Supervision Requirements
Individuals in the following categories will rely on clinical supervision for registration purposes:
- Those in the process of fulfilling their requirements to become a registrant with CRPO – this includes students and others who are not yet registrants with CRPO.
- RP (Qualifying) Members – Qualifying registrants, as a condition of their Certificate of Registration, must receive ongoing clinical supervision while they are a Qualifying member. These registrants will need to complete a total of 100 hours of clinical supervision as part of requirements to enter the Registered Psychotherapist category. Qualifying members must continue to receive ongoing clinical supervision once they have completed the 100 hours required to complete the Registered Psychotherapist category requirements.
- Registered Psychotherapist Members – Members in the Registered Psychotherapist category must receive ongoing clinical supervision until they have completed a total of 1,000 direct client contact hours and 150 hours of clinical supervision. Should a registrant acquire 150 clinical supervision hours prior to completing 1000 direct client contact hours, they are still required to receive ongoing clinical supervision until both requirements are met for “independent practice.”
Click here for information about who can supervise who.
Requirements for Clinical Supervisors
In Ontario
The requirements for serving as a clinical supervisor have changed over time. When CRPO reviews clinical supervision hours reported in an application, we are assessing whether the clinical supervisor has met the criteria that were relevant at the time the supervision was provided.
The current criteria for clinical supervisors are listed below. Click here to see the criteria that applied in the past.
Clinical Supervisor Criteria:
- The supervisor must be a member in good standing of a regulatory college whose registrants may practise psychotherapy.*
- The supervisor must have five years’ extensive clinical experience.
- The supervisor must meet CRPO’s “independent practice” requirement (completion of 1000 direct client contact hours and 150 hours of clinical supervision).
- The supervisor must have completed 30 hours of directed learning in providing clinical supervision. Directed learning can include course work, supervised practice as a clinical supervisor, individual/peer/group learning, and independent study that includes structured readings.
- The supervisor must provide a signed declaration that they understand CRPO’s definitions of clinical supervision, clinical supervisor, and the scope of practice of psychotherapy.
*College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, College of Nurses of Ontario, College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, College of Psychologists of Ontario, Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers.
CRPO staff may request evidence of the 30 hours of directed learning in providing clinical supervision and may also request a letter of verification and a statement describing the supervisor’s approach to providing supervision.
Upon request, a clinical supervisor should be able to provide their supervisee with a letter attesting to their competency, as set out in items 1 through 5 above. It is not necessary to submit this to the CRPO unless it is specifically requested by staff.
Outside Ontario
Outside Ontario, a clinical supervisor is an experienced practitioner of psychotherapy qualified to provide clinical supervision in their jurisdiction.
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Group Supervision
Clinical supervision can be individual, dyadic or group. Group supervision may include structured peer group supervision if it is formal and structured, and includes at least one group member who meets CRPO’s definition of a clinical supervisor.
Structured peer group supervision differs from group clinical supervision in that the latter is led by a clinical supervisor, whereas the former includes at least one member who would qualify as a clinical supervisor but is an equal participant (not the leader). Structured peer group supervision often occurs in an institutional setting but may be formalized outside such settings.
Grandparenting Registrants
At application, a grandparenting applicant may have submitted all of their clinical supervision hours that were completed in a group format. Once registered, a grandparented registrant requiring additional clinical supervision to meet the independent practice requirements must complete half of the outstanding clinical supervision hours in an individual or dyadic format.
Practitioners who applied through grandparenting could include group clinical supervision that included up to 12 supervisees.
Regular Route and Other Applicants
At least 50 per cent of clinical supervision hours required to transfer to the Registered Psychotherapist category and to achieve independent practice must be completed in an individual or dyadic format. The remaining 50 per cent may be group supervision, including structured peer group supervision.
Previously, up to 20 per cent of supervision hours (i.e. a maximum of 30 hours, out of 150 total hours) could be completed in groups of nine to 12 supervisees. All remaining group supervision hours could include up to eight supervisees.
Effective April 1, 2022, CRPO will only accept reported clinical group supervision hours that occurred in a group size of eight or fewer supervisees. The public is better protected by practitioners receiving high-quality supervision through smaller group sizes. This was communicated to all system partners in CRPO communiqués from May 2020 and December 2021.
Clinical Supervisor Attestation
When a registrant or applicant wants to report hours of clinical supervision which took place on or after April 1, 2018, they can point their supervisors to the Clinical Supervisor Attestation form. On the attestation form, supervisors must:
- Attest to the supervision provided
- Attest to their qualifications to provide clinical supervision
Clinical supervisors (regardless of college affiliation) are asked to download and save the fillable form, type in their answers, and email the form to their supervisee. The supervisee will upload the completed form to their CRPO account and notify staff.
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Directed Learning Activities in Providing Clinical Supervision
Registrants who provide supervision are encouraged to develop their own competence in providing clinical supervision in order to provide supervisees with the richest possible learning experience.
Registrants are encouraged to use the clinical supervisor criteria as baseline guideposts in cultivating their practice as a supervisor.
To improve their range and competence in providing effective clinical supervision, registrants should draw from a variety of activities that comprise directed learning (i.e. course work, supervised practice as a clinical supervisor, individual/peer/group learning, and independent study that includes structured readings) as a way to become exposed to and incorporate emerging best practices.
Clinical supervision is a key aspect in the establishment of competent professionals. You have a responsibility to provide competent clinical supervision which includes assessing the knowledge, skill and judgment of supervisees, evaluating their needs and responding to those needs with appropriate and timely clinical supervision, which may include feedback and consultation, among other things, as negotiated between you and the supervisee.
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Frequency of Clinical Supervision
The Clinical Experience for Registration Policy states:
- “Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) Registrants shall receive clinical supervision regarding all clinical experience positions. That is, none of the clinical experience positions shall be unsupervised. Clinical supervision shall be spread evenly at an approximate ratio of 1 clinical supervision hour for every 4.5 DCC hours.
- Registered Psychotherapist Registrants without independent practice shall receive clinical supervision regarding all clinical experience positions. That is, none of the clinical experience positions shall be unsupervised. Clinical supervision shall be spread evenly at an approximate ratio of 1 clinical supervision hour for every 10 DCC hours.”
The Qualifying ratio is reflected in the number of hours required by the Registration Regulation. 100 clinical supervision hours and 450 DCC hours are required to transfer from the Qualifying to RP category – a 1:4.5 ratio.
These ratios are also set out in the Professional Practice Standards, Standard 4.2: Practising with Clinical Supervision.
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