EFPA and CYPSA celebrate 10 years of EuroPsy certification in Cyprus

EFPA and CYPSA celebrate 10 years of EuroPsy certification in Cyprus

The 10-year anniversary of the launch of the European Certificate in Psychology (EuroPsy) was celebrated recently in Cyprus.  The event was hosted by the Cyprus’ Psychologists’ Association (CYPSA) and was co-organised with the local EuroPsy National Awarding Committee (NAC). The two-day event was held on 24th and 25th of April, at the University of Cyprus with honorary guest speaker Prof. Dr. Conny H. Antoni, Chair of EFPA’s EuroPsy European Awarding Committee. The event brought together over 60 people interested in learning more about the standard. Psychology Department Chairs, coordinators of training at undergraduate and graduate level, supervisors, faculty, professionals, and trainees of professional programs on the island attended the 2-day event.  

Day 1 focused on presenting the EuroPsy framework by Prof. Dr. Antoni, the history and impact of EuroPsy at the European level by Dr Eleni Karayianni, former member of the EFPA Board and former president of CYPSA, and the impact of EuroPsy at national level in Cyprus by Dr Anthi Loutsiou, Cyprus NAC Chair. This event highlighted the challenges that have been faced at European and national levels regarding the establishment of a common framework, addressing training diversity, and the modernization of the competence framework to better reflect what professional psychologists do and how they do it.

Day 2 was a seminar presenting a more in-depth presentation of the revised standards and how to establish professional competence. The event highlighted how training programs need and can consider the EuroPsy framework when designing training curricula and assessing trainee competence at the completion of supervised practice. Participants had further opportunity to reflect on the benefits of adopting European standards in national training of professional psychologists, as well as discuss what the format would be of such implementation.

On both days it was emphasized that the EuroPsy framework has helped structure training of professional psychologists in Cyprus and across Europe so much so that the diversity in training programs seen when the project first started has declined, and that EuroPsy can help in bringing together psychologists building a shared European professional identity. Attendees shared that there would be added value in EFPA organizing a certification around supervisor training at EuroPsy level to help better adoption and implementation across the board.