CCAP (formerly CPADE) History

History

The Clinical Psychology: Applied Developmental Emphasis programme of graduate studies has followed its own unique developmental trajectory:In 1965, with the official founding of the University of Guelph, the Department of Psychology offered graduate training at the Master's level. The department's first chair was Dennis Stott, trained in England, and possessing an established record of publications and practice in the field of learning disabilities.

Professor Stott was the founder of the Centre for Learning Disabilities and played an important role in establishing the M.A. programme in Applied Child Psychology. Students with interests primarily in school-related problems were attracted to the programme. Most of these early graduates went on to careers in school-based departments of psychological services.

In the mid 1970's, the programme began to change emphasis. By this point, several of the founding members of the area had been replaced by a new cohort of faculty trained in clinical programmes with a strong emphasis in developmental psychology. This lead to a philosophical shift in the programme which now stressed the need to understand children's difficulties as grounded in the wider context of developmental processes.

As a result, the programme of studies was changed from a Master of Arts in Child Psychology to a M.A. in Applied Developmental Psychology. The course sequence was modified as courses in Applied Developmental Psychology, Ethics and an additional practicum in a noneducational setting was required. Many of the new graduates of this modified M.A. programme found employment in more community-based services that offered therapeutic intervention for a whole range of clinical populations, as well as in psychology departments within school boards.For the next fifteen years, much emphasis was placed upon building the professional character of the programme.

The curriculum again was modified to reflect the growth in scholarship in Applied Developmental Psychology. Many of the faculty were promoted through the ranks with their research emphasizing such diverse topics as reading and learning disabilities, shyness and parent- child interaction, the psychological effects of adoption, health and risk taking of young children, and autism and parental stress. Several of our students went on to receive a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from other universities and our graduates were consistently quickly employed in educational, hospital, and mental health settings. Our programme of studies in Applied Developmental Psychology was rated as "outstanding" and the "best Master's programme in the province" in a province-wide review of graduate programmes in Ontario.As a result of this public recognition, a new Ph.D. programme in Applied Developmental/Applied Social Psychology was approved by OCGS in the early 1990's. The nature of the Master's programme remained unchanged for both streams of the new doctoral programme. However, for the Ph.D. degree, students now took further courses in social psychology, multivariate analyses, social policy, and history and philosophy of psychology. All of the graduates in the developmental stream became registered as psychologists with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. Some found employment in university departments. However, a majority of the graduates worked with children and their families in hospital and community-based clinics and in educational settings. The combined Ph.D. programme in Applied Developmental/Applied Social Psychology attracted excellent students.

However, we soon came to recognize that by combining the two streams of studies, neither stream now had the flexibility to meet their separate and unique needs for professionalism. Students in Applied Developmental had aspirations to strengthen their clinical skills by participating in a formal internship. Those who pursued this option found their way to such settings as the Children's Hospital of British Columbia in Vancouver, the Children's Hospital in Calgary and The Child and Family Centre of McMaster Children's Hospital, Hamilton. Nevertheless, the message that internship applicants were receiving was that their applications were hindered by the fact that they were not coming from an accredited course of studies. To be eligible for accreditation, it was clear that we needed to be freed from the restraints of the combined programme.In 1996, the Department gained permission from the University to establish a clinic for the combined purpose of training our students and providing a service to children, adolescents and families within the wider community. The Centre for Psychological Training has become a mainstay of our tutelage. Until its formation, in-course clinical experiences were limited and aside from the cognitive assessment course, students only received direct clinical supervision in placements outside of the university. However, with an on-site clinic, we have been able to provide a range of learning experiences for our students from the shadowing of cases for our first semester students to supervised assessment, diagnosis and therapy for our senior students. The clinic also provides an on-going series of seminars of a clinical, professional and legal nature.The third influence on our current direction was the fact that graduates of the programme were proceeding to registration with the College of Psychologists of Ontario as clinical psychologists.

The College has laid out the requirements for registration and this has served as another source for shaping our new direction. Considering our programme of studies against the standards of the College, we added a graduate level course in neuropsychology, an advanced psychotherapy course and a seminar in diagnosis and assessment of pervasive developmental disabilities . In 2003 the Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph received permission from the OCGS to separate the Applied Developmental/Social Psychology Ph.D. programme into two separate graduate training programmes. Furthermore, recognizing our continued move toward professional clinical training, we were granted permission to offer a Ph.D. programme of studies in Clinical Psychology with an Applied Developmental Emphasis. This change acknowledged our continued commitment to grounding childhood clinical difficulties within a normative developmental model. It also allowed us to work toward a level of training that is commensurate with the best of professional clinical practice as reflected in the standards of the accreditation process.

In the Fall of 2003 the CP:ADE Area began the self-study process towards accreditation, and at its November 2005 meeting the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) newly accredited CP:ADE as a clinical psychology programme.In November 2008, the program was re-accredited through to the 2012-2013 academic year. We have always been proud of the training provided in this program, of the students within it, and of their accomplishments on internship and after graduation. Accreditation represents external recognition of the high quality of the program. We are pleased to be among other accredited programs in Canada in affirming these standards.