Certification

Certification Procedures | Forms | Graduate Programs

The Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association confirms that the members whose names are listed in the Canadian Certified Counsellor Directory have had their professional credentials evaluated and are deemed eligible to be designated as Canadian Certified Counsellors. Those individuals have committed themselves to adhere to the CCPA Code of Ethics and to their ongoing professional development through continuing education. They are eligible for professional liability insurance and are accountable for the maintenance of high standards of professional service consistent with the CCPA Standards of Practice for Counsellors.

Since certification is an ongoing process, not all certified members will appear in this Directory. For this reason, and because certification must be renewed by individuals every three years and all must be in good standing with CCPA, interested individuals are invited to contact CCPA should they wish to enquire about the certification status of any CCPA member. Such enquiries can be made by contacting the CCPA National Office.

Canadian Certified Counsellors: A National Certification Program for Professional Counsellors

An Overview

All professions have an obligation to establish practices and procedures intended to protect the public interest. This includes ensuring that its members deliver an appropriate standard of service and that consumers have an effective avenue to express concerns should they believe that a service has failed to meet these standards. In carrying out this responsibility, professions are granted the unique privilege of self-regulation or what is sometimes called self-governance.

In Canada, as in other countries, the regulation of professions occurs through certification and licensure. Licensure is a statutory process by which a provincial government enacts regulation which grants to the profession specific responsibilities with respect to self regulation. These include determining who can be admitted to the profession and by what standard of preparation, the establishment of codes of ethical conduct and standards of practice, and the management of formal complaints and disciplinary procedures. Certification has a similar objective but is a non statutory process by which an agency or association officially grants to an individual the right to use a title adopted by the profession provided certain established professional qualifications and other conditions are met.

At present the counselling profession in Canada is not regulated by a statutory process except in the Province of Quebec. This circumstance may reflect the unique historical development of counselling. For example, since a large proportion of counsellors used to work within public schools they may not have felt the need for regulation except by certification processes available to them within the educational system. However, during the past several decades there has been a significant growth in the number of counsellors who work in other public environments, such as; hospitals, mental health clinics, crisis centres, addiction clinics, and correctional institutions. Also, an increasing number of counsellors now work in private practice, either full or part time. The Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), recognized these changes and showed leadership by establishing, in 1986, a credentialing service for its members called the Canadian Certified Counsellor program.  This landmark decision provides for a non-statutory certification process which is available to CCPA members who wish to apply and who fulfill specific qualification requirements. One of these requirements is completion of an appropriate master's degree in counselling with a compulsory practicum.

The purpose of the CCPA counsellor certification program is to identify to the public those counsellors who, through a process of credential evaluation, are judged qualified to provide counselling services. Besides setting standards of professional preparation, this program also mandates expectations for continuing education, requires adherence to a formal code of ethics, and provides for advising and disciplining those members on matters of professional conduct.

Only counsellors who are certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association are permitted to use the protected title Canadian Certified Counsellor and/or the acronym 'CCC'.  They also receive a certificate which their clients should expect to see displayed at the place of work.
Many CCPA members do not wish to seek certification and because of their particular responsibilities or circumstances feel no need to do so. Nevertheless, these individuals may join CCPA as a fraternity of professionals who share the common goal of advancing the profession of counselling and meeting a variety of shared professional needs.

CCPA is careful to distinguish between membership only and certification. This is for the benefit of the public so that membership alone is not misunderstood as representing an evaluation of a member's qualification to practice which, in fact, it is not. Therefore, members are not permitted to place CCPA membership on business cards or to use it in other ways which might lead the public to mistakenly equate membership with certification. To accomplish this goal CCPA places the following declaration on its application form:

Please note that membership in CCPA does not qualify you as a certified counsellor, mention of membership is not to be utilized on business cards, or in other ways intended to advertise a member's qualifications as a counsellor.  Should you wish to use a qualification designation from CCPA, you must seek certification, which will permit the use of the letters CCC as the appropriate statement about qualifications to practice counselling.

Certification Registrar

The Registrar is a professional counsellor employed by CCPA to manage the certification process and has responsibility for receiving and evaluating all applications, including credentials, and references submitted for certification. This involves determining if an applicant's educational qualifications fulfill the certification standards including whether or not the institution awarding the degree is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), or is otherwise appropriately accredited if it is outside of Canada. In addition to evaluating official university transcripts to determine that the graduate degree has the appropriate courses, particular attention is paid by the Registrar to review the supervised practice component to ensure that it meets the standard both for content and supervision. This process may require requests to applicants for additional information before certification can be demonstrated and full adjudication achieved.

Certification Advisory Committee

CCPA has established an advisory committee made up of counsellor educators and others who are able to advise the CCPA Board of Directors on all matters pertaining to counsellor certification. This committee also serves in a consultative role to the Registrar on discretionary matters and on challenging certification issues which arise from time to time.

Continuing Education

Counsellor certification from CCPA is for a period of three years only but it can be renewed upon application providing the requirements for continuing education are met and the member remains in good standing in CCPA.  To assist all its members with the need for continuing education, CCPA has established a national continuing education program for counsellors in Canada. This service adjudicates a wide variety of professional events, including: workshops, conferences, institutes and courses, and grants credits for those approved for continuing education. It includes keeping a continuous record of the acquisition of these credits and issuing to members, and on a member's request to others, an official continuing education transcript.

Liability Insurance

CCPA members who meet all the requirements for certification are eligible to obtain liability insurance. The insurance is available through a Group Plan, from CCPA's broker of choice. This national company has considerable experience with professional liability insurance and provides insurance services for a number of other professions in Canada.

Ethics

CCPA has demonstrated its firm commitment to the establishment and maintenance of high standards of ethical conduct for its members.  In 1999 the Association adopted a new Code of Ethics. A revised and updated edition was then published in January 2007. All members receive a copy of this Code upon achieving membership and sign a commitment to strive to understand and adhere to the ethical expectations contained in it. In 2001 CCPA adopted new Standards of Practice for Counsellors. This 44 page document provides direction and guidelines to enable its members to conduct themselves in a professional manner consistent with the Code of Ethics. It is intended as further public protection by establishing a set of expectations for the provision of quality counselling services and for the maintenance of counsellor accountability.

In addition, CCPA published in 2000 a revised and greatly expanded second edition of its Ethics Casebook. This casebook contains essays on a wide variety of ethical issues addressed in the Code and, through the provision of case examples, it assists members in applying the ethical standards to their daily counselling practice. CCPA also offers, and supports the delivery of, workshops, conference presentations, and other educational events, on ethical and legal issues in the practice of counselling.

The standing Ethics Committee is dedicated to advising the CCPA Board on all matters pertaining to the maintenance and evaluation of ethical standards. It also serves in a consultative role to CCPA members. They are invited to consult the Committee should they be challenged by an ethical dilemma or feel the need to seek clarification of some aspect of the Code of Ethics. The Ethics Committee also manages the complaints and disciplinary procedures of CCPA. This includes receiving and investigating all complaints and proceeding with sanctions should this be warranted. The CCPA affiliate in Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Association of Professional Counsellors, performs this function for CCPA members who are also 'registered professional counsellors' in that Province. Other CCPA members in Nova Scotia, however, are the responsibility of the National Ethics Committee.

Accreditation Standards

In another landmark decision, CCPA, in 2002 adopted a set of standards for the accreditation of counsellor education programs in Canada. These standards include expectations with respect to the curricular, human and other resources necessary for the professional preparation of counsellors and will be managed by the CCPA Accreditation Council. It is expected that many universities will seek to participate in this important new service.