Don’t Know What to Say to Your MPP? Here, I Did It for You.
Ontario is considering significant changes proposed by the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO). These include removing the doctoral standard for psychologists and eliminating the four-year supervised practice for psychological associates—changes driven by pressure from the Office of the Fairness Commissioner amid concerns about interprovincial mobility and access equality .
These changes risk diluting the meaning of the psychologist designation in Ontario.
Here’s the letter I just sent to my local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). Feel free to use, adapt, or base your own correspondence on this template:
Dear Ted,
I’m writing as a registered clinical psychologist and the director of a group mental health clinic in Kingston to express serious concern about a proposal recently passed by the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO). The proposal recommends significant changes to registration requirements for psychologists and psychological associates; potentially including the removal of the doctoral standard for psychologists and the elimination of the 4-year supervised practice period for psychological associates. These changes appear to be in response to pressure from the Office of the Fairness Commissioner to improve access and interprovincial mobility.
While I fully support improving diversity and fairness in our profession, I strongly oppose lowering the bar for entry. Ontario already has a saturated workforce of mental health providers—including psychotherapists, social workers, and nurse psychotherapists—who are meeting the system’s volume demands (in fact, the market is quite saturated). However, their training is only 2 years Master’s degree, and thus they are unable to provide the controlled act of diagnosis, and their training does not equip them for complex treatment planning or effective clinical supervision.
Psychologists are uniquely qualified to fill that critical gap. We are among the few professionals trained in evidence-based diagnosis and assessment, and we provide essential oversight and supervision to others in the field. Reducing our training standards not only undermines public safety, it moves us further away from the solutions we actually need.
If anything, Ontario should be expanding psychologists’ scope of practice, including advancing prescribing rights and formalizing our role as supervisors within the broader mental health system. These are the kinds of structural changes that would meaningfully address the psychiatric bottleneck and help us manage the province’s worsening mental health crisis.
I urge you to speak out against these proposed regulatory changes and advocate for reforms that strengthen—not dilute—the role of psychologists in Ontario’s healthcare system.
I so appreciate your time and the work that you do.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jenn Bossio
🔎 Find Your MPP: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current
✒️ Sign The Petition: click here
ℹ️ What Else You Can Do
- Copy, adapt, or personalize this letter to send to your own MPP
- View the petition opposing these changes. At the time of writing this, there are exactly 999 signatures… and growing rapidly
- Share the petition widely! Psycholgists, Trainees, Mental Health Care Providers, the media, etc!
- Read more context and arguments in these blog posts:
- If you haven’t already, contact:
- The CPBAO: info@cpbao.ca
- The Ontario Psychological Association: membership@psych.on.ca
The Goal
Keep the discussion focused not on gatekeeping but on preserving the professional capabilities that psychologists bring to Ontario’s mental health system. That includes moving in the direction of advanced diagnostics, assessment, clinical leadership, and maybe even prescription authority.
It’s critical we act now—both in writing our MPPs and spreading the word, because the petition is already hitting momentum. If we don’t clarify what psychologists uniquely do, we risk losing that identity altogether.
Dr. Jenn Bossio is a Clinical and Health Psychologist, the founder and director of the Tri Health Clinic—Ontario’s largest sex and couples therapy practice—and a passionate advocate for system-level change in mental health care. Based in Kingston, she was named Business Person of the Year (2025) and recognized as one of the Top 40 Under 40 (2024). Jenn is committed to redefining the role of psychologists in a rapidly evolving health care landscape.
- Why Over 1,200 Psychology Registrants in Ontario Have Signed a Letter of Non-Confidence
- The CPBAO Wants to Rewrite Psychologist Training in Ontario. The Data Says That’s a Terrible Idea.
- Why Solo Practice Can Be Risky in Sex Therapy (And What We’re Doing Differently at the Tri Health Clinic)
- What This Moment Has Shown Me About Psychology
- Ontario Psychologists Are Standing Up for the Future of Mental Health Care