities, with a strong commitment to assessment, treatment, research, and program evaluation.
Kafui is a Doctoral Trainee in Clinical Psychology and a mental health advocate for racialized communities. She is the Founder of the Black Psychology Section of the Canadian Psychological Association and Co-Founder of the Black, Indigenous, and Racialized People Psychology Web. Her clinical, leadership, and scholarly work is grounded in equity, trauma-informed and Indigenous-informed practice, and systems-level approaches to healing. She brings an integrative lens to practice, drawing from evidence-based psychotherapy, research, and community engagement.
Kafui specializes in child, youth, adult, and family therapy, with clinical expertise in trauma therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), addictions counselling, and emotion regulation. She is also a DBT Trainer and has provided DBT training to over 500 mental health professionals across Canada, supporting ethical, culturally responsive, and evidence-based practice.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Theology from the University of Ottawa and Saint Paul University, and a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Trinity Western University. Her clinical training includes work with the Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia, as well as advanced supervised training in child therapy within private clinical practice.
Kafui has worked in partnership with Indigenous communities across Canada, including the Seabird Island Band School in British Columbia and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services in the Arctic region. This work has included community-based mental health programming, consultation, training, and trauma-informed support grounded in cultural humility, relationship-building, and respect for Indigenous knowledge systems.
In addition to her Canadian clinical training, Kafui received specialized training in community mental health and prevention in Queensland, Australia, under the mentorship of internationally recognized psychologist Dr. Paula Barrett. This training focused on evidence-based prevention, early intervention, and resilience-building programs delivered at the community level. Dr. Barrett’s work has been recognized by the World Health Organization.
Kafui serves as a clinical supervisor for counselling and psychotherapy practitioners. She also provides individual, couples, family, and trauma counselling within federal service contexts. Kafui is a certified facilitator of the Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) program developed by the Department of National Defence and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Beyond clinical work, Kafui remains actively involved in mental health literacy initiatives, suicide prevention training, research, youth consultation, couples’ workshops, and resilience-building programs for children, adolescents, and adults. She is deeply committed to advancing ethical practice, accountability, and social justice within the mental health professions.
Kafui believes that healing is both relational and collective. Guided by her Christian spirituality, compassion, and commitment to service, she works alongside individuals and communities to foster hope, dignity, and mental health well-being.