Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes (APTI)

1. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes (APTI) Development Process 2006-2008 Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

2. Purpose • The Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes consists of twenty psychotherapy training institutions, collaboratively responding to the Ontario Psychotherapy Act (2007) which regulates psychotherapy as a distinct profession and creates a College of Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists.”. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

3. Curriculum • One of the first actions of APTI was to draft an entry-level curriculum, formulated to offer “high minimum standards of practice” qualification. • June 27, 2006, Linda Page (President of Adler Professional Schools) submitted a draft of this proposed curriculum to the MOHLTC. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

4. Review of Health Professionals Regulatory Advisory Council (HPRAC), New Directions Document • Proposed curriculum grounded in the recommendations of New Directions.  • New Directions recognizes the independent nature of psychotherapy, the diversity of its modalities, and the need to train specifically in psychotherapy and in the modality to be practiced.  Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

5. New Directions Document (cont’d) • New Directions noted the necessity both for a common body of knowledge (nonexistent in any accessible form until APTI brought the various contributors together) and for experiential training in the modality chosen. • New Directions also proposed the need for equivalencies, grand-parenting and ongoing professional development, effectively inviting the creation of APTI. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

6. Draft Curriculum • On April 14, 2007, APTI submitted a more fully developed draft curriculum within a long explanatory brief to the Social Policy Committee of the Ontario Legislature. • The curriculum is a major work of collaboration, representing evidence of the maturity of self-regulation of psychotherapy in Ontario. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

7. Professional Representation • APTI represents a collaborative network of teaching and training institutes. • Psychotherapy is well placed for interprofessional collaboration: it has always had strong interdisciplinary links through the breath of its origins and continuing relations with spiritual and religious traditions and praxes, philosophy, medicine and the physical sciences, psychology, social work, the social sciences, arts, humanities, and so forth. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

8. Depth of Psychotherapy • To protect and support sound professional practice and service to the public, the depth and complexity of psychotherapy must be recognized and valued for its potential to facilitate care and healing. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

9. APTI Recognized • On October 31, 2007, APTI joined an information workshop hosted by the MOHLTC for newly-legislated Health Regulatory Colleges.  • APTI, along with the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Therapy and the Ontario Coalition of Mental Health Professionals, were identified as the three major stakeholders in the regulation of psychotherapy. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

10. Collaboration and Advocacy • APTI will continue to offer a training-centred venue for collaboration towards the creation of the College of Psychotherapy and Registered Mental Health Therapists. • APTI will also advocate on behalf of its member institutions for high professional standards of practice. Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

11. Plan of Action • Suggested actions to be taken to achieve the goal of providing education for sound psychotherapy practice in Ontario: Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes

12. Conclusion and Momentum Association of Psychotherapy Training Institutes