Why Clinical Counsellors in Canada Should Work to Their Full Scope of Practice With Assessment Instruments

In Canada, the profession of counselling and psychotherapy has steadily expanded in both recognition and responsibility. Yet, one area remains underutilized by many clinical counsellors: clinical assessment.

While assessment instruments have long been the cornerstone of practice in psychology, they are increasingly relevant—and within scope—for counsellors and psychotherapists across provinces and territories. In fact, may clinical social workers also use assessment in their practices, and in the USA, counsellors have been utilizing psychological assessments for decades and often have nearly identical scopes of practice as psychologists (varies per state).

Working to your full scope with assessment tools not only elevates clinical care but can also strengthen professional credibility, improve client outcomes, and create new opportunities for counsellors to diversify their practices. As pressures for timely care impact all of Canada, healthcare providers trend towards a need to work to the top of their scope of practice to help Canadian's access timely and ethical care- and that includes assessments, in my opinion. As a researcher and expert advocate in mental health scope of practice, this has been seen in the research across a multitude of health disciplines.

Supporting Evidence-Based Practice

Assessment instruments provide standardized, reliable, and valid measures of functioning.

While clinical intuition and qualitative interviews are essential, standardized assessments reduce bias and help counsellors make informed, defensible decisions.

By integrating tools such as personality inventories, behavioural checklists, or relationship measures, counsellors continue to practice with evidence-based data. This strengthens the quality of treatment planning, referrals, and reports provided to clients and allied professionals.

Working to Full Scope Responsibly

When counsellors underutilize assessments, they unintentionally restrict their professional role.

By contrast, working confidently with assessment instruments ensures counsellors are seen as full partners in mental health care, alongside psychologists, clinical social workers, physicians, nurse practitioners, naturopathic physicians and other regulated professionals who are also often utilizing psychological assessment instruments in their daily work- with some of these colleagues of ours having much less training in clinical and counselling assessments.

A challenge for counsellors and psychotherapists regarding assessment has been where to obtain the additional training to do this ethically and responsibly with competence. Another important aspect is where to obtain the clinical supervision when you begin using new assessment tools or advanced assessment in your practice. This is why I created this course- as a Doctor of Psychology specializing in assessment, who is also a registered clinical counsellor- I know the gap areas and have the knowledge to fill that for counsellors/psychotherapists through relevant training and supervision, so you can meet your ethical and standards of practice requirements.

Finally, working to full scope is an ethical responsibility. Counsellors are trained to administer tools that fall within their scope, and avoiding them due to lack of confidence, extended training, or misconceptions about “what counsellors can do” limits both professional growth and client care.

Investing in assessment training ensures counsellors stay aligned with best practices, regulatory expectations, and continuing education requirements.

Diversifying Practice & Increasing Revenue

From a business perspective, offering assessment services expands a counsellors practice beyond traditional hourly therapy sessions.

Specialty assessment packages are increasingly in demand by individuals, families, and organizations in a variety of areas.

Counsellors who confidently integrate assessments can:

• Create specialized service packages

• Offer premium, higher-value services

• Build a sustainable, differentiated practice in a competitive marketplace, offering more than just therapy alone.

Moving Forward

Assessment is not just for psychologists or clinical social workers. Canadian clinical counsellors are increasingly recognized for their role in delivering advanced, evidence-based care- and they should be recognized! By embracing the full scope of practice with assessment instruments as noted in your standards of practice on the use of assessments and evaluation, counsellors elevate both their profession and the clients they serve.

The ASSESS+ course series for counsellors was created by me to support this very goal—helping counsellors build confidence, competence, and credibility in advanced clinical assessment. With structured training, practical tools, and supervision opportunities, counsellors can finally step into their full potential as assessment-capable professionals.

Ready to Get Started?

Here is how my courses work:

1. Advanced assessment Level 1 will provide you with 10 CE hours solely on advanced clinical assessment! This course is advanced to that foundational assessment course you took in your university program- so this is not a repeat of foundations, but the next step in your goal of assessment competence!

2. Fill out the request for training contact form. Please note you must be currently registered in good standing with a counselling or psychotherapy college or association. Once that is confirmed, my office with reach out to you to make a secure payment for the course. Once we receive your payment, we will be in touch with course login instructions so you can get going!

3. With your unique login, you will proceed to the "Course Login" section of the website and, you are good to go! Watch the video's, make your notes, pass the exam (you can repeat as many times as needed to pass), fill out our course survey so we can continually improve, and then obtain your personally signed CE certificate from Dr. Erinn.

4. Post course you can: request supervision on specific assessments you plan to start using in practice and/or take additional courses of Dr. Erinn's (Advanced Assessment Packages and Advanced Report Writing, etc). If you are accepted for supervision, Dr. Erinn will provide you with documentation for your records on what amount of hours and what assessments you were supervised using. If Dr. Erinn is not a good fit for your assessment supervision, not to worry, she likely can make a referral for you.

Get Registered Today!

A clinical counsellor during an assessment intake interview