All right. So welcome everybody to our relational and psychotherapy training program information session here at the University of Guelph. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that the University of Guelph resides on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We recognize this gathering place where we work and learn is home to many past, present and future First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Our acknowledgement of the land is our declaration of our collective responsibility to this place, its people's histories, rights and presence. We support and add our collective voice to the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee on Indian Residential School. To never forget, to hold governments and colonial forces to account, to seek redress and healing for injustice. So again, for those of you who are just coming in, welcome to our information session. We're really excited to be sharing information about our programs with you today, and look forward to your applications in the coming weeks. If we could go to the next slide. So, to begin the session today, again, keep your cameras off, everything muted. We are going to be recording this and sharing the PowerPoint slides and the Q&A session with you afterwards. We'll distribute it when this is all done. We're going to be going over introductions, so introducing all of us at the outset. We're going to go over quickly an overview of our RPTP programs. So we've got two clinical based programs and one non clinical based professional course based programs, the Masters of Relational and Family Therapy, Masters of Psychotherapy and Master of Arts in Mental Health. Following an overview of the programs, we'll give you a little bit of information on the admission timeline and process for application to each of our programs. We will be holding a Q&A period and again, this will be–you'll be able to put your questions in our Q&A chat and we'll try to get to as many of them as we can before the end of the session and after that we will just have a quick wrap up and provide you with information in terms of steps moving forward. Alright, next slide please. So, introductions. Who am I? Welcome. I'm Doctor Tuuli Kukkonen. I use she/her pronouns and I'm the associate chair for the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition. I'm also faculty in FRAN and faculty within the RPTP program itself. I serve as the curriculum chair for our program and I'm also a licensed clinical psychologist. I'll let everybody else introduce themselves as well. So, next up, Kevin. Kevin, I think you're muted. Indeed, I turned my camera on but not not the other. Good morning, everybody. Really delighted to have you all here to this webinar. I am Kevin VanDerZwet Stafford. I use he/him pronouns. I am the director of clinical training for the relational psychotherapy training program and I serve as Co-director of the Maplewoods Center for Family Therapy and Child Psychology. Good morning everyone. My name is Emma Turner. My pronouns are she/her, and I'm the manager of clinical supervision for the relational and psychotherapy training program here at the University of Guelph. And we're so excited to have you all here. Welcome! Good morning everyone. My name is Melisse DeDobbeleer. My pronouns are she/her, they/them, and I'm a clinical supervisor and instructor for the relational psychotherapy and training program at the Maplewoods Centre. Good morning! My name is Carlie Pagens. I use she/her pronouns and I'm also a clinical supervisor and instructor here with the RPTP program. Amazing, thank you everybody. So to get us started, I'll just highlight briefly a little bit about our training program. So the RPTP program is continuing a rich 40-year history of systemic and relational therapy training at the University of Guelph. We have a strong and successful reputation for clinical training and excellence in providing community-based therapy services here within the Guelph community and also the larger sort of Southwestern Ontario area. Our focus within this program aligns with the university motto of 'improving life' through high standards of professionalism, ethical conduct with a dedication to diversity and learner centeredness for our students. We offer three distinctive professional course-based master's therapy programs. We have the master's of relational and family therapy, which is a clinical based program. We have the master's of psychotherapy, which is also a clinical program, and then the master of arts in mental health, which is a non clinical program. But again, it highlights that mental health and social, social justice focus to complement your existing careers. Next slide please. And I think I'm passing it off to Kevin here. Thanks, Tuuli. So the MRFT and MP programs will operate out of the Maplewood Center for Family Therapy and Child Psychology. This is a beautifully purpose built building that was built for us in 2021. It's a state-of-the-art facility and is the second largest community facing center at the University of Guelph. The center is also a bit of a model collaboration within the university between our program, RPTP and our colleagues in the clinical child and adolescent psychology program. There are some pictures of what the facility looks like inside. As I say, we're really proud of it. It's bright and spacious and quite lovely to be in. I'm going to go over the three programs in a bit of detail. I'm going to start with the Master of Relational and Family Therapy, the MRFT. This is a 2 year immersive clinical training program where students will learn to work with individuals, couples and families. It's a systemic and relationally focused program that integrates theory into clinical practice, which means that as you are learning ideas in theory, you're actually then being able to practice that with real clinical work. The MRFT is accredited by the Canadian Association for Couple and Family Therapy and is a recognized education, training and experience program by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, which is our regulating body under the Ministry of Health. In this program, students will have 6 practicums that are on site at the Maplewoods Center, one for each semester, and the practicums are opportunities to learn specific models or theoretical focuses to clinical practice and then again be able to take that learning and translate it into real clinical work. There are also 7 core academic courses that run alongside the 6 practicums. These include courses in such things as foundational ideas of therapy, research, ethics, gender and sexuality, sociocultural attunement and trauma and resilience informed practice. Students in the MRFT program will accumulate up to 450 direct client contact hours in person at the Maplewoods Center and virtually. You'll learn to do both and over 100 hours of supervision in and so when we talk about a direct client contact hours, that would be a student working directly with a client within the community. These are real people, real lives. So that would be one hour and then there would be have weekly supervision and accumulate up to 100 hours of supervision. And 40% of the direct client contact hours are what we call relational work, which means that there is more than one person in the room with the therapist at a time. This could be a couple, could be a throuple, could be a family, could be intergenerational folks, could be two siblings. We accept 12 students per year into the MRFT program. The program starts in the Spring semester, so the next starting in this program would be May of 2025 and applications are open as of August 12th of 2024. Graduates of our program qualify to register with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and in your last semester you would become a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and be ready to write the CRPO entry-to-practice exam and be on track to become a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist with the Canadian Association for Couple and Family Therapy. And the MRFT is one of our two clinical degrees. Sorry, next slide. The second clinical degree is a Master of Psychotherapy or MP and this is a 2 year immersive clinical training program working with individuals, couples and families. This program is a recognized education, training and experience program with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, again our regulating body, which comes under the Ministry of Health in Ontario. In this program, students will have two on site practicums at Maplewoods and similarly learning clinical models of therapy that are then applied directly or integrated directly with client work. Those occur in semesters 2 and 3. In addition to that, students will also have a full year, one year practicum placement at an external placement site and along with that one year practicum. Along with that placement sorry, is a one year practicum that is remote, synchronous and that will be in semesters 4 and 6. Again, like the MRFT program, there's the same 7 core academic courses, foundational ideas of therapy, research, ethics, gender and sexuality, sociocultural attunement, trauma, and resilience informed practice. The MRFT and MP students would take those seven core academic courses together. MP students will accumulate up to 350 direct client contact hours in person at the Maplewoods Centre, virtually through the Maplewoods Centre and at the externship placement site. And again, these are hours where the student intern is working directly with the client from the community and over 100 hours of clinical supervision. In the MP program we accept 12 students per year. This program also starts in the spring semester, so the next starting will be in May of 2025 and applications open August 12th, 2024. Graduates of the MP program again, will qualify to register with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario as a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), I have a hard time getting that out, and that will happen in the last semester. Additionally, one thing I want to add to this is that both the MRFT and MP students take a 2 semester, this is a course together, orientation course, it's a non credit course that will orient students to everything you need to know about working with clients, both in general as well as here at the Maplewoods Center. OK, the third degree. So those are the two clinical degrees. The third degree is their Master of Arts in Mental Health or MA.MH and we're particularly proud of this degree. This is a non clinical degree. It's a two year program, a course based master's, while it's a two year program, it could theoretically be done within 16 months. This is exclusively delivered through remote synchronous online learning and currently the majority of those courses are offered in the evening. It has a non clinical focus to gain mental health and social policy knowledge that people can apply to an existing career path, including such things as teaching, policing, human resources, social work, nursing, the list is actually quite, quite endless. We'll be accepting students for September of 2025. So that's this September. So again, that's different from the other two programs and applications are open August 12th of 2024. We will be accepting 25 students into this program. If there's sufficient volume, we could end up having a second cohort of students. Students in this course also take 7 core academic courses plus theoretical therapy models, social policy, and a 2 semester capstone project. The seven core academic courses are similar to those offered the MP and MRFT programs. So courses in foundational ideas, research, ethics, gender and sexuality, sociocultural attunement, trauma and resilience informed practice. But these are not geared toward therapy. They're geared to helping people–how to be able to talk about mental health in particularly in in the workplace. Before we go off that slide, again, I want to reiterate that this particular part of the program because it's designed for people in existing careers who want to upgrade or advance their knowledge of mental health and develop skills to talk about mental health with others. Again, this is not a clinical track program. This is not a route to the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. All right, so hi everyone. So I'm going to just again give a bit of an overview. I know that Kevin just shared some really important information there to distinguish the three programs. So we thought we would put together this chart to help kind of give you that overview, one shot, of everything of the three programs so that you have an understanding of which program is going to fit best for you when you are thinking about applying. So again, in that first column, we have the MRFT program. That program is again a clinical based program, meaning you will get experience working with clients directly, you will have supervision, you'll be integrating the theory that you are learning in in classes into your clinical work. It is a two year program and has a systemic relational focus to the work. It is also accredited by the CACFT and recognized by the CRPO. The students in the MRFT program will be in the program for two years straight. So that's six semesters back-to-back and all of your work will be done at the Maplewood Center, including the six practicums where you'll be learning and getting an in depth experience of each therapy model supported by the clinical work and the supervision you'll be doing. You'll be earning up to again, 450 direct client hours. As Kevin said, that means the time you are spending in front of a client. That's not the other pieces of administrative work, session writing notes, you know all that. Direct client hours are the time you spend with clients in the room together. And again, you will have up to 100 hours of supervision. We are now starting the applications for next spring semester, so May 2025. So your first year in the program, you'll be doing everything in person with respect to your classes. Your clinical work will be both in person and virtual, but your classes will all be in person here at the University of Guelph. And then in your second year, again, as Kevin said, the MRFT students and the MP students take courses together. But because the MP students in the second year do an externship, which might be somewhere else in Ontario, those Core 7 courses then take place online. All of your practicum course courses would continue to be in person though for the MRFT students. And then here we've laid out the requirements with respect to your application for. So it's a four year bachelor's degree with a minimum of 75% average. A social science research methods with minimum of 70% and that you are currently not a regulated health professional practicing psychotherapy or in a related field. So again, that's for the MRFT. For the MP, again it is another one of our clinical training programs, the integration of theory into clinical practice, working with clients. Again, it has some relational, systemic relational thinking, not as much as the MRFT program is not as much of a focus, but certainly is a part of the ways in which that we train our students. It is recognized by the CRPO and again I think one of the main differences between the MRFT and MP program is with the MP program, your first year is with us in person at the University of Guelph in the Maplewood Center. You will have two practicums with us, meaning that those courses are the courses where we teach you therapeutic models. You will have an opportunity to learn those models, apply those models in your work with clients. And then in your second year you will have a one year externship placement in a community based organization or a private practice clinic and we will support you in finding those placements. You don't have to find those placements on your own, we provide a lot of support in finding them for you and with you. We want to have a relationship with your practicum sites, with your supervisors there so we actually play a large role in building those partnerships and relationships. So when you are in your externship for that year, you will be taking a one year externship course, practicum course throughout that whole year as well you'll still have a few of those academic core courses that Kevin mentioned that you will take online with your MRFT colleagues, so you will all be online for those courses. It provides a little bit more flexibility for MP students when it comes to looking for an externship placement to be able to do the remaining parts of your coursework online. It is synchronous learning, so that means it will be at the same time with a live instructor. It's not a webinar that you watch later. In this program you will also earn up to 350 direct client hours. So again, that's time with clients and not spread out through your time at Maplewoods in that first year as well as during your externship. You will get the majority of your clinical hours during your externship placement as well as you will get up to 100 hours of supervision. Again, the new cohort coming through and the applications that are going to be opening are for this upcoming spring, so May of 2025. The MRFT and MP program start at the same time again because they take classes together. So you'll be a cohort of 24 in total, 12 in each program. Again, as I said with the MRFT, in your first year, all your classes will be in person and at Maple Woods on the University of Guelph campus, as well as seeing clients in the same center and that sort of thing. In your second year, all of your coursework moves to being online. It has the same requirements that the MRFT program has laid out with respect to the four year bachelor's degree, the social science research methods course and you cannot be a regulated health professional practicing psychotherapy. So then the third program, again, the MA.MH is our what we call our non clinical course based master's degree. And it's meant to support, as Kevin said, people who are in adjacent or related fields who are looking to understand or deepening their understanding of mental health to better support the work that maybe they're already doing, such as again, police, teachers, nursing, HR consultants, etcetera. This program can be taken over the course of two years. It could be completed as soon as 16 months. And again, it's meant to gain an understanding of mental health and social policy knowledge, so that you can apply it to a current and existing career. It's not associated, recognized, or accredited by any association or college, that includes the CACFT or the CRPO. There's no practicums. There's no direct client hours again, because it's not a clinical based program. And then the next cohort coming in for this program this program starts in September so it'd be September of 2025 is what this current application process would be for. This program is entirely online with a synchronous learning. So again, your courses would be at a certain time at a certain date with a live instructor and that they're the courses are primarily in the evening. So a lot of the folks who would apply to this program might have a full time job and therefore could do both in working towards this master's degree. For the requirements here again, it's a four year bachelor's degree, a social science research methods. However, in this program, you can be a regulated health professional, even one that is practicing psychotherapy, you can apply to this program. One important thing to note at the bottom is that there's no option to transfer between the programs and when you apply if you're interested in all three, you can apply to all three, but if you only apply to one, you're only going to be considered for that one program again, because there's no transferring between the programs. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about the admissions timeline for the program. So this one specifically is for the MRFT and MP programs. They have the same admissions timeline. So again, applications are going to open on August 12th, that's this coming Monday, and they're going to close on September 23rd. Part of the application process is the submission of your letter of interest, relevant experience, 3 references, and your transcripts. Now, to be specific, the letter of interest, we have laid out specific questions that we need you to answer. It's not an open forum for you just to share your interest in the program. There are actually specific questions we need you to answer as well as there is a word limit to each question. So we encourage you to be very thoughtful and concise with respect to your responses to those questions. And then as well as relevant experience, 3 references. We often ask for two academic, one professional. We've been open to looking at as well, two professional, 1 academic, but there needs to be a combination of those and your transcripts for your recent degree. And if you're, again, as I said, interested in both the MRFT and MP program, you must apply to both programs separately. We cannot consider one application for both. And certainly from our experience last year, several people up did apply to both programs and some people chose that they wanted to only apply to 1. So it is up to you, but if you are interested in both, you have to apply to both. So once the admissions committee has reviewed all of the admissions and your letters of interest and, and all that, if you were a successful candidate, you will be contacted for an invitation for an interview. We will notify you by November 4th if you've been a successful candidate at that point, again, we will provide the invitation to a live interview. Prior to the live interview, you will be asked to submit a brief video essay which is due on November 11th. And then you will have the live interview day which takes place during the week between November 18th and the 22nd. When we notify you that you've been invited to an interview, we will also indicate which day of the week that your interview is on and the time, etcetera. The interview day is kind of a full day in that there's multiple portions to it. The day starts off in the morning with a general information session about the program and the center. It gives you opportunity to ask any questions that you may have to some of the staff and faculty. Then you will meet with some staff and faculty on the admissions committee for a brief interview, emphasis on brief. And then at the end of the day have an opportunity to meet with some current students in the program. Again, an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the program, about their experience in the program to help you inform if this is feeling like a fit and knowing all the information that you need to know to make your decision as well. And then the last part is the acceptance process. So we would hope to let you know by the beginning of December if you were a successful candidate. And then again, as a reminder, the programs start both programs start on May 5th, 2025. So again, this is the process. There's information with respect to the application on the relational and psychotherapy training program website and how to apply and what that letter of interest of those questions entail, so we highly encourage you to take a look at that. Okay, and then the admissions timeline for the MA.MH program, again, it also opens on August 12th. So this coming Monday, it has a bit of a longer period of being open to admissions until March because it has that September start. For that admissions application process, again, there's a letter of interest and CV that you need to provide. There's two references and transcripts, so again, if you're interested in all three programs, you need to apply to each individually. However, there is an option, when applying to the MRFT MP program, there is an option on the letter of interest that if you wanted to be considered for the MA.MH program, if you were not selected for the MP or MRFT program, you could fill out that portion as well, which would help us indicate that you were interested in this program to help expedite that process as well. So that's something to consider too if you're filling out the applications for the MRFT and MP program. The acceptance process for the MA.MH program is throughout the month of April in 2025. Successful candidates will be notified by the RPTP admissions committee. So there's no interview process for the MA.MH program. And then again, the start date for that program is in September of 2025. Okay. With all that said, we've given you a lot of information and we're sure that you probably have some, maybe some questions for us and we're happy to answer them. If you do have questions, we ask that you put them into the Q&A function of the webinar. We have Carlie and Melisse who have been reviewing your questions and so they will read it out to us. We may not have a chance to get to all of your questions today. We're going to try, but we might not. And if we don't get to your question to be reassured that we will be providing the slides to today's presentation and we will be attaching a question and answer section where we will include all the questions with all the answers. So if we don't get to say it here in today's webinar, you will get you will get your answer in some form. So with that said, I'm going to stop sharing. And so again, if you can use the Q&A function and we'll open up to questions. So the Q&A has been quite busy and I'm going to summarize a few questions had sort of the same theme in regards to the time commitment on campus. So how many hours per week, is it expected are you on campus nine to five? Is there an evening component? And there was a question for people who were considering commuting to campus. So if you could expand a little bit on the time commitment on campus, evening, that that sort of thing, please. Those are really great questions. Can I just jump in for a second and ask that everybody who's typing questions in the chat, can you please put them in the Q&A section? I see a number of questions coming up in the chat. Sorry about that. So first of all, the MRFT and MP programs are immersive or intensive programs. These are professional training programs. This is not your typical graduate program. So the expectation, the commitment that we require for people is quite different than what you may consider for other graduate programs or perhaps have experienced in in your undergraduate. So in terms of our commitments, you can expect to spend between 50 and 60 hours a week doing things like being in class, in supervision, preparing for file meetings, preparing assignments and so on, client work, documentation, course assignments, preparation ad hoc and so on. So that is quite a commitment. The center closes for two weeks between every semester. So we have a break in December over the new year, we have a, we have a break in the spring and we have another break in in August. Those are times when there's no expectations and people can do their, their own thing. So just by way of example, for the first semester of our program, students were here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and those were all required times they were here. In addition to that, there were additional meetings, sometimes one meeting on one day and, that ran for the, for the whole semester. By way of example, again in the fall semester, which is the second semester, students will begin to do clinical work. So students will be expected to be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They're then adding to that supervision. They're then adding to that clinical work, which will be daytime and evening. We're also open Friday during the day. We're open 4 evenings for clinical work. Classes or supervision could start as early as 8:30 in the morning. Our last client ends at 8:30 in the evening. So that is quite a significant time commitment. The MP students will do that for two semesters. The MRFT students will do that for all six semesters. The MP students will then do their external placement, wherever that might be. That in terms of commuting, that may be closer to where somebody is. And then the courses are remote, synchronous. Whereas for the MRFT students that continues to be a very high expectation that people are on site. So in terms of commuting, what our experience has been that if you're commuting, it depends on the mode of commuting, it depends on how far you're commuting. But our experience in general is that a commute of over an hour, there's a point to which that becomes onerous for people to do the commute, navigate weather as well as make their commitments to clients, supervision and coursework. There's a bit of a reoccurring thread around the differences between the programs. You know, how does that impact career possibilities? Are there different things you're looking for in the two programs? Or how should people know which one, you know, might fit for them values wise as well as, you know, the things that they should include differently in their letters of interest between the two? So this is a really great question. So we think about it this way, that all of our three programs have a systemic relational influence. This is the umbrella under which we teach everything, the MRFT has a richer exposure to relational systemic ideas and so that people can become accredited with a CACFT. MP students have exposure to systemic relational ideas, but don't become qualified for CACFT. I think one of the significant differences and I mean, you can add to this is the MRFT students come and they do all their clinical work on site at Maplewoods or through Maplewoods virtually. It's all about working with individuals, couples and families and become a really strong foundation as a generalist practitioner and, really skillful at a number of strength based collaborative models of therapy. Very, very, very solid training. The MP program does 2 semesters of that. But then there's the opportunity to go and do an externship placement where really the Sky's the limit on where somebody could go. It could be to a private practice setting, it could be to an agency setting. Somebody might have a specific interest in addictions and we can find an addictions place, could be a hospital setting, could be a community based counseling program or working with people who have housing challenges. So the breadth of places people could have an experience where they're focusing more in terms of an interest is actually a really exciting component of that program. Emma, would you have anything to add to that? No, I think that you answered that well again. Yeah, I think that I would say that the, I think you're going to get a really solid training and in both programs. So I can see how that might be challenging to figure out which one to apply to. I do think that in the MRFT program and working with clients who come to the Maplewoods Center, you're going to get a pretty wide variety of people and you know, concerns that they're coming to therapy with different systems of families and couples and relational work, individuals, children, adults, a very wide range. You could as well experience that it for an MP program for MP student who's going to do an externship. You could also be working in a space that also has a wide diversity of clients accessing services. Or you again could have someone who wants to really sink their experience into working with a particular population or a particular way of working. That we would help support you to find. I have met with all of our current MP students this semester and got to know them a little bit and what their interests are, and it's been really exciting to go out and try and find externship placements that would fit what their interests are. I can't make any promises or guarantees, but I am certainly trying my best. But yeah, I think that's one of the main differences with respect to I think Carlie, you said that there was an also an aspect people were asking around what how to differentiate their applications for each program. I don't know Kevin, if you have a specific answer for that. So I would encourage people to apply if they have an interest in both programs to apply to both programs. I think that's a really smart thing to do. In terms of value difference between the two programs, there isn't really a value difference. The values in terms of professional ethics and standards of practice, systemic thinking and ideas, these are the core values producing a really solid condition. These are the core values that we that we hold. So I think you would want to tailor them a bit to the different focuses that we have spoken about this idea that the MP has an externship, If you were to do that, what kind of placement would interest you, that kind of thing? If your, your obligation to the MRFT is really about wanting to immerse yourself in systemic relational ideas and why do you think that's important? How do you imagine that being helpful to you? Could I just add to that with the MP program, I think one of the exciting opportunities that some students might have is if you do live further away and you'd like to go back to your home community or you'd like to be a bit more remote then the MP offers this fantastic option of coming to Guelph for the first year. And then you get to go have your placement somewhere that might be very personally meaningful for you or somewhere that you wouldn't be able to access if you were doing the MRFT that has to be sort of based and situated within Guelph. That's a great distinction, Tuuli. And with that, what we can't promise this, but let's say you lived in Halifax, there is the possibility that we could find an externship placement for you in or closer to Halifax or your home place. Again, we can't promise those things, but that is the intent behind the design of the MP program. And one of the questions was, do the MP externships need to be in Ontario? And it sounds, Kevin, like you're saying they might not need to be. No, they don't. They do need to be in Canada. Thanks, Kevin. So there is another theme in regards to the application process of what key points or values or experiences will you be looking for in that supplemental application package. What are you listening for? What are you looking for in students for both programs? It's a great question. We are looking for - this is a unique program and people don't really get that until they're here. We are not just interested in grades. We're not just interested in your CV and all the things you've done before. We are interested in you as a person and we think kind of holistically you as a person and how you manage yourself in your life, you as a person and how you engage in in academics and what is your work ethic and that kind of thing. And you as a person in terms of what is your vision for what you want this to do with this program in this training that we're going to provide to you. There was a question I noted that asked, you know, what do we emphasize more academics or letter of intent? And yes, academics are going to get your application into the door and as well as the other requirements, you have to meet those base requirements to be able to get into the door. But we review every application regardless of what the GPA is and we actually value the letter of intent. And the video, those are the two things and the interview, those are three things. Sorry, those are the three things that we really look at. Those are the three things that are going to get you in. I would also add that there's no like specific checklist of your letter of - I mean, we have a form that you have to fill out and, and questions you have to answer, but we're not, we don't have a checklist. If you need to mention this and this and this like it really is again about this holistic experience. What would you bring to the program and what can we provide for you in terms of your training and how will this enrich your life? So, you know, I think that's the beauty of the applications that we had this year is that each one was unique and stood out in its own way. There wasn't a common, you know, like everybody answered this question in a particular way. There are a few questions that are specific and might be better like answered in the follow up around, you know, this course or you know, specifics there. But maybe a more general question is, is there a research component or can there be a research component? And would this open a path towards a PhD? I can answer that question. So there is no research component. This is not meant to be a stepping stone into a research based PhD program. You will get experience in terms of your coursework in understanding the importance of research and how research can inform clinical practice. But we do not have any formal setup for research support for the students in this program. It really is clinically based or course based for that MA.MH. Yeah, I'll just add to that too, is that these are professional master's degrees, which is a bit different from maybe a traditional master's degree, a master's in arts or science where you have you write a thesis, you do research. This is considered a professional master's degree. So we are training you to become a psychotherapist and that is the focus is the clinical work. I would also add that we do have, I mean, within the family relations and applied nutrition department, we do have MSc thesis options. So we do have thesis based master's and PhD program within our department. They're just completely separate from these professional degrees. So again, there's some very specific questions around sort of undergraduate degree pathways. But I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about maybe some of the undergraduate degrees that your students have come from to come into the different master's programs. Can you do that? Sorry, did you say me or Tuuli? Either of you. Tuuli, can you do it? Yeah, I'm just trying to recall from the from the last application cohort, we certainly have students who've come from more traditional backgrounds like psychology or I can't remember if we had any bachelor's of social work. They're science based students. We've had students who've had chemistry backgrounds or biology backgrounds who've opted to, you know, enrich their training with therapy. So I think it is pretty varied and we're fairly flexible in that we appreciate a number of different learning pathways towards this therapy degree. We just do need that basic, you know, that basic GPA to get in. And then also some experience with the research based, undergraduate course, social science undergraduate course. I don't know if Emma, you wanted to add a bit more to that? I would add to that that we're really open to a great range of degrees. A number of years ago we had people apply who were from the arts and drama. We had some people apply who were chefs and so on. So I mean, these are really interesting applicants. And I think to Tuuli's point, provided you were meeting the basic requirements and the summary that Emma put out. So if you come from a non traditional degree, you've got a degree in drama, say, and you really want to do this, then maybe you find somewhere to take a social science research methods course, you get your 70% and that's going to make you good to go. And I'll just add too. I think that it's been, it's, I think really enriched the learning experience for everyone. When people have different education backgrounds and also different career backgrounds. We have many people in the program and historically been in the program where this has been, this is kind of a second or even third career for them. And they've come from careers that are quite unrelated to, to therapy. So it, and I think it does enrich the experience of the students and the instructors as well to have people who bring those different perspectives. We've had people with careers in sociology, anthropology, social work, lawyers, graphic designers, people in the food service industry, nursing, it’s really quite a wide range. Yeah, we have some questions around therapeutic models or approaches that are focused on in the program. So as I noted earlier, our primary lens through which we teach everything is systemic relational ideas, which are, you know, systemic relations really theory that takes into account sort of the complex social culture, geopolitical context and environments in which we all live and the ways in which we influence or more likely are influenced by the complexity of those environments and external systems. So this this idea that how we relate to others is more than who we are as an individual person. Beyond that, we teach the what we think of as the strengths based collaborative models of therapy. These would include things like dialogic solution focused narrative practice. We'll also introduce people to some other traditional therapy ideas, CBT, DBT, but we're really training to and teaching the three models they taught and then creating an opportunity between the MRFT program for people to integrate those models. So we don't teach those models in a pure sense. We teach them in terms of the ways in which they complement one another and how they fit as collaborative practice. So we're working with the client collaboratively to understand the client's situation, to make meaning out of their life and the problem and what they would like for themselves, how they would like their lives to be different or their preferred selves. As well as accessing the resources and strengths within a person to be able to address the various challenges that they are facing. And can you clarify if the students have had to completed their undergraduate degree before applying? I can take that bit. I think there was a question whether if they're graduating just before starting the program, you have to have graduated when you start the program. So we can accept your application if you're in your final semester of your undergraduate degree, but it would be a provisional. If you end up being accepted to the program, it's a provisional acceptance until you provide proof that you've actually received your undergraduate degree. Emma, do you have some examples of the kind of placements? And the question is where have MP students done their externships? I know they haven't started yet, but you've also been working on it. Do you some examples of the types of places people are going to be heading out to? Yeah, definitely. So this year is the first year that we've we have, we're doing the relational and psychotherapy training program. So I'm currently right now working with the first cohort of MP students and have been building partnerships and relationships with people in the community. So for example, some of the placements that I've been able to secure so far, a few of them are community based organizations located in the Guelph Waterloo area, as well as some in Toronto. I've also been able to connect with several private practice clinics. So this would be kind of group practices made-up of psychotherapist and social workers who are providing a private practice psychotherapy services to individuals, couples and families. Some of these private practice clinics have been like, they sometimes have some specialization, like one that I've connected with, works more with like children and families, which was of interest to one of the MP students in particular. I've also been connecting with - it hasn't fully panned out quite yet, I'm still in conversation. But you know what, I remember one of our MP students spoke to me about wanting to work with folks who are experiencing addiction, but also the intersection of that with respect to the LGBTQ community. And so I found an organization in Toronto that does a lot of that work. And I've been in conversation with them to see what is feasible and possible there for an externship to happen there. So again, I've been really working hard at tailoring these opportunities to what the students have been have been telling me that they're interested in. That being said, I've also made it very clear to the MP students as well that there's a couple things that are really important to me with respect to their learning experience. I don't want to drop them off at just someplace where they're not going to get their hours, they're not going to get the supervision they need and the support they need. So for me, it could be, it could sound like a really great fit with what that placement can offer on paper. But if there is not a qualified registered psychotherapist who can be a supervisor as a part of that organization for that student, then that that automatically makes it not possible. As well as I want to ensure that those placements, those sites can provide the students with the required number of direct clinical hours there. We say up to 350 for the entire time that the MP students are in the program. It works out to about that means about 270 of those hours are during your externship placement. And we also think it's really important that you are getting a consistent amount of a clinical experience. You're not going to be able to integrate what you're learning the theories if you're only seeing one client a week, for example. So we really want to make sure that you have the opportunity to practice what you're learning. And, and so that's another thing that I want to ensure when I'm looking at externship sites. So again, it could look really good on paper if it could feel like wow, this, this checks a lot of boxes. But if the supervision isn't there and the clinical experience isn't there, then unfortunately to me, that's not an appropriate fit and we need to find somewhere else. And so that's the work I've been doing in collaboration with the MP students. And that's the work I would continue to do with the new, the new cohort of MP students as well. I hope that answers the question. And can you clarify the live interview day, is it completely virtual or is it partly in person? The live interview day is virtual. We would welcome, you know, students who are accepted for the live interview, we would welcome you to come and visit the center sometime so you can get a physically an idea of where we are in our facility and so on. There was a follow up question to an earlier question around those 50 to 60 hours a week. Are those all in person at the clinic? You know, is there a portion that can be done at home? What's the balance there? So there is a portion that can be done at home. But again, I think we so students will do some clinical work, which can be done remotely at home. We can also do you know course assignments and so on. You can do those at home. So there's flexibility in what can be done at home, but that doesn't negate the need to physically be on site probably at least 3-4 days a week. And when you're seeing clients to be here in the evenings as well. Again, this speaks to the immersive and intensiveness of this professional training program. We are producing a really high quality psychotherapist and that takes a certain degree of immersion and commitment. So there's been a few questions around professional and academic references for people who might have been working for a while or for people who work in a different field other than the social or human service fields. If you could elaborate maybe a little bit on a professional in the social or human service fields, would, for instance, a volunteer position meet that requirement? Or if you could comment a little bit more on that, please. I would say for those professional references, you really want someone who can speak to who you are as a person, your work ethic, your sense of self, your ability to work with others and your suitability for this program. It's less concerning to me who that person is. Can that person speak to those things about you? I'm just scrolling through the Q&A, it looks like we've got to most of them. Maybe if participants have a question they feel like wasn't answered, if they wanna pop that back in. I can answer one about OSAP, that we are OSAP eligible. So you can definitely apply to OSAP and we do have a few scholarships for students. So I can try and put a link to the scholarships in maybe in the chat, because I think everybody seems to be able to see the chat and we can also include it when we provide the slides as well. Absolutely. So maybe while we're waiting, if there's another question, let me just speak to a couple of other things. There's a handful, but yeah, OK, So I'll speak quickly then. I just want to revisit the, the clinical work. So in the clinical work we do at Maplewoods, through Maplewoods in person and virtually is with real people. These are our community based clients, couples, individuals, as Emma spoke with a wide range of presenting issues and challenges. We're known for our work with the LGBTQ community. We're known for our work with helping people to really manage angst and anxiety and those kinds of things, and that all sessions are video recorded and those video recordings are used as part of supervision. Not an evaluative component that we're going to in a judge evaluative component, but the opportunity for you to bring your work, speak with a colleague, speak with your supervisor about what's gone well, what could you do differently and so on. This is one of the jewels in the crown of this program that's not found in many other programs since we, actually get you get to review your work. We get to review your work with you and that is a really, really strong part. We also do what we call live reflecting teams where a student will bring a client in, there'll be a team behind the one way mirror. The client and therapist will do some work for about half an hour, 40 minutes, then they'll switch places. It's a chance for the team to provide strength based observations about the client of the situation being presented and so on. These are really powerful things. Again, this is a unique opportunity that our program is one of the few programs that actually provide that. If someone has multiple degrees, do you want all of their transcripts or just one, like the most recent for example? You're muted, Tuuli. I think we're looking for the most recent degree, but if you took a sort of social scientist degree earlier on that has the research methods on it, please, you know, make sure you include that one as well. The next question was around volunteer work. And so to say to the last webinar you did, discussions around volunteer work was quite open-ended, but there is not any information about what would be considered competitive admissions wise. Can you get some examples about what would make a competitive application in terms of volunteer work? Not really sure I understand the question in terms of "competitive." Emma, do you want to take a crack? Yeah, I'll take a crack and if you want to add to it. I think when I think about the volunteer experience or your relevant experience is the question on the application. When I think about relevant experience, I think about how can you demonstrate to us that you have experience in working with other people and in being able to be a compassionate person, an understanding person to somebody else. Some people, they are camp counselors. That's their way of showing up with other people. And it required lots of different things from them that showed us that their, their ability to be with others, to be a support to others. Some people have kind of more, I would say, you know, a more direct connection to mental health and that they they've did a volunteer work with Kids Help Phone and the crisis supports that they offer. For me, either way, there's a way of demonstrating your ability to be with other people and support other people, interact with other people that I think is important. And so Kevin, did you want to add anything to that? I’ll just add that really it's the totality of the package. So everything you write down that that sort of gets you to the interview and the video submission, but it's the totality of your package that is what we look for. One quick question for the application process, is the 75% a weighted average or is it the last two years? Tuuli, are you still there? I actually I think it's a weighted average over the last two years, that's typically what's done. A logistical application question, do applications close after a certain amount of applications are received or will it be open the entire time? The entire time, yes. Is there a deadline to reply to acceptances? So what we do is we review all the applications and we do similar to what we did last year. We narrow it to 40 applicants between the MRFT and the MP program and then we select our 24 out of that then we make a wait list. And typically what happens is we send out offers, we actually make recommendations for offers. It's the university that actually sends the formal offer out. If you're not accepted, those go out at a later date. But we want to make sure we've got our full complement of students before we actually send out declining letters. So it's also not unusual that, you know, people apply and then put on a wait list and then it's, you know, it's last minute or it's two months later and you're getting a call saying, hey, you are on. I'm an example of a wait list. I was put on the wait list when– I'm a graduate of this program, so is Emma, and I was put on the wait list and I was called, I think a week before the semester started, so those things actually happened. I think we've covered a lot of the questions, or a lot of the other questions are very specific. Unless there's other questions people want to bring forward. Are there any themes to some of even the specific questions people are asking, or is it widespread? There is a thing around people–like this curiosity around the interview process and how do we prepare it, and what do you want? If there's tips that you can share. Yeah, you can't prepare for it, that's what I'll say, which I know is anxiety provoking. But what I will say, and Kevin, feel free to add is every stage of the admissions process has an intention behind it to see different and understand, to get to know different parts of you. And the interview is a way for us to get to know you. Kevin, would you add anything to that? I would just add again, I come back to what I said about, you know, the holistic, we're interested in the, the wholeness of you as a person. That the practice of therapy is an interface between the person and the professional. How our personal lives impact our professional selves and how our professional selves impact our personal lives. And there's lots of this that you can't prepare for. And in some ways, we don't want you to prepare. We want you to be yourself. So please don't prepare for it. Just be there and be present and be yourself. There are a lot of specific questions around people's individual circumstances with their undergraduate or graduate degrees and applications. So that would be specific responses from Tuuli. Yeah, and I think too that we'll be providing– I'll show the last slide with additional information or next steps. But Shauna, who's not here today, is our Relational and Psychotherapy Training Program department admin person, and she's really great at answering these questions too. So we'll be providing her email address for you to be able to reach out and ask those specific questions with regard to your application. I see, there's a question about somebody who's saying, in terms of volunteering, can I continue with a project at another university I've been working on in my undergraduate, can I continue that when I'm in the MP program? I think this raises a really great question. And it's difficult for us to sort of say, you know, I mean, we talk about this as an immersive, intensive program. And as much as I say that, I'm not sure that the meaning of that always comes down. And while I understand people may need to commute, there's real financial realities around that in terms of housing and so on, availability, cost to housing, these are challenges. I get that people may need to continue to work. These are the real, again, financial constraints for people and so on. And wanting to continue a project or volunteering that you've done before, these all sound like lovely things. There's only so much that can be done in a day, in a week, in a semester. And the commitment to be here is significant. And it is the students that have commuted, students that hold down part time jobs, students that have other activities they want to pursue in addition to this, have found it very difficult to continue to manage that as the program unfolds. I know that's not a particularly popular answer, but there's actually a reality to that as well. We used to say in this program, and we kind of got told not to say this. So here I'm back saying it, you kind of need to be prepared to put your life on hold for a couple of years while you really absorb yourself into this training. And I know that's a hard thing to say, but in many ways, that's sort of what's required. Kevin, will the slides as well as the video from today be posted online, so students can access both on our website? Yes, so the recording from today will be available, and we will be providing the slides we showed today, in addition to, we will be adding the questions with the answers to them as well. Any other questions that folks want to put in the Q&A? One just popped up about the acceptance application rate to the MRFT and the MP program. So for the interview day/interview process, again, we invite about 40 to 42 people to that process. And then out of that group we select 24. So 12 for the MRFT, 12 to the MP. Last admissions round we had over 300 applications. So I don't know what the math is exactly on that ratio, but it gives you an idea. Now some of those applications were the same person applying to both the MRFT and MP program. So, but it's still a significant number of people were applying. Here's a question about students who are parents or is that where you're going? Sorry, sorry, I just saw it pop up. Yes, we do have students who are parents, of young children of older children of all kinds of children. And we have quite an age range of, we have students who are fairly fresh from their undergraduate degree and we have, as Emma noted earlier, we have students who this is their second career. Looks like we may be complete with questions. I just saw someone ask as well. I'm just kinda skimming through Applications open–the day that you can start submitting your application is on Monday, August 12th, is when it opens. That then closes on September 23rd. You do have a bit of wiggle room after the 23rd to submit your supplementary documents, but you have to have submitted or registered with OUAC that you are applying before September 23rd and then you have I think a week, maybe two weeks you have up until October 7th to get all your documents in. So that might be your references to submit those. Sometimes it takes some time to reach out to the person that you're asking the reference from to complete that portion. So it gives some time for that. But we really recommend like if you're thinking of applying to this program, it would be good to start reaching out to people now to who you would like to be your reference. In terms of the application, make sure you've submitted all parts of the application and that you have answered every question because partial submissions will not be accepted. The courses–oh, go ahead Carlie. It's probably the same, the question about are courses pre-scheduled or can they choose their class times? Yeah, so they are pre-scheduled because these are smaller classes. They are not, there's not multiple sections to your classes. It is specific and only for our program, your courses, they are only at one time and we select when that time is. So there isn't flexibility there around when your classes are. Things like supervision changes from semester to semester and that time is provided to you. And there's not often room to negotiate those either. So by way of example, students found out last week who the supervisor is for the fall and when their supervision will be. And those are set. Yeah, scheduling sessions with your clients, there's a little more flexibility there with respect to your availability, the client's availability and within the operation hours of the Maplewoods Center. So you can kind of schedule around your classes and your supervision. Some people kind of organize themselves in a way of, you know, if they don't have any clients who need to be seen, let's say on Thursday evenings, then they kind of block off Thursday evenings, but they're available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday evenings, for example, or something like that. I know in a previous cohort, one of the students who is a parent who had young children, you know, she decided for herself and again organized herself with her clients that she needed to be home for dinner with her kids on Mondays and Wednesdays, but could work later on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So there is some flexibility there with respect to when you schedule your clients as long as you're meeting the needs of the clients. A question came in about references. Do you do reference checks or do the references provide letters? There's standard form the university provides that can be submitted to references and then references submit those directly to the university. We do not reach out directly to references. I'm just going to share the last slide of the of the presentation. Again, as I said, there's multiple pieces of information here. So again, the RPTP program itself has a landing page, a main home page, I suppose a better way to say it. And that's that link there. And then each program has their own website as well. So if you're, if you feel that you're specifically interested in one program in particular, you can find more information on each one of those pages. As I said, you can reach out to Shauna at rptp@uoguelph.ca. If you have specific questions around, if you meet the requirements of the application process, especially with respect to the academic pieces, you can send her an e-mail there and we can answer your specific, your needs there as well. There were a couple of questions that just came in, one who was reposted about being a current regulated health professional. So just to clarify, a community nurse. So if you're a nurse, provided you have not provided or have had access to the controlled act of psychotherapy, you could apply to the MRFT and MP programs. If you have been practicing the profession psychotherapy, of social work or psychology, then you are likely not eligible to apply for the MRFT or MP programs. You could apply for the MA.MH program but the question about a community nurse who works and takes care of vulnerable populations. Without knowing more my guess is that would likely be an eligible person to apply. The other question is I'll just reiterate this. Is there specific philosophical school of thought that underpins the development of academic content? So again, we teach through a lens of systemic relational practice, that’s our overarching philosophy, family systems theory, if somebody wants to go look it up. And we teach to the strength based collaborative client centered therapies such as narrative, solution focused, dialogic and integrated practice. Any other questions? I just see a question here too about how to submit the video essay. So when you're invited to participate in the interview day, we will provide very clear and explicit instructions on what the video essay is about, how to submit it. And we provided a link that is secure that you can provide the link there, but that again, you only get that information if you're invited to the interview. Is there a page limit for the CV, resume, relevant experience? Someone said, you know, generally this is, you know, up to two pages. Do you have a page limit here? There is a word limit. I believe the collective word limit is 1000 words for the questions. I think that is separate from the relevant experience. Yes, I think it is. I think the relevant experience, yeah, it's separate from the other questions in the letter of intent. I don't think though there's a limit with respect to the relevant experience pieces, but we do - it does clearly layout what information we want to know about your relevant experience. So it's a bit different from just giving us your resume or CV. We actually want you to pull information, perhaps that would be typically in your resume or CV and put it into the form and be able to speak to all the elements that we lay out with respect to what we want to know about your relevant experience. Yeah, you’re not actually required to provide a CV. If you did provide a CV, we'd probably only look at the relevant experience part of it. There's a question now about pursuing this as a second career. Does the age of experience in reference have a significant impact on consideration? I would say that it is certainly something we would consider. It would depend on what the experience is and how long somebody's been doing it. That would be as I say that would be a contributor to it. It's a total package. We need to keep reiterating this, it is a total package. There's one in the chat here that's just asking if there's any specific qualities that references should speak to. Again, I think as Kevin said earlier was just around can they speak to who you are, you know, as a person? Can they speak to your work ethic? Can they speak to your ability to work with others and support others? And can they speak highly of you? Like we want We want you to pop off the page in the way that they talk about you. You know, and so this person really needs to know you. It's hard to get a read on who you are if it's an instructor that you had maybe 10 years ago for that one class of 400 students and that they marked maybe a couple assignments that you wrote like that person might not really know you. You know, in a way that someone who you maybe worked closely with, someone who supervised your work, worked collaboratively with you, that sort of thing. So someone who knows you, who can really speak to who you are, your work and your ability to show up with others. So information about the application with respect to kind of the word limit. So there is a form. So it's a PDF form that you fill out and it's very clear. So you can see that it's on the website. Two professional references and one academic reference would be fine. So yeah, either two academic, one professional, or two professional, one academic, but it can't be three academic and it can't be three professional. It's got to be a mix. Any other questions? Again, you're more than welcome to–I'll put up the slide again. You know, you can e-mail the program, you know, to Shauna specifically. But of course, if Shauna feels like she can't answer the question, she's very quick to reach out to Kevin and I and our team. So we will get those questions answered for you. So your best bet would be either to first check out the websites to see if they have your answers or if you don't feel that they do, please feel free to e-mail us and we will ensure to get those answers for you. Question about what is the culture like among students and teaching staff in the cohort? So I answer that in two ways. One students were asked a similar question recently and some of the answers that they said were they were they were surprised by the community that was developed here, the sense of collegiality and so on. As a staff and faculty, we work collaboratively together and we don't just teach collaboration as a therapy practice. We practice it among ourselves and we practice it with students. That's really isomorphic to what we do. We talk about this and when students come, they're really kind of surprised that we actually do what we say we do. And that starts right from the application process is what I heard from some students who are currently in the program. Just a noticing of the types of questions we ask really highlights what our values are. And then when they came into the program to see those values are really come to life and in their experience and interactions with the instructors and faculty. And that I think another theme I've heard so far with this current cohort is that they feel incredibly supported by us. That even when they're feeling nervous or unsure or have a question, that there's always someone who is very happy to support them answer their question and provide some guidance. So yeah, that's what I would add to that. I would also add too, that, our team, we, we are very passionate about this work. We're very passionate about the work of being a therapist, but also very passionate about teaching, about supervision, about how to encourage who you are as a person to come out in who you're developing as a therapist. And we're not here to create cookie cutter versions of us as therapists in you. We want actually you to come out and be yourself, but in a supportive way in how you are as a therapist. That's really, really important to us. And, and I think that that also shows in the way we show up with students and the ways in which we support them. Does the relationship with the centre and program extend beyond graduation? Absolutely. We have long standing relationships with people who have graduated recently, many years ago. There are four staff and faculty, supervisors and faculty here who are graduates of this program. These have been really, really great questions. We’ve appreciated them. Again, here are the next steps. And if there are no more questions, I think we'll bring this to a close and we look forward to seeing most of, if not all of your applications.