Canadian society has changed dramatically in the last 40 years. Significant shifts in demographics, primary economic drivers, societal norms, technology, the nature of health and health care, and sociopolitical trends have all had a marked impact on the nature of professional psychology. In addition to these changes, the landscape in which professional psychologists are trained and practice has witnessed shifting funding structures and has become increasingly crowded with other professional groups having encroached on practice areas that were once the exclusive purview of the profession. Despite these changes, professional psychology training has remained relatively static. In light of this reality, a summit on the future of professional psychology training was held in Montreal, Quebec from May 7th to 9th, 2019. Delegates represented all areas of professional psychology and nearly all regions of the country. This article describes the process by which delegates were selected and summit themes identified, as well as an overview of summit recommendations, some of which include the need to develop models of training that can meet increasing market place demand for psychologists, establishing clear definitions and guidelines for supervision that support professional training throughout one's career trajectory, a commitment to addressing issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, attend to the importance of technology literacy as part of training, and include formal, high-quality teaching of collaboration competencies in training. A complete list of summit recommendations is appended with the hope of encouraging continued discussion amongst the professional training community, particularly with respect to implementation of the various recommendations.
Public Significance StatementPsychologists provide services to individuals, groups, communities, corporations, and governments. Their contributions have become increasingly valued and in demand by Canadians. As such, the profession has a responsibility to ensure its young professionals are trained in a manner that is attuned to the needs of Canadian society. The National Summit on the Future of Professional Psychology Training had, as its objective, crafting a set of recommendations aimed at delivering on this responsibility, which will spur further discussion within the training community