Continuing Education

What is the cost to process CEC applications outside of an audit?

The fee is $45.00 per application. Each activity requires its own application.

I have received a certificate, but the dates are wrong. If there were to be an audit, would this be an issue?

When documents are reviewed during an audit, the activity dates you submit must fall within your certification period to count toward your CCC credits. The order in which the activities were completed by date does not affect the audit. I recommend contacting the company to request a correction on the date.

I think it would help to have a way for members to manually add the CE credits we get so we can keep track of it. Would that be possible? I am concerned that I will lose track. I am also curious about knowing if a course may be acceptable. In the past, I have just done a course, then filled out the form and it was accepted. How do I deal with this in the future?

CCPA members may track their CEC activities using a method that works best for them. We hope to introduce a tracking solution in the future; however, one is not currently available.

Regarding which types of activities CCPA will accept for continuing education, please refer to the CEC chart outlining acceptable categories and their required documents.

You may also wish to explore the following link to see which activities have been approved in the past:

https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/general-continuing-education/ccpa-approved-activities/

I submitted my CECs for the previous 3 years (in 2024). The change begins in 2026. Do I have to submit my CEC hours between 2024-2026/beginning of new format, or just wait for an audit no matter what?

With respect to the new trust system, please note that the CEC department will no longer process CEC applications as standard procedure.

This means that you will no longer be required to submit CEC activities to maintain your CCC designation or renew your membership with CCPA.

You will only be required to acknowledge that you have completed your 36-credit requirement and keep a record of your activities and supporting documents should you be called on for an audit.

With the new procedure, will the continuing education certification period now be based on January 1 – December 31 calendar year or is it still based on membership date?

Please note that your certification period will still retain a duration of three years.

Your current certification period will be indicated on your Continuing Education tab in your member profile.

To clarify, you don’t need to submit a CEC application unless you are audited? But I should just have what would be needed for the CEC Application in case I get audited? Is it okay if you don’t have any CECs on your education file but have them ready in case of an audit?

We can confirm that you are no longer required to submit CEC applications unless you are called on for an audit.

If you are called on for an audit, you will be required to submit all CEC activities and supporting documents for your current certification period only. You will be notified 3 months in advance of when the documents are due to be reviewed. To apply any approved credits to your 36-credit requirement, please ensure that your activity completion date falls within your current certification period.

Please note that audited members will continue to see their CEC activities recorded on their transcript free of charge for their current certification period only.

Your CEC transcript will continue to be available on your member profile to view/download at your convenience, but adding activities to it (outside of an audit) will incur an additional fee.

I noticed that you mentioned a charge of $45 for members. Could you please clarify that? Do attendees of our workshops have to pay this fee to add the CEs to their profile, even though the workshop is pre-approved for CCPA CEs?

Please note that we have recently announced a change to CECs in the form of a trust system.

This means that members will no longer be required to submit CEC activities to maintain their CCC/ CCS designation or renew their membership with CCPA.

They will only be required to acknowledge that they have completed their 36-credit requirement and keep a record of their activities and supporting documents should they be called on for an audit.

With respect to the new trust system, please note that the CEC department will no longer process CEC applications as standard procedure.

Members who have not been selected for an audit but wish to have their CEC activities added to their educational profile may choose to submit them at a rate of $45 per application. This fee will only apply to members who opt to have their activities added to their CCPA transcript (outside of an audit). Their transcript will be available on their member profile to be viewed and/or downloaded at their convenience.

The $50 fee to have an event pre-evaluated and approved is separate and does not include the fee charged for the option of adding completed activities to a member’s transcript. The handout sheet that your participants receive after completing the approved event will serve as proof of attendance and will be required to submit to CCPA’s head office only if they are called on for an audit.

With the new CEC system, what does this mean for our ongoing transcript? I have a 30+ year record that documents development over the years; it is a real shame that this will no longer be possible (?) What is the charge for ongoing CEC requests?

Please rest assured that you will still have access to your CEC transcript and it will be free to be viewed/ downloaded at your convenience.

If I present a webinar, do I have to fill in a form for CECs or only if I am a participant?

Please note that attending a webinar and presenting a webinar are two separate activities and require two separate applications and supporting documents.

If you attend a webinar, we will require proof of attendance in the form of a certificate, a signature from the Leader, Speaker or Sponsor, or a letter/ email from the Organizer thanking you for attending. Please note that receipts/ registrations will not be accepted as valid proof of attendance.

If you present a webinar, you will be asked to submit your presentation material for review. After your application is reviewed, it will be sent to the Registrar for evaluation. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for the evaluation process to be completed. You will be notified of the results via email as soon as they are available.

Please note that members may not claim credit for attending a webinar that they are also presenting. This application will be seen as a duplicate and will be rejected.

Are there standard criteria we can use to gauge whether to attend a non-CCPA or non-chapter activity?

We recommend referring to the CEC Chart when considering which activities will be eligible for CE credit. We also recommend considering pre-approved activities such as CCPA events, and courses offered through Mental Health Academy (MHA), Jack Hirose, PESI, CTRI, ACHIEVE, and Envision. Pre-approval means that the activity has been evaluated and has proven to have met CCPA’s requirements for CECs.

To explore all CEC activities that CCPA has approved in the past, please see the following link:

https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/general-continuing-education/ccpa-approved-activities/

Should all non-CCPA and non-chapter activities be submitted for pre-approval?

We encourage exploring the following link and consulting the CEC chart to determine whether the activity in question may meet CCPA’s requirements.

https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/general-continuing-education/ccpa-approved-activities/

For any upcoming event that has not yet been approved (i.e. conference, retreat, online course, or webinar series), we encourage submitting a pre-accreditation request.

What constitutes proof of attendance?

Examples of valid proof of attendance include:

A transcript (such as from a post-secondary educational institute)

A certificate of attendance or participation

A signature from the Leader, Speaker, or Sponsor (your own signature or the signature of a person who attended the event with you will not be considered valid)

A letter/ email from the Organizer thanking you for attending

Please note that receipts and/or registrations are not valid proof of attendance.

Valid proof of attendance will be given by an authority of the stated event and will acknowledge that you have attended and completed it.

Is there a recommended format or template for tracking CE activities?

CCPA members may track their CEC activities using a method that works best for them.

We hope to introduce a tracking solution in the future; however, one is not currently available.

What specific documentation should be retained (e.g., certificates, proof of payment, course outlines, reflective summaries)?

If you are called on for an audit, you will be required to submit all your CEC activities for your current certification period. To ensure that any approved credits count toward your 36-credit requirement, please ensure that you clearly mark the completion date of each activity on your application form. Please note that each activity requires its own application form. For more information on what types of activities CCPA will accept for continuing education and their required documents, please see the CEC chart.

Please note that any activities requiring proof of attendance must be validated by the authority of the stated event. Examples of valid proof of attendance include a certificate, a transcript (i.e. from a post-secondary educational institution), a signature from the leader/ speaker/ sponsor, or an email/ letter from the organizer thanking you for attending. Please note that receipts/ registrations will not be accepted as valid proof of attendance. Missing proof of attendance may render the submitted activity as ineligible for CE credit.

Are digital copies sufficient, or are original documents required?

Digital copies of certificates, unofficial transcripts, and digital signatures will be accepted.

Is there a recommended retention period beyond the current certification cycle?

If you are randomly chosen for an audit, you will be required to submit all activities (application form and supporting documents) for your current certification period only. You will be notified three months in advance of when the documents are due to be reviewed. No activities outside of your current certification period will be processed during the audit.

I am a CCS, does this also apply to submission of my supervision hours and supervision training?

Much like CE activities for CCCs, you will also not be required to submit supervision activities to maintain your CCS designation, unless you are called on for an audit. You would, however, be required to submit a CCS renewal application once every three years.

The renewal form will be submitted to our Registrar for evaluation. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for the evaluation process to be completed. You will be notified of the results via email as soon as they are available.

If you are called on for an audit, both your supervision and regular CEC activities will be reviewed for your current certification period only.

If we are selected for an audit, what kind of documentation will we need to deliver as proof of the workshops/studies/training we have taken?

The documentation required for audits remains the same as the documentation required for standard CEC processing. In the case of workshops or online training, we would require a CEC application form (including the first page and a “Schedule A”) and proof of attendance in the form of a certificate, a signature from the leader/ speaker/ sponsor or an email/ letter from the organizer thanking you for attending. Please note that each activity requires its own application. Please see the attached “CEC Chart” for more information on the types of activities that CCPA will accept for continuing education and their required documents.

Are we required to hand out the Continuing Education Credit Application Form (one for each event) if we are selected for an audit?

The CEC department will require a separate application for each activity submitted. Conferences may be submitted as one activity with multiple presenters, i.e. Mental Health Academy (MHA) Summit.

Currently, I am attending a 2-year online training program in Transpersonal Psychotherapy in Spain. What kind of documentation do I need to gather proof of these studies?

After you have completed this activity, please retain your certificate and transcript (this may be an unofficial copy) from your educational institution. If you are called on for an audit, you will be required to submit this as proof of attendance in addition to the CEC application form (first page and a “Schedule A”). One application form for the entire course will be sufficient.

On the pre-accreditation form, does the “Leader” field mean the speaker that will facilitate the training or a representative from the organization sponsoring the event?

The Leader may be the Speaker or Presenter. The Organizer is the Sponsor. In some cases, the Leader and Organizer may be the same person.

Do you allow licensed social workers to conduct the webinars? Or is it strictly just counselors and psychologists?

Webinars may be conducted by anyone who is qualified to run them. For CCPA’s purposes, a pre-accreditation request will be evaluated based on content and whether it meets the necessary requirements for continuing education.

What is the process for getting the email lists of your mental health professionals?

CCPA does not distribute the email addresses of our members, but you may find a public directory of our members who have been awarded the CCC designation here:

https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/find-a-canadian-certified-counsellor/

Is it possible for me to share our event and advertise with your members? Curious what the parameters are and if this is even possible.

You may search our advertising opportunities here: https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/advertising/

With this new system, it feels like there is much trust being put in all members to be active in this process. I understand that people have the accountability to be ready to show their continuing education efforts, but I honestly feel less confident in the value of our certification with this reduced monitoring. Maybe I have missed information that was shared somewhere along the way, but is there a sense that everyone will be audited at some point or is there a chance that someone may never be asked to share their CECs?

With the new trust system in place, CCC/ CCS members will be free to renew their CCPA membership without submitting CEC documents, unless they are called on for an audit. A number of these members will be chosen at random every month. If they are selected, they will be notified 3 months before their renewal date and will be required to submit all CEC activities with their supporting documents for their current certification period. Members who are selected for an audit will not be able to auto-renew their membership until the auditing process is complete.

CCPA evaluates continuing education via the two following pathways:

The CEC program reviews a wide variety of professional events, including workshops, conferences, webinars, institutes and courses, and grants credit to those events that provide quality information for continued education.

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