An Application of the Competency Model to Group-Specialty Practice.

Professional psychology has entered a new era of assessing education and training, practice standards and guidelines based on measuring professional competencies using benchmark documents and graphic three-dimensional cubes, which aspire to cover education at all developmental levels-undergraduate through advanced credentialing. Specialties in psychology, such as clinical health, forensic, or clinical child, are developing within this endeavor. Over one hundred years of history, research and practice inform one of those specialties: group. This paper identifies the group-specialty practice within both the competency and specialty movements by delineating competencies unique to group practice, as well as competencies common across all professional psychology foundational and functional domains appropriate for entry-level psychologists.