Canadian Models of Professional Training: Past and Future

Public Significance Statement The profession has a responsibility to ensure that future generations of psychologists are trained to best meet the changing needs of Canadians. The aim of the National Summit on the Future of Professional Psychology Training was to craft a set of recommendations aimed at delivering on this important responsibility. This article places the National Summit in the historical context of training models in our profession and provides a series of strategies that current programs can use to advance the recommendations in their training of future psychologists. Models of training for professional psychologists in Canada have developed in uneven stages over the last 75 years. Our first national conference on models of training occurred more than a decade after the seminal U.S. meeting in Boulder, Colorado. In the 20th century, our only national conference with a primary focus on training was at Lake Couchiching, Ontario, in 1965. There have been national conferences where some of the proceedings focused on training, but most of the developments in our training models have resulted from developments in our accreditation standards and recommendations from the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Task Forces. It was not until the 2019 National Summit on the Future of Professional Psychology Training that the profession held another national conference with a specific focus on the future of professional psychology training in Canada. However, as with other national conferences, the challenge for our profession will be in the implementation of these recommendations. There are substantive barriers to their implementation, particularly for our training programs. Strategies suggested by Paul Meehl in 1964 for challenging the academic status quo to move forward with significant changes in training are reviewed with reference to the implementation of the National Summit recommendations. If psychology in Canada is to develop its models for professional training for the 21st century, then these types of challenges are necessary to force needed changes to occur.