MEMO

 

TO:            ASPPB Member Jurisdictions, Psychology Training Councils, and Other Interested Groups in Professional Psychology

 

FROM:       Stephen T. DeMers, Ed.D., ASPPB Executive Officer

 

RE:             ASPPB Guidelines on Practicum Experience for Licensure

 

DATE:        January 31, 2009

 

The Guidelines on Practicum Experience for Licensure is the final report of the ASPPB Task Force on Practicum Guidelines for Licensure. This report has been developed with extensive input solicited from a variety of groups and individuals with particular expertise in defining and regulating the supervised experiences of individuals pursuing graduate training in professional psychology. Earlier drafts of this document have been shared with ASPPB member jurisdictions, members of the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC), the Council of Credentialing Organizations in Professional Psychology (CCOPP) and other groups. Many valuable suggestions for modification or greater clarification were received and the task force considered each suggestion for change. The ASPPB Board of Directors recently reviewed and accepted this final version of the Guidelines on Practicum Experience for Licensure.

The Guidelines are now being disseminated to member jurisdictions for their use and to other organizations for their information. While the document is open to subsequent revision based on any additional feedback received, the ASPPB Board of Directors considers this project completed and is releasing the document now so that it can be used by member jurisdictions wishing to include regulations related to supervised practicum experience as criteria of eligibility for licensure. 

As noted in the history section of this report, these Guidelines were developed in order to offer guidance to psychology regulatory bodies that desired to add regulations that would recognize practicum experiences as part of required supervised experience leading to licensure. A number of ASPPB member jurisdictions either already have changed or are contemplating a change in the nature and timing of the supervised experience requirements for licensure. Since most current licensing laws and rules are silent about the nature and characteristics of what constitutes acceptable practicum training, the ASPPB Board of Directors believed that these Guidelines were necessary to promote greater consistency across jurisdictions in the type of practicum experiences that should be recognized as part of the qualification for licensure. The goal of the Task Force was to develop a set of guidelines that were both rigorous enough to promote adequate supervision and thus consumer protection and yet flexible enough to accommodate the variety of programs, training models and settings involved in providing these practicum experiences.

Any jurisdictions wishing assistance in using these Guidelines to amend their laws or regulations should contact the Executive Officer of ASPPB at the following email address: sdemers@asppb.org.