The Licensure Process:

What Training Directors Need to Know

What is ASPPB?

• Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards

• Membership organization of all the psychology licensing boards in the U.S. and Canada

• Provide services to member boards and creates/maintains the EPPP

Purpose of Licensure

• Protect the public• Limit license to qualified individuals• Sanction violations of standards of

professional conduct• Serve best interest of both the public

and the profession

Topics

• Common issues/concerns licensing boards have with licensure applications: Licensure and APA Accreditation

• Tips for Students to Avoid Licensure Problems throughout Career

• Practicum Requirements and Post Doc Hours: Shifting Sands of Change

• Shift to Assessment of Competencies• Future Trends: Telepsychology, MOCAL • Helpful Resources for Faculty & Students

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Registration/Licensure Overview of Requirements

• Graduate degree in psychology• Supervised professional experience

(SPE)

– 1500 to 6000 hours of SPE (1 – 4 years)• Examinations

– Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP)

– Jurisprudence and/or Ethics Exam– Oral Examination

5Requirements vary across jurisdictions

Common Issues of Concern

• Transcript does not indicate specific program completed

• Course titles not descriptive of content or not helpful to licensing board

• Internship/practicum not on transcript• Accreditation status of program & institution

unclear

Should Licensing Laws RequireAPA/CPA Accreditation?

• Currently most states require APA/CPA/Designated Doctoral Program or equivalent

• Generic nature of laws & limited scope of accreditation created alternate pathways

• Recent expansion of scope of CoA accreditation & desire for single standard of quality fostering change

• Internship imbalance a major concern• Licensing boards likely to accept APA/CPA accreditation as

necessary but not sufficient requirement

Avoiding Problems with Licensing Boards – Tell Students To:

• Select a recognized/accredited training program

• Follow standard/prescribed curriculum (don’t seek waivers, special considerations)

• Select recognized internship/post degree placement with established history, multiple supervisors, etc.

Avoiding Problems with Licensing Boards – Tell Students To (cont.)

• Identify all jurisdiction(s) of interest & contact directly for requirements

• Try to meet the most stringent requirements

• Get one year of post-doctoral supervised experience if possible, and document it

Avoiding Problems with Licensing Boards – Tell Students To (cont.)

• Deposit ALL their credentials in recognized credentials’ bank

• Prepare to take the EPPP and take it as early as possible/allowed (content outline, practice tests, study groups)

Aspects of Supervised Experience of Interest to Licensing Boards

• #Hours of experience• #Hours of supervision• Qualifications of supervisor(s); e.g.,

licensure, years of experience, place of employment

• Type of setting/range of experiences• Number of other trainees, residents

Supervised Professional Experience

• Two years of supervised experience typically required

• Some jurisdictions require an accredited or recognized internship (APA or APPIC)

• Most require one year post doctoral• Each year of supervised experience

within prescribed time limits (e.g. 10-24 months)

• Number of hours required for each year varies by jurisdiction

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Postdoc Supervised Experience Hours Requirements:

Hours Number of Jurisdictions

•3000-4000 3•2000 9•1900 2•1800 6•1750 4•1600 3•1500 15•1000 1•1 year 6•None 11

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Regulatory Concerns about APA Policy Change

• Not all doctoral students receive 2,000 hrs of practicum (Rodolfa et al, 2007)

• Lack of definition of practicum• Post doctoral year required by most

jurisdictions-implementing policy change means changing statutes

• Readiness for independent practice-intern directors think post doc needed

• Mobility barriers may result from protracted adoption

• Adoption of inconsistent standards for practicum also impairs mobility

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Overview of ASPPB Practicum Guidelines

• An organized sequence of experiences

• Depth and breadth of training• Hour requirement• Supervision• Training Sequence• Setting

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What is the EPPP?

• Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology

• Required by licensing boards in states, provinces, and territories in U.S. and Canada for licensure

EPPP

• Intended to measure foundational knowledge—broad general knowledge of psychology for all psychologists – and critical thinking

• Only part of evaluation for licensure• Content validity supported by

periodic Practice Analyses (PA)• Most recent PA completed November

2009

8 Content Areas for EPPP

• Biological bases of behavior• Cognitive and affective bases of behavior• Social and cultural bases of behavior• Growth and lifespan development• Assessment and diagnosis• Treatment, intervention, prevention and supervision• Research methods and statistics• Ethical/legal/professional issues

EPPP Practice Exams

• PEPPPO: May be taken on any computer that can connect to the Internet using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. ($55.00)

• PEPPP: Taken under real-world testing conditions at a Prometric Testing Center. ($50 + 51.50 = $101.50)

Research on EPPP

•Numerous studies have supported reliability & validity of EPPP•Data suggest preparation beyond 200 hours yields diminishing returns•Data suggest best time to take EPPP is within 3 years of graduation

Common Myths About the EPPP

Study Materials

• Many commercial companies offer study materials

• ASPPB has NO CONNECTION TO THESE COMPANIES

• ASPPB does NOT sanction any of them or provide them with items

Jurisprudence Exam

• Most jurisdictions (states, provinces, territories) will require some type of examination over jurisdictional law and regulations

• Exam may be written or oral• Some jurisdictions have adopted on-

line, self-instructional exams

Oral Exam Possibilities, if Required

• Case vignette• Diagnostic approach/treatment

planning• Case conceptualization• Awareness of own professional

limitations• Ability to handle crisis• Diversity• Ethics & law

Oral Exams Assesses

• Professional maturity• Professional identity• Self-awareness• Ability to apply knowledge & theory• Ability to exercise professional

judgment “on the spot”• Ability to individualize treatment plan • Ability to handle crisis situation

Principles of Assessment of Competence

• Assessment of competence requires a major culture shift

• It is essential that competencies be conceptualized as generic, wholistic, and developmental

• Assessment approaches must integrate formative and summative evaluations for progression and gate keeping purposes

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ASPPB Practice Analysis: The Assessment of Competence

• Enhance the EPPP• Develop new assessments to complement the EPPP• Differential assessments based on each competency• Continued collaboration between associations to

develop next steps• If competency assessment becomes part of the

licensing/registration process, it will be necessary to train the assessors, to use standardized or formalized methods, and to ensure that the assessments are valid and reliable.

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Coming Attractions in Psychology Licensure

• Guidelines on Telepsychology: Joint APA/ASPPB/APAIT Task Force

• Psychology Universal Application System (PLUS)

• Assessment of Competence throughout Career - Relicensure

• Guidelines on Acceptable Supervised Experience: Internship & Post Doc

Beyond Licensure: Mobility

ASPPB Credentials Bank – A Credentials Verification Program (The Bank): Banking credentials for one’s entire career

• CPQ – Certificate of Professional Qualification: Licensure mobility across jurisdictional boundaries

• IPC – Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate: Short-term practice across jurisdictional boundaries w/o adding more licenses

The Bank: Examples of What to Include for Initial Licensure

• Supervised professional experience (internship & postdoc hours)

• Transcripts of all graduate study • EPPP scores• Letters with results from Oral or

Jurisprudence exams• Documentation of specialty training

Why Worry Now About Professional Mobility?

• Most new practitioners will relocate at least once in their careers

• Slight variations in registration and licensure requirements can become huge obstacles later (e.g. internship hours)

• Documenting supervised experience, course content, etc. becomes more difficult over time

• Licensing/registration boards/colleges can not accept personal copies of documents because of possible fraud

• Training programs, internship sites close, supervisors and their records disappear

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ASPPB Can Help You Help Your Students Get

Licensed/Registered

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For More Information