In this year’s Communiqués, we have been highlighting aspects of the Professional Practice Standards, which came into effect on January 1, 2024. This month covers advertising and expanding areas of practice.
Standard 2.1 expects registrants to understand their competence and its limits. It defines a registrant’s practice area as client populations served, issues treated, and modalities ordinarily used. Standard 2.1.4 says, “Registrants complete appropriate, verifiable education, and receive clinical supervision or consultation, before changing or expanding their practice area.” Verifiable means having a record to show evidence of completion.
What is appropriate will vary depending on the circumstances. Psychotherapy is a diverse profession, so CRPO cannot say exactly how much or what kind of training will be necessary for a particular change. It would depend on various factors such as how big the departure is from an RP’s current practice area, how experienced the RP is overall, and how risky the new practice area is. Ultimately, a registrant should ask themself what a panel of their peers in the profession, and in the public, would consider reasonable.
Standard 6.2 runs parallel by talking about what practice areas a registrant can publicly advertise. It is similar, stating, at “6.2.7 Registrants advertise an area of practice only if they have verifiable training in that area of practice.” The Commentary talks about therapist directory websites, cautioning registrants to think carefully before clicking on a dropdown menu or list of practice areas, declaring that they are competent in that area.