I am very interested in applying to MSVU’s MA in School Psychology. I understand that this program allows graduates to eventually become licensed in Nova Scotia as a registered Psychologist. I was speaking with someone who is currently a psychologist and she had mentioned that if someone graduated from this program and eventually left the school system to practice as a licensed psychologist, they would be limited to working with children as that is the focus of the program.

Is this correct? While I would be very happy to work with children, she wasn’t overly confident in the limitation and suggested I refer to the board.

Could you please explain the limitations of the qualification?

The focus of the program from MSVU is in school psychology, and consequently, it would allow one to practice in the area of school psychology. Generally the practice of school psychology involves working with children and adolescents, but it may involve adults at times. If you were a school psychologist, you could expand to carry out activities that fall within the realm of school psychology with adults. However, such activities would have to be related to the expected practice of the school psychologist. The NSRP has definitions of practice areas. You can see the definition of school psychology in the document, which available from the below URL:

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

As you will see from the above referenced document, there are various practice areas that make up the practice of psychology. If, on the other hand, you are really seeking to carry out activities that do not fall within the realm of school psychology, but may involve clinical psychology, then you may wish to seek out a program that has clinical psychology as its focus. You can obtain more information about various acceptable programs in the following URL:

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