Michael Fischhoff (MTS, 2022)

Michael is a co-founder and International Executive Director of Fight4Freedom, a Christian charity fighting against sex trafficking in Canada and the Philippines.

“We attempt to live out the reality of Micah 6:8: ‘Act justly, show mercy, and walk humbly with God,’” he says. “I love how we are able to connect with others in tangible, loving ways to show the love of God and offer hope in situations of despair and abuse, and this vision has kept me focused on this work for the last 15 years.”

During that time, Michael came to recognize that a clinical counselling degree program would help him to minister to the needs of Fight4Freedom’s clients in a deeper way. He chose to get his degree at Tyndale, he says, because “I loved the intersectionality of faith and clinical counselling at Tyndale.

“I believe strongly in the grounding of the work we do in psychotherapy or in Fight4Freedom in the centrality of our faith as a guiding basis for our effort,” he says. “This means a combination of evangelism, discipleship, advocacy, compassionate care and social justice service. We couldn’t do our work without our faith, which grounds us in the hope of Jesus and the hope He can offer those we work with.”

Michael opened a private psychotherapy practice soon after graduating from Tyndale in 2022, to further help individuals, couples and families in the York and Durham regions of Ontario with Christian counselling and therapeutic support. Michael and his wife Felicia are sharing this year’s Horizon Award.