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The Board is seeking feedback about the higher degree redesign project terms of reference. Stakeholder sentiment about the project and ideas you have about potential solutions will assist the Board to prepare for the first consultation paper due in early 2026. The survey is open until 5 November 2025 and can be accessed on our website.
Rachel Phillips Chair, Psychology Board of Australia
Mark 1 December 2025 in your calendar – that’s the day the new Code of conduct and professional competencies for psychologists come into effect, alongside updated guidelines for the 5+1 internship program and the national psychology exam.
The first Board-authored Code of conduct for psychologists builds on the shared code of conduct used by most professions in the National Scheme, which was revised in 2022.
Psychology Board of Australia Chair Rachel Phillips says the new code aims to maintain consistency across registered professions while also specifically addressing the nuances of psychological practice.
‘Consistency in regulatory approaches across the health professions supports inter-professional practice and facilitates community and practitioner understanding,’ Ms Phillips said.
The Code of conduct describes the standards of behaviour and practice that the Board expects from all psychologists registered to practise in Australia. The standards reflect the core requirements of providing professional, safe, and effective psychological services to the public.
It emphasises the importance of cultural safety, strengthens and clarifies the standards on professional boundaries, and provides more comprehensive standards relevant to the diverse contexts of psychological practice.
The Code of conduct was released a year in advance to give psychologists plenty of time to prepare and adapt their practice. From 1 December 2025, all registration and notification decisions about psychology practice will be based on the new code. We expect all psychologists will read the code regularly and ensure that their practice complies with the expected standards.
All psychologists, including those who hold an area of practice endorsement, will need to meet all eight new professional competencies relevant to their area of practice by 1 December 2025.
One key change is embedding cultural safety and responsiveness into the new professional competencies, with Board Chair Rachel Phillips saying all psychologists need to actively work towards providing positive health outcomes for Australia’s First Nations Peoples.
The updated competencies also emphasise professional reflexivity, purposeful and deliberate practice and self-care, and include competencies relevant to digital health practice, ensuring they will remain relevant for practitioners and continue to support safe and effective psychology practice.
Fact sheets, FAQs and a self-assessment tool are all available to help practitioners transition to the new competencies and assess themselves against the new standards.
The professional competencies and the updated registration standards were released 18 months in advance to give psychologists plenty of time to prepare and adapt their practice.
It is expected that all psychologists will self-assess against the general registration competencies every year when developing their continuing professional development learning plan.
Psychologists holding provisional registration should refer to the Board’s FAQs for further guidance on requirements.
The guidelines for the 5+1 internship program have been amended to include the updated professional competencies for general registration and the new Code of conduct, and will come into effect at the same time as the new competencies and code on 1 December 2025.
The new guidelines aim to be more responsive to the needs of individual interns, better meet training needs at different stages of the internship, and allow training to more relevant to different work contexts. They are available on the Board's Guidelines and policies page.
Some requirements of the internship have also been updated to reduce administrative burden and align with current regulatory practices, including new accreditation standards for the psychology profession, supervisors and exams. The changes are the first major update to the 5+1 internship in over 10 years.
‘Given the retirement of the 4+2 pathway, and the subsequent increase to 5+1 internship numbers, we feel it is timely to recalibrate the 5+1 internship program requirements,’ Ms Phillips said.
‘We have been able to make some changes to the requirements to align with the current regulatory context, and to ensure the guidelines are relevant into the future.’
Under the changes to the 5+1 internship program:
Supervisors must still submit a final assessment of competence and may request case studies or similar tasks to assess progress, but these will not be submitted to Ahpra.
More information is available on the 5+1 internship program page. An FAQ document is also available, with a full suite of supporting documents covering issues like setting up a good supervisory relationship and handling mandatory notifications during the internship in development.
The Guidelines for the national psychology exam (and other exam documents) have been updated to include the updated professional competencies for general registration and the new Code of conduct.
The updated guidelines will come into effect at the same time as the new competencies and code on 1 December 2025. The National psychology exam candidate manual and National psychology exam curriculum have also been updated.
The exam candidate manual is now the ‘go to’ document for all exam candidates, with all the information on taking the exam in one place. It includes information about sitting the exam at both test centres and via online proctoring, as well as including frequently asked questions from our website.
From January 2026 the exam will be based on the updated Professional competencies for psychologists, the new Code of conduct and the updated National psychology exam curriculum. Any exams taken before this time will be based on the current competencies, code and curriculum.
Advance copies of the professional competencies and the new code were released over 12 months ago to give exam candidates and their supervisors plenty of time to prepare for the changes.
The discovery phase of our higher degree (HD) redesign project has begun, and we encourage all interested people to have their say!
The HD redesign project is considering the appropriateness and proposed design of a single, shorter and more practical course of study to qualify as a registered psychologist in Australia, beginning in the undergraduate years.
In this phase of the project, we are focusing on gathering information to fully understand the problem to be solved, defining the issues, and determining the best approach, before any design or development work begins. We are committed to developing options for training reform that are evidence-based and fit for purpose.
We encourage you to provide your feedback by completing our survey online. It will take 10-20 minutes to complete and includes multiple choice questions and an opportunity for you to provide more detailed written feedback if you would like to.
We want as many people as possible to provide their feedback, so we have a clear and representative understanding of views from different sectors of the community and psychology profession.
We are also inviting you to attend one of our virtual webinars. The Chair of the Board will provide information about the project and give you an opportunity to provide your feedback. You can sign up for a webinar on our website.
We are also meeting with our Project Steering Committee, and our Project Reference Groups. For more information on the these groups, and the project in general, please visit our website.
If you would like to be on our redesign project stakeholder list, please complete this form.
There will be further opportunities for you to give us feedback as the project progresses, including via the Board’s usual public consultation process, expected to occur in 2026.
We invite you to attend one of our Board-run workshops in November to learn more about the new Code of conduct and the updated Professional competencies for psychologists, which are coming into effect on 1 December 2025.
The workshop will include a panel of experts who will discuss case studies in the context of the Code of conduct, with opportunities to ask questions. It will not address specific practice-related issues. You may wish to explore these matters further with your professional association, employer, peers, or a legal practitioner.
Before attending the workshop, we recommend that you first read the case studies that will be discussed at the workshop and listen to a comprehensive pre-recorded webinar by Board Chair Rachel Phillips that includes information about transitioning to the code and professional competencies.
Register now to attend one of these workshops:
For further information, case studies and the webinar recording, see the Professional practice standards page on the Board’s website.
The last day that a person who has completed the 4+2 internship program can apply for general registration is 30 June 2027. This is a reminder to all 4+2 interns and supervisors to be aware of the key 4+2 retirement dates and to keep working to complete your requirements before the retirement deadline.
Once the 4+2 internship pathway to general registration is retired, we cannot accept applications for general registration via this pathway; this is a hard deadline.
If you do not have general registration granted before the 4+2 internship is retired, you will need to take the 5+1 internship pathway or the higher degree pathway to become a psychologist.
When the last cohort of interns was accepted into the 4+2 internship in June 2023, there were 3,370 interns in this pathway. Our current statistics show that over 2,500 interns have already finished. Congratulations!
There are still around 800 interns who need to complete their requirements before this pathway is retired. We have allowed a maximum of five years to complete the two-year internship, with less than half of the allowable time now left to complete all the requirements, including passing the national psychology exam.
We encourage you to talk with your supervisor to develop a plan so that you will safely finish your requirements well ahead of time. Please note that:
Further information can be found in the guidelines and on the Board’s 4+2 internship webpage.
The Psychology Board of Australia recognises that family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) is a significant and widespread problem with serious and lasting impacts upon individuals, families and communities. Psychologists are uniquely positioned to make a difference, and understanding the dynamics of FDSV is essential for being able to recognise and respond safely and effectively.
As you plan your continuing professional development (CPD) for the next registration period, the Board encourages you to consider integrating training that deepens your knowledge of FDSV. For example, this might include:
Incorporating FDSV training into your CPD plan will help strengthen your practice and supports the development of professional competency in conducting a range of culturally safe interventions that maximise optimal outcomes with clients, and that identify and manage clients who are vulnerable or at risk to themselves or others.
For further information on Ahpra and the National Boards’ approach to FDSV, please see the joint statement which reinforces the importance of the health workforce in identifying and responding to FDSV and also the consequences for health practitioners who perpetrate such violence.
Registration renewal for general and non-practising psychologists is now open. Make sure to renew your registration by 30 November 2025 to avoid paying a late fee.
If you don’t renew before 31 December 2025, your registration will lapse, you’ll be removed from the register of practitioners, and you won’t be able to use the protected title, psychologist.
Ahpra has a new online portal to manage all aspects of your registration, including multifactor authentication to provide an extra layer of security protecting your data.
Read more and access online renewal at the Board website.
Before you renew, you will need to link an authenticator app to your portal. This app generates a one-time 6-digit code and is more secure than sending the code by SMS. Every time you log in, you’ll enter:
If you already know your username and password, you can log in now and link MFA. Your username will be sent to you via email before you need to renew. If you haven’t received this email, please contact us via an online enquiry or call 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9125 3010 (overseas callers).
If you share your email account with someone else, such as your partner, or use a group email such as ‘[email protected]’ then you will need to change it to an email that is unique to you when you first log in. There’s information available on the Ahpra portal help centre on how to do this.
Provisional registration is also open to students who have completed their fourth year of psychology study and been accepted into a fifth-year degree or higher degree pathway.
Remember, you must have provisional registration with the Psychology Board of Australia before you can start psychology practice in your program.
Receipts or tax invoices for payments made to Ahpra in the 2024–25 financial year will be emailed to you directly – they won’t be available in the Ahpra portal.
You’ll receive your receipt or tax invoice shortly after your payment via email.
We’ll email your receipt or tax invoice from mid-June 2025. Be sure to check both your inbox and spam/junk folder.
If you haven’t received it by mid-July, please submit an online enquiry, and let us know you need a receipt or tax invoice for the 2024–25 financial year.
For payments made before July 2024, please submit an online enquiry and specify which financial year(s) you need. We’ll email the relevant documents once we receive your request.
Ahpra and the National Boards have published guidance on the prescribing of medicinal cannabis after concerning reports of patients presenting to emergency departments with medicinal cannabis-induced psychosis.
The guidance reminds prescribers that medicinal cannabis should be treated as a medicine and to be as careful and diligent when prescribing medicinal cannabis as they are when prescribing other drugs of dependence.
The guidance addresses concerns that profits are being prioritised over patient safety and aims to support practitioners to provide safe care, particularly for those patients at most risk of harm.
Safe prescribing of medicinal cannabis includes assessing patients thoroughly, formulating and implementing a management plan, facilitating coordination and continuity of care, maintaining medical records, recommending treatments only where there is an identified therapeutic need, ensuring medicinal cannabis is never a first line treatment, and developing an exit strategy from the beginning.
You can read the full media release and the guidance on the Ahpra website.
We know that having a notification made about you can be stressful. Especially if it’s about your health, mental health or problems with drugs and alcohol use.
Ahpra manages health-related notifications in a way that aims to make the process clear, and relatively easy. You’ll be assigned a case officer from our Health Management Team, who will keep you up to date on the progress of your notification and can advise you about the support services that are available to you.
The team is staffed by people who are committed to ensuring that they understand you as an individual and the demands of clinical practice and health care settings.
The aim, if it is safe to do so, is to keep you engaged in work at a level you choose during the investigation process.
