Recency of Practice

What is recency of practice?

To ensure that psychologists are able to practise competently and safely, they must have recent experience practising in the profession.

Our definition of ‘practice’ is broad because psychologists use their psychological skills and knowledge in a variety of professional settings and scopes of practice. ‘Practice’ means any role, whether remunerated or not, in which you use your skills and knowledge as a registered psychologist in the profession. Practice is not restricted to the provision of direct clinical care. It also includes using your professional knowledge in a direct non-clinical relationship with clients, when working in management, administration, education, research, advisory, regulatory or policy development roles, and any other roles that impact the safe, effective delivery of services in the profession.

You must declare that you meet the recency of practice requirements every year when you renew general or provisional registration.

If you are applying for general registration for the first time, or after taking a break from practice, you must satisfy the recency of practice requirements.

Meeting the recency of practice requirements

To meet the recency of practice requirements, you must demonstrate successful completion of one of the following:

a minimum of 250 hours of practice as a registered psychologist or provisional psychologist (or equivalent for overseas practice) within the previous five years, or
a Board-approved program of study within the past five years, or
a Board-approved internship or other period of Board-approved supervised practice within the past five years.

The recency of practice requirements for psychologists are detailed in the recency of practice registration standard. The registration standard should be read in conjunction with the Policy for recency of practice requirements.

What if I don’t meet the recency of practice requirements?

You are not automatically eligible for registration or renewal if you don’t meet the recency of practice requirements. In these cases, we may require you to undertake remedial action, such as undertaking a period of supervised practice and/or sitting the National Psychology Exam. See the Recency of practice registration standard and the Policy for recency of practice requirements for more information.