Home Registrant Information Clinical Supervision information Updating Clinical Experience Hours
Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Visit this page for steps on how to update clinical experience hours, processing times, and the clinical experience requirements for each applicable registration category.


Clinical Supervision information
Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Visit this page for steps on how to update clinical experience hours, processing times, and the clinical experience requirements for each applicable registration category.

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Processing Times

Current processing times for clinical experience hours:

  • Processing Times

    It currently takes approximately 10-12 weeks for CRPO registration staff to process requests to update hours.

Clinical Supervisor Attestation Form

Download the fillable Clinical Supervisor Attestation Form

  • Clinical Supervisor Attestation Form

    When a registrant wants to report hours of clinical supervision, they can point their supervisors to this form. On the form, supervisors must attest to the supervision provided, as well as their qualifications to provide clinical supervision.

     

    Clinical supervisors are asked to email the form to their supervisee once completed. The supervisee will upload the form to their CRPO account and request a review.

    Download the fillable form here
Direct Client Contact Confirmation Form

Download the fillable Direct Client Contact Confirmation Form

  • Direct Client Contact Confirmation Form

    When a registrant or applicant wants to report direct client contact hours, they can point their employer/supervisor to this form. For additional instructions, visit the Updating Clinical Experience Hours page.

    Download the fillable form here
Independent Practice Declaration Form

This form is for grandparented registrants only.

  • Independent Practice Declaration Form

    Grandparented registrants will not have to provide third-party confirmation of their clinical experience hours. Instead, they can complete the formal declaration to confirm they meet the independent practice requirement.

    Download the fillable form here

Background

 

CRPO’s application process no longer involves reporting direct client contact (DCC) or clinical supervision hours when applying for registration in the Qualifying category. Documentation to report DCC and clinical supervision hours will be submitted after your application for initial registration is approved and you are issued a certificate of registration.

 

About Direct Client Contact

 

Direct client contact is any activity in which the client and the therapist are directly and formally engaged in the psychotherapeutic process. Ordinarily, this process occurs face-to-face, but other forms of direct contact, for example, using telephone, Skype, video-link, or even email (with appropriate considerations for privacy and confidentiality) are relevant. The client may be an individual, couple, family or group.

 

Also included in direct client contact are:

 

  • interviewing for intake, as long as this activity is clinical in nature and then used to determine the nature and course of the therapy;
  • interviewing, administering a test or conducting a formal assessment as part of a clinical interaction with the client; and
  • facilitating or actively co-facilitating therapeutic sessions.

 

 The following are not considered direct client contact: 

 

  • observing therapy without actively participating or providing follow-up to the client immediately after the observed session;
  • record-keeping;
  • administrative activities, including report-writing;
  • conducting a psychometric assessment that primarily involves administering, scoring and report-writing, with little or no clinical interaction with the client; and
  • providing or receiving clinical or other forms of supervision.

 

About Clinical Supervision

 

CRPO defines clinical supervision as a contractual relationship in which a clinical supervisor engages with a supervisee to discuss the direction of therapy and the therapeutic relationship; promote the professional growth of the supervisee; enhance the supervisee’s safe and effective use of self in the therapeutic relationship; and safeguard the well-being of the client.

 

Clinical supervision can be individual, dyadic or group. Group supervision may include structured peer group supervision if the supervision is formal and structured and includes at least one group member who meets CRPO’s definition of a clinical supervisor (see below).

 

Structured peer group supervision differs from group clinical supervision, in that the latter is led by a clinical supervisor, whereas the former includes at least one member who would qualify as a clinical supervisor but is an equal participant (not the leader). Structured peer group supervision often occurs in an institutional setting but may be formalized outside such settings.

 

Informal “peer supervision” i.e. unstructured discussion of clients with colleagues, is not considered an acceptable form of supervision for registration purposes.

Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Requirements for RP (Qualifying) Registrants

Requirement for Ongoing Clinical Supervision

All Qualifying registrants will find that their profile on CRPO’s Public Register indicates that they are authorized to practise as a Qualifying registrant. Every Qualifying Certificate of Registration is subject to the Term, Condition and Limitation (TCL) that the registrant must:

 

  • (a) practise psychotherapy with clinical supervision; and
  • (b) be actively pursuing the completion of any of the requirements set out in clause 10 (a), (b) or (c) that the member has yet to complete unless the Registrar has provided the member with permission in writing to interrupt the pursuit of one or more of those requirements due to exceptional circumstances.

 

Clause 10 (a), (b) or (c) refers to successfully completing the Registration Examination, and clinical experience in psychotherapy. That includes at least 450 hours of DCC and at least 100 hours of clinical supervision where that clinical supervision relates to those hours of DCC.

Category Transfer Eligibility

To be eligible to transfer registration categories from Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) to Registered Psychotherapist, a Qualifying registrant must:

 

  • Successfully pass the Registration Examination;
  • Successfully complete 450 DCC hours approved by staff; and
  • Successfully complete 100 clinical supervision hours, at least half of which are in an individual/dyadic format, approved by staff.
Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Requirements for RPs Without Independent Practice

Requirement for Ongoing Clinical Supervision

Registered Psychotherapists will not be permitted to practice independently, i.e. without clinical supervision, until they have completed the independent practice requirements. This limitation applies to all registrants and will remain in effect until the registrant satisfies the College that they have completed the required hours. Whether a Registered Psychotherapist has met the independent practice requirement can be confirmed by looking at their status on the Public Register.

 

The Clinical Experience for Registration Policy states that clinical supervision for RP registrants who have not met the independent practice requirements shall be spread evenly at an approximate ratio of 1 clinical supervision hour for every 10 DCC hours.

 

Registrants in the Qualifying category are not eligible for independent practice (see Qualifying information above).

Independent Practice Eligibility

To be eligible for independent practice, a RP registrant must:

 

  • Successfully complete 1,000 DCC hours approved by staff; and
  • Successfully complete 150 clinical supervision hours, at least half of which are in an individual/dyadic format, approved by staff.
Updating Clinical Experience Hours

Steps to Updating Hours

When to Request a Review

To avoid processing delays, we ask that you only request a review of hours if one or more of the following apply:

 

  • You have started at a new practice site and want to confirm whether the DCC hours and clinical supervision hours meet CRPO’s requirements.
  • Your role at a practice site has ended and you are reporting the final DCC hours and clinical supervision hours accrued at that site.
  • You have accrued the minimum DCC hours and clinical supervision hours required to transfer from RP (Qualifying) to RP.
  • You have accrued the minimum DCC hours and clinical supervision hours required for independent practice in the RP category.

How to Request a Review

Prior to updating your hours, please ensure that your practice information is up to date. Registrants are responsible for updating their practice and employment information directly in the “Practice information” page of their user account within 30 days.

 

If you have completed clinical experience hours and would like to submit them for review, you must follow these steps.

 

  1. Obtain documentation from your supervisor or employer confirming the hours. Documentation must meet requirements.
    • For DCC hours, please use the DCC Confirmation Form.
    • For clinical supervision hours, please use the Clinical Supervisor Attestation Form.
    • In instances where the forms cannot be obtained, CRPO may accept alternative documentation. Please see the Supporting Documents Checklist for information on what is required.
  2. Go to the “Practice information” page of your CRPO user account.
  3. Create an entry for the hours that you wish to report by clicking ‘Add new’. Input the required information and upload the correct documentation to the entry.
  4. Click ‘Save’.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each set of hours that you wish to report.
  6. Once you have created entries for all the hours you wish to have reviewed, click ‘Request review’ at the bottom of the page.

 

Please note that you can only click the ‘Request review’ button one time per request. Once you have clicked the button, you will be required to wait until staff have completed their review of the submitted hours before you can submit additional hours for review.

 

Please also ensure that you retain copies of all documents that you submit to CRPO. You will not be able to view documents after you submit them in the Registrant Portal.

 

If you are a grandparented registrant, you may submit an Independent Practice Declaration Form, linked at the top of the page, to confirm that you meet the independent practice requirement.

Common Errors and Issues

To avoid processing delays, registrants must ensure that they are submitting complete requests. Missing information or incorrect documentation will result in processing delays and, very likely, the hours will not be accepted. You will also be required to re-request a review, and your request will join the end of the queue.

 

Common errors and issues to avoid:

 

  • Review the hours that have previously been accepted to ensure that you are not double-counting any hours.
  • All documents must have a handwritten or electronic signature. A typed name does not constitute a signature.
  • Check that the forms list your practice site (not your supervisor’s). Submit one form per practice site. If you have worked at multiple sites, you will need to create multiple entries and submit multiple forms.
  • Ensure that you have uploaded the correct documentation to each entry. If you have multiple forms to upload, we recommend using specific file names to ensure you are uploading the correct documentation.
  • Double-check the accuracy of the information before pressing ‘Save’. You will not be able to edit an entry once you have saved it.
  • All DCC hours must be completed under supervision, and all supervision hours must be completed in conjunction with DCC. You must report both DCC and supervision hours in order for the hours to be potentially accepted. In cases where DCC is reported without corresponding supervision or vice versa, the hours will not be accepted. Please ensure that the start and end dates reported on the DCC and supervision forms match or are within a few weeks of each other at most. For example, if the DCC hours start on May 1, 2020, the supervision hours should also start on or around May 1, 2020.

Tracking the Status of Your Request

You can easily track the status of your review request by looking at the DCC hours and clinical supervision hours summary tables in the “Practice information” page of your user account. The right-hand column of these tables indicates the status of your hours. This is what each status means:

 

  • Pending – hours have not yet been reviewed by staff. If you have clicked the ‘Request review’ button, staff will review all hours with this status. You will be contacted by email if staff have any follow-up questions.
  • Accepted – these hours have been accepted and count towards the clinical experience hours required to transfer categories.
  • Not Accepted – these hours have not been accepted. CRPO staff will send you an explanation as to why these hours were not accepted.
  • Panel Review – in the case that your hours are not accepted, you have the option to request that the hours be reviewed by a panel of the Registration Committee. Further information about this process will be provided to you by CRPO staff.
  • Withdrawn – you can choose to withdraw hours at any time. The hours will not be accepted and will not count towards the clinical experience hours required to transfer categories. Staff may also mark the hours as Withdrawn if you are requested to re-submit forms or if you have created duplicate entries.

 

If your hours are accepted, you will be notified by email. Your accepted hours in the Hours Summary table will also update to reflect the total number of hours accepted.

Viewing Accepted Hours

 

The number of accepted clinical experience hours on file can be found on the “Practice information” page of your user account. You will find a table for DCC hours and clinical supervision hours, and at the bottom of the page, you will find an Hours Summary table outlining the number of submitted hours, countable hours, and accepted hours.

 

  • Submitted hours reflect the total number of hours you have submitted. This will include hours that have been accepted, are pending review, or have not been accepted.
  • Countable hours reflect the number of countable hours in that specific category. For example, as outlined above, RP (Qualifying) registrants must complete at least half of their required hours in an individual/dyadic format. RP (Qualifying) registrants can count a maximum of 50 group clinical supervision hours toward the category transfer requirements. If a RP (Qualifying) registrant reports 60 group supervision hours, only 50 of those hours will show up in the countable hours column.
  • Accepted hours reflect the total number of hours that have been accepted by CRPO staff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Due to the volume of requests, we are unable to provide a specific timeline for when you can expect the review to be complete; however, it is likely to take several weeks at a minimum. You will be notified if staff have any follow-up questions and/or once your request has been processed.

Please notify CRPO staff by emailing registration@crpo.ca. Your hours will be marked as Withdrawn by staff. You will be required to create a new entry with the correct information, then re-request a review. Please note that your request will join the end of the queue.

No. If the incorrect form was uploaded to an entry, you will be required to create a new entry with the correct information, then re-request a review. Please note that your request will join the end of the queue.

In instances where a registrant is unable to obtain the template forms, CRPO may accept alternative documentation. Please refer to the Supporting Documents Checklist, linked at the top of the page, for more information.

No, if the hours are marked as Pending that means they are still under review. You must continue to practise with ongoing supervision as required by your registration category until you have received confirmation from CRPO that your hours have been approved and that you meet the requirements to transfer to the RP category or practise independently.

There are a variety of reasons why hours may be listed as Not Accepted. For common reasons why hours are listed as Not Accepted, see the Account & Registration Management page.

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