Predoctoral Psychology Residency
Please be advised that our program will not be accepting applications for the 2024 – 2025 training year. At this point, due to logistical and administrative issues, our plan is to wind down and close our residency program at the end of the current training year (at the end of August 2024). This has been a difficult decision, and the WRPC’s host agency and partner agencies remain committed to training and the profession of psychology. We thank all who have partnered with, participated in, supported and shared their interest in our program over the years. Any inquiries can be directed to Training Director Dr. Karen MacLeod at kmacleod@lutherwood.ca.
Waterloo Region Psychology Consortium (WRPC)
The Waterloo Region Psychology Consortium formed to create a predoctoral residency in clinical psychology and is a partnership between five organizations for the 2023-24 training year:
- Lutherwood (the host agency for the consortium)
- Campus Wellness at the University of Waterloo
- The Waterloo Region District School Board
- Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington
- Grand River Hospital
We welcomed our first cohort of residents in 2013, and achieved accreditation as an Internship in Professional Psychology by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in 2017 for a period of five years. In the fall of 2022, we achieved reaccreditation from CPA for a period of six years (until 2028).
For the 2023-2024 training year, our consortium is offering three full-time residency positions: one in our Adult Track, one in our Child/Adolescent Track, and one in a new Combined Child/Adolescent and Adult Track.
Waterloo Region Psychology Consortium (WRPC) recognizes the vital role of respect for diversity and the need for action to increase equity and anti-racism in our society at large. In particular, our program is committed to diversifying the field of psychology, including through efforts to recruit students with a wide range of backgrounds, identities and experiences, and through working to ensure our program and its associated training settings create a space where all staff and clients feel they are safe, valued, and they belong. We are on a journey of endeavoring to embed anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices into the fabric of our program at all levels. WRPC adheres to a robust suite of human rights, anti-harassment, and anti-discrimination policies and procedures, and is committed to an inclusive and accessible workplace and supports residents who require accommodations at all levels of the application and residency process.
The WRPC training program develops practitioners to be capable of sound, independent professional functioning in the provision of psychological assessment, intervention and consultation as well as supervision and research/evaluation. It builds on the base of knowledge and experience that residents have already begun to establish in graduate school and in previous placements.
The varied consortium settings offer opportunities for residents to develop and hone their skills working with clients with at times complex and serious challenges across a range of ages. We encourage the development of clinical understanding within a variety of theoretical orientations. Residents are expected to evaluate practice-related research and inform their clinical decisions with current evidence.
We make every effort to individualize residents’ training opportunities to suit their particular interests and needs and provide the degree of supervision necessary to facilitate gradually increasing independence while managing complex work effectively.
Psychological services at the consortium partner organizations are regulated by the College of Psychologists of Ontario and are offered in accordance with the relevant legislative acts and professional standards, guidelines, and codes of ethics.
WRPC is accredited as an Internship in Professional Psychology by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and guidelines governing this accreditation can be found here. As noted above, WRPC was reaccredited in 2022, and received a six year reaccreditation term (until 2028).
The CPA Accreditation Office can be reached at:
Accreditation Office
Canadian Psychological Association
141 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 702
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 5J3
Email: accreditationoffice@cpa.ca
Telephone: 613-237-2144 x 328 or 1-888-472-0657 x 328
For information on eligibility and application requirements, please see our Residency Guide (which provides much more detailed program information, including information related to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Please be aware of the following changes that have been made since the posting of the Residency Guide, which will apply to the 2023-24 training year, and were posted through the APPIC Late-Breaking News Match Update email announcements:
Waterloo Region Psychology Consortium is excited to announce that Grand River Hospital has joined our training consortium. For the 2023-24 training year, we will be adding a third residency position, in a new Combined Child/Adolescent and Adult Track. This “combined” position will include two rotations focused on child and adolescent populations as well as one rotation focused on adult populations. In addition to the available rotations described in our posted Residency Guide materials, there will be two new rotations at Grand River Hospital: one in the Child and Adolescent Program, and one in Adult Mental Health with an option to include a focus on Neuropsychology in the adult rotation. A third rotation will also be added at Lutherwood. In total, we are now offering three positions: one in our Child/Adolescent Track, one in our Adult Track, and one in our Combined Child/Adolescent and Adult Track. Candidates interested in more than one of these tracks must apply separately to each Track for which they would like to be considered. *No guarantee can be made of rotations and applicants are asked to clearly describe and rank their rotation preferences in their cover letters. Questions can be directed to training director Dr. Karen MacLeod.
Further specifics about our policies and procedures are available in our Policy And Procedures Manual.
We are members of the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs and are listed in their Internship Directory.
Application to the consortium may be made through AAPI online. This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
Deadline for applications to WRPC for the 2022-23 residency year is November 1, 2022. Candidates will be notified whether they have been selected for interviews on December 2, 2022, and interviews for selected applicants will take place between January 16th and 27th, 2023.