I am a Licensed Professional Counselor & Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor down here with a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. I am currently applying to become a Counselor in Nova Scotia, after which I intend to follow my Forensic Psychologist fiance, already in Bedford. I am very interested in understanding what I need to do to meet the qualification of R-Psych. Although I have looked over the FAQ for becoming an R-Psych, I have some questions to clarify whether I meet the qualifications.

I understand I will have to take the EPPP, of course, but my practicum appears to have been a little under 200 hours short of what is required by Canadian standards. However, post-graduation I worked under direct supervision of two Clinical Psychologists for 3 years with around 35 face-to-face patient hours per week, adding up to roughly 4,725 hours of immediately post-graduation, directly supervised experience alone, so I am wondering if that will suffice.

I believe my training meets the five core competency areas, but I want to be sure. Would it be possible to send an electronic copy of my unofficial transcript/course descriptions to see if they would qualify? In getting licensed in Canada as a counselor, I have taken the ethics courses that they don’t exactly require in America (its rolled up into other courses, but never explicitly its own specified class), but if I need to take any more classes, I’d rather know now and get started.

These are my biggest questions at this time. Thank you for your time and any help you can provide.

Typically, in your scenario, where you are licensed as a counselor, we would refer you to the NS College of Counselling Therapists since they may have an efficient route to meeting registration requirements in your circumstances.

While the Core Competencies in Psychology are a required component of registration with NSRP, it is not solely a matter of meeting these competencies to determine one has an acceptable degree in psychology; one must meet all requirements as listed in the NSRP document on Acceptable Degrees in Psychology:

https://www.ns-rp.ca/downloads/Registration_Requirements_Regular.pdf nNSRP staff cannot preapprove a degree since that process would be require a full review by the Registration Subcommittee of the NSRP who is the decision maker. The Subcommittee is only able to review completed applications. We would, however, also refer you to the following document as it lists some approved degrees and the types of deficiencies that arise when one is not.

https://www.ns-rp.ca/downloads/Acceptable_programs_NSBEP.pdf

We would say that, generally, where your additional supervision hours were not part of an integrated university program, those would not be considered part of the degree acceptable under the Regulated Health Professions Act and the Psychology Regulations. 200 hours in the official practicum falls quite short of the requirements. Our sense is that the program would not meet requirements. However, if you would like to send a copy of your transcript for staff to review — to see if there are any other items we would note — then feel free to do so. Please note that this would not constitute a review by the NSRP.

With that said, If after reviewing all of the above referenced documents, you feel you would still like to apply, that is of course your right. However, in that event, it may be advisable to first provide a copy of your transcript as you suggested, since there may be some red flags that we may be able to identify and this may save additional frustration if there were something that could be easily identified in advance.

As you correctly note, those admitted to the Candidate Register are required to complete all examinations required by the NSRP (and 4 years of supervision — 6000 hours). These requirements would be completed after the individual is placed on the Register of Candidates. The exams currently consist of the EPPP and Oral Exam.