History of the CMHRT
The Clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of Waterloo was one of the earliest programs in Ontario to incorporate in-house opportunities for supervised clinical services as a core part of clinical training. The Psychology Clinic, as it was first known, was started in 1972 and had state-of-the-art facilities with one-way mirrors and sound systems to facilitate live observation.
In 2008, the clinic received funding for additional resources and a new CMHR Director to transform into a Centre for Mental Health Research. In 2012, the CMHR expanded with the allocation of additional space in the PAS building. In 2018, the University Senate approved changing the name to the Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment (CMHRT) to better reflect the psychological service provision component of the Centre. In response to the global pandemic in 2020, the CMHRT began to offer therapy services via videoconferencing and initiated hybrid assessment procedures which included a blend of virtual interviews and feedback with in-person standardized testing. By 2022, most psychological services were delivered in person, reflecting client preference and optimal conditions for foundational clinical skills training.
Going forward, there is an expectation that all students will gain competency in teletherapy and will have an opportunity to gain experience with remote service delivery via a teletherapy service stream at the CMHRT.
Furthermore, there is a shared conception about the education of our graduate students; all faculty accepted an approach fashioned by the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Training in Clinical Psychology, that met at Boulder, Colorado in 1949. The so-called “Boulder Model” gave equal emphasis to service and research skills. Provision of an integrated blend of these skills has been a prime goal in our seminars, in teaching professional service skills, and in research labs.
Bright Futures
Because the Waterloo program quickly became one of the most popular clinical training sites in Canada, there were many student applicants. As a magnet for talent, we were able to choose among applicants who showed the most promising people skills, motivation, intellectual curiosity, and capacity to think critically about psychological literature. Our education employs traditional clinical topics (e.g., courses in assessment, personality, and psychopathology). Moreover, all students have been given teaching opportunities, and closely supervised work with their clients. We have placed research skill development largely in the hands of faculty-led teams that focus on particular issues (e.g., in the early years of our program, there were studies on hypnosis, learning disabilities, personality, psychopathology, psychotherapy*).
Waterloo’s training strategies have been rewarded. Nearly all graduates have competed successfully for their first-choice internships and received commendations from field work placements. Moreover, they have landed excellent jobs after graduation (approximately 1/3rd in academic/research jobs) and the rest in service roles that led to director positions in agencies. From its beginning, the Waterloo program has received accolades from researcher and practitioner communities. In particular, an analysis published in a 1997 issue of the journal Psychological Science showed post-doctoral Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) exam scores that ranked Waterloo’s clinical graduates second from the top among 185 North American clinical training programs. We take this as firm evidence that students have excelled in the Waterloo program.