Certification Renewal & Changes: Essential Information

1.       Applicants may only appeal a decision based on the interpretation of established criteria for certification, not on the basis of the criteria itself.

• Appeals are meant to provide the opportunity for those who disagree with the Registrar’s interpretation of their submitted qualifications and who can show evidence that they do in fact meet the certification requirements to make their disagreement known. Applicants who do not agree with a negative outcome of the evaluation and feel their application does align with CCPA’s certification requirements can appeal and request their application be re-evaluated by the Certification Committee. However, The requirements themselves outlined in the Certification Guide may not be contended.

2.      The option to appeal and outcome of a first appeal to the Certification Committee (2^nd level of appeals) has been removed. Therefore, once an appeal has been reviewed and provided with an outcome from the Certification Committee, the applicant may not appeal this Committee’s decision.

1.       A practicum seminar is mandatory component of a counselling practicum, as of September 2024. Programs for Pathway One applicants who do not have a practicum seminar will be reviewed and evaluated by the Chair of the Certification Committee on a case-by-case basis.

a.       Practicum courses must include a course seminar and evaluation component. This requirement will be documented via an added attestation on the practicum form assessing whether (1) there was an evaluative component and (2) whether there are any concerns with the student’s performance or competencies.

2.       Requirements for supervision include a mandate that supervisors provide a minimum of 10 hours of direct supervision, using one or more of the direct supervision forms identified in the Certification Guide as part of the supervision provided for a practicum.

a.       A grace period will be offered until July 2025.

3.       Live or Direct Feedback from Professors as Part of a Mandatory Counselling Skills Course.

a.       The course should include activities wherein the professor evaluates students in live role-play, video-recorded role-play, audio-recorded role-play, virtual live role-play, which may be accompanied by a transcript and provides feedback relevant to their development of skills. This component must be obvious in the syllabus under assignments.

b.       Examples of counselling micro-skills that are acceptable in this course include, but are not limited to, the following: Active listening; Reflection of feelings; Reflection of thoughts; Reflection of content; Paraphrasing; Summarizing; Providing feedback and confrontation; Open and closed ended questions; Use of silence; Attending behaviours.

1.       A mandatory supervisory reference for both Pathway One and Pathway Two applicants, and a choice of secondary references can be made from a hierarchical (e.g., professors, managers, employers, clinic directors, colleagues).

1.       References are no longer confidential

a.       Reference forms, and the content of the reference forms, may be accessible to the applicant under necessary circumstances, and upon official request, the applicant may be granted access to the reference form if they pursue an appeal of a negative outcome decision resulting from an unfavourable reference. Moreover, the Registrars will be transparent in offering a full explanation to the applicant in the case where a poor reference rating is the reason, or a contributing factor, to a decline, pending, or CCC-Qualifying outcome.