Toward a culturally informed evaluation of foreign qualifications: An overview of the European Union’s clinical psychology training system in the North American context.

Abstract

Along with globalization, mobility of professionals is becoming increasingly important for the psychology profession as well. In the absence of a relatively fast and straightforward (re)licensure process for foreign-trained psychologists however, not only these professionals are compelled to face substantial personal difficulties when moving from 1 country to another but the public’s access to health services may also be negatively affected. As some of the difficulties in the credentialing of foreign-trained clinical psychologists may also be due to informational gaps among the evaluators of educational records from foreign countries, the aim of this article is to present current data about the educational, training, and licensing systems of clinical psychologists in the European Union (EU). One representative for each of the 28 EU member states was asked to provide detailed information about the clinical psychology academic training, practicum, and licensing requirements of the given country. Following a description of the characteristics of the 28 EU countries and a comparison of the North American and European clinical psychology training systems, the authors propose general guidelines for credentialing organizations and psychology boards to facilitate a more culturally informed evaluation of foreign qualifications. The authors hope that the consideration of the country-specific information and the proposed general guidelines presented in this manuscript can advance the manner and sophistication with which credentialing organizations approach foreign qualifications obtained not only in Europe but in any part of the world.