Education & Training

Please review the CPCA Continuing Education and Professional Development Guidelines to understand the requirements for your CE to be approved.

All CPCA full members (RMHC, RPC, MPCC, and RQS) need to fulfill a minimum of 12 hours of continuing education (CE) annually in fulfillment of renewal requirements. This CE should be entered into the member dashboard as it takes place throughout the year and is required prior to renewal each year. 

This CE requirement does not apply to members who hold a provisional designation. Any CE a provisional member obtains is submitted to their supervisor and is recorded as currency hours. 

However for all CPCA full members (RMHC, RPC, MPCC, and RQS), Continuing Education needs to meet the following 6 Criteria: 

CRITERIA 1:  CE is a training experience, whether (a) in-person or online, whether (b) by oneself or with a group, whether (c) live or previously recorded. Previously recorded training must meet criteria 6 below.

CRITERIA 2:  CE must be educational, expanding your clinical knowledge and skills to better serve your clients - learning or instruction in counselling, counselling psychology, psychology, psychotherapy theory and/or research, therapeutic modalities, clinical techniques, interventions, strategies for implementation in the therapy session, structured program for certification in a therapeutic specialty (e.g., EMDR, DBT, EFT, Sandtray, etc.), and professionally relevant development-of-self specific to authentic and effective engagement in providing mental health services.  Marketing, business training, building a business training, or web page design type courses do not apply. 

CRITERIA 3:  CE must come from an individual who has the appropriate training, experience, and expertise to do the training: (a) a master's degree or equivalency, (b) a minimum of 5 years of clinical experience, (c) in good standing with their credentialing professional association, and (d) holds an appropriate title.

CRITERIA 4:  CE must be within a counselling scope of practice or aligned to an approved counselling approach. The CE must not be outside of either the CPCA Counselling Scopes of Practice (such as Yoga, Reiki, Energy Therapy, Nutrition, Herbal Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage, etc.). To see a full list of approved counselling modalities, go to your member dashboard and click on Counselling Approaches. 

CRITERIA 5:  CE needs to align with the CPCA Counselling Core Competencies. Taking a course in marketing, building a business, web page design, or a computer course does not apply. 

CRITERIA 6:  CE must be approved, signed off, or certified by the trainer offering the CE, verifying successful completion of the CE. Many times a certificate is granted to attest to the successful completion of the CE. If not, you can request a letter or have them sign off on your documentation verifying your successful completion of the CE, or use a Continuing Education Record Form. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Keep a copy of all CE Certificates of completion for your records.  These records are required upon an annual random file audit.   

Other Important documents regarding training and CE requirements:

List of Some Training Options Specific to Becoming a Counselling Supervisor

List of CPCA Approved Education Programs for Foundational Counselling Training