Professional title for a Practicing Psychologist:

Licensed Psychologist, Registered Psychologist, Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist

Criteria, Regulations and Procedures to obtain a License:

  • Undergraduate degree in Psychology; membership of the British Psychological Association recommended, not mandatory. Application to Doctoral training in Clinical Psychology, this takes three years. Typically this does not occur following undergraduate although it is possible. You must apply to be an Assistant Psychologist, either in a clinical or researcher setting; typically there will be four years in this setting prior to entering doctoral training. Following qualification applicants must apply for entry to the Health Professional Council (HPC). Two Clinical Psychologist referees may be needed.
  • You must have a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from a Canadian Psychological Association accredited program (which includes some course requirements and minimal supervision hours requirement). Once Ph.D complete you must pass the EPPP (Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology) Licensing Exam (a standard score of 500 or above): https://www.asppb.net/page/EPPPSignup. You have to do another full year of supervised practice POST completion of Ph.D. and then finally you must pass an oral exam focused on ethical practice and practice areas. The rules have recently changed. You used to only need a Master’s degree but that required 3 years of post- graduate supervised practice instead of one year. Resource link: https://www.cpnb.ca/en/definitions/guidelines-for-licensing/; https://www.cpmb.ca/documents/GUIDELINES%20FOR%20APPLICANTS%20for%20 REGISTRATION.pdf
  • There are no national standards for licensing in Canada. The practice of psychology is regulated by provincial/territorial bodies. Licensure to practice is granted by regulatory bodies in each Canadian jurisdiction. Due to the Agreement on Internal Trade, mobility across jurisdictions is no longer an issue in Canada.

Licensing bodies:

Modalities covered:

  • New Brunswick (any modality), and Atlantic provinces (NS, PEI, NL) for online and tele-therapy. Must register in other provinces to provide services to clients in other jurisdictions. Some sharing through Maritime provinces – only need to notify them, as opposed to having to pay fees/set exams.
  • Manitoba: Psychologists can use in-person or telepsychology (i.e., telephone, video conference) options, although the latter was uncommon prior to COVID-19 concerns. In Manitoba, obligations surrounding the use and collection of personal information, including personal health information (PHI), is governed by both the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA). While these Acts have some things in common with the US legislation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Manitobans are not governed by HIPPA and the legislative schemes are not the same. In Manitoba, the obligation is to ensure that you have taken reasonable steps to protect the privacy and security of the information collected or within your custody or control.

Any Supplemental Resources regarding procedures for Licensure:

  • New Brunswick: If you are educated and registered as a psychologist outside of Canada and wish to become licensed in New Brunswick, you will need to apply to CPNB for Interim Membership by completing the Interim Forms above (Application for Interim Member and Reference Form for Interim Member). You will also need to have your academic credentials to be evaluated so that we may see they are equivalent to a Canadian academic credential. World Education Services (WES) is the organization we recommend for you to use for academic credential evaluations. Their website is https://www.wes.org/ca. You need to apply for the Course-by-Course ICAP Evaluation Report and select CPNB as a recipient. Once WES have evaluated your academic credentials, WES will send CPNB your evaluation report and the authenticated academic documents. If you have any questions about CPNB, please contact Renée Turner, Assistant Registrar, at renee.turner@cpnb.ca. If you need to contact WES, please submit your questions at https://www.wes.org/ca/contact-us.
  • Association of Canadian Psychology Regulatory Organizations: https://acpro-aocrp.ca/
  • Courtesy Register (Temporary) Recognition of Internationally Registered Applicants
  • Eligibility for Registration by Reciprocity: https://www.cpmb.ca/documents/Information%20on%20Reciprocity.pdf

Reciprocity of Licenses:

  • There is a reciprocity agreement across the Canadian provinces and territories. https://cpa.ca/documents/MRA.pdf
  • Some provinces have different educational requirements for licensure (e.g., master’s degree versus doctoral degree). There has been a push to make them uniform across Canada as people would get licensed in a province with master’s level requirements and then move. There is less reciprocity for people coming to Canada from other countries. Canada has some of the highest standards internationally.

For those trained in psychology outside of Canada, and who want to move to a Canadian jurisdiction to practice psychology, it is highly recommended that they contact the regulatory body in the jurisdiction in which they want to practice to determine if they have the necessary qualifications for registration. The College or Association of the province would need to be contacted before practice and most provinces would require you to complete an oral examination with them before practicing.

Temporary/Short-Term Licenses (which are often needed for psychologists doing humanitarian work in foreign countries):

  • Canada does not operate as a whole. It depends on the actual province (e.g. Alberta provides short term licenses).
  • Application must be made in the state in which temporary work is being contemplated.

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