Politics and Education

Competences of Clinical Psychologists

EACLIPT Task Force On “Competences of Clinical Psychologists”

Clinical Psychology in Europe, 2019, Vol. 1(2), Article e35551, https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551

Received: 2019-04-18 • Accepted: 2019-06-07 • Published (VoR): 2019-06-28

Handling Editor: Cornelia Weise, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Corresponding Author: Winfried Rief, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of
Marburg, Marburg, Germany. E-mail: rief@uni-marburg.de

Abstract
Background: Politicians, societies, stakeholders, health care systems, patients, their relatives, their
employers, and the general population need to know what they can expect from clinical
psychologists. Even more, for our self-definition as a professional group, we should share a
common understanding of the competence profile that characterises our qualifications. This
understanding of the competence profile of clinical psychology leads directly to the content that
should be taught in university curricula and postgraduate trainings for clinical psychology. The
following discussion paper attempts to offer a general European framework for defining the
competence profile of clinical psychologists.
Method: A group of European specialists developed this discussion paper under the umbrella of
the European Association of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment (EACLIPT).
Representatives with different treatment orientations, of basic science and clinical applications, and
from East to Western European countries, were part of the group.
Results: We present a list of competences that should be acquired during regular studies of
psychology with a clinical specialisation. Additionally, further competences should be acquired
either during studying, or during postgraduate trainings.
Conclusion: Clinical psychologists are experts in mental and behavioural disorders, their
underlying psychological, social and neurobiological processes, corresponding assessments/
diagnostic tools, and evidence-based psychological treatments. While we provide a list with all
competences of clinical psychologists, we do not consider this proposal as a final list of criteria, but
rather as a living discussion paper that could be updated regularly. Therefore, we invite our
colleagues to contribute to this discussion, and to submit comments via email to the corresponding
author.

Keywords
competences, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, mental disorders

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction, provided the original work is properly cited.
Competences of Clinical Psychologists 2

Highlights
• People need to know what they can expect from clinical psychologists.
• We present a list of competences that clinical psychologists acquire during
their training.
• This list of competences was developed by colleagues representing different
treatment orientations, different European countries, and basic versus clinical
scientists.
• This competence list can represent a basis for optimising education and
training programmes for clinical psychologists, and for informing the public.

Competence lists are increasingly important for the self-definition of a profession, for the
planning of study and training curricula, and for the public view on a professional field.
Politicians, societies, stakeholders, health care systems, patients, their relatives, their em‐
ployers, and the general population need to know what they can expect from clinical
psychologists. For our self-definition as a professional group, we should share a common
understanding of the competence profile that characterises our qualifications. This un‐
derstanding of the competence profile of clinical psychology leads directly to the content
that should be taught in university curricula and postgraduate training for clinical psy‐
chology. Therefore, competence lists can be considered as an interactive aspect of the
progress of a profession: first, they are developed based on current understanding, reality,
experiences, and concepts, but vice versa, the list of competences can be used to develop
and improve existing training curricula to better focus on an optimised education of
these necessary competences. This interaction is outlined in Figure 1.

Figure 1. How competence profiles, current practice and education inform each other.

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
EACLIPT Task Force On “Competences of Clinical Psychologists” 3

How Competence Profiles Stimulate the Progress

of a Profession
Many activities exist to develop and improve competence lists for clinical psychologists
and psychotherapists. However, many of them are limited to specific nations (Bartolo,
2005) or to specific psychotherapeutic orientations (Sburlati, Schniering, Lyneham, &
Rapee, 2011). In the context of the IAPT programme in UK, the University College of
London developed competence frameworks for specific treatment modalities and their
supervision (Roth & Pilling, 2008). They also provided competence profiles for different
clinical groups, and clinical contexts (ucl.ac.uk/CORE/). These kinds of competence lists
serve to quality assurance, but also to ethical evaluations (Lane, 2011). Some attempts
used qualitative methods to approach the field (Nodop & Strauß, 2014), and differentiated
scientific-conceptual competences, personal, and interpersonal competences. Compe‐
tence lists also play a role in the development of national legal regulations for psycholo‐
gists and psychotherapists (Willutzki, Fydrich, & Strauß, 2015).
The aim of this article was to develop and present a European framework of compe‐
tence profiles for clinical psychologists that should be valid for all evidence-based treat‐
ment orientations in all European countries. Therefore, we used the framework of the
European Association of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment (EACLIPT) to
establish a work group representing different European countries and their national spe‐
cialties, different treatment orientations, the broad range from basic to applied science,
but also further aspects of diversity. The proposal was further evaluated and approved by
the EACLIPT board members. Here we present the first version of the European compe‐
tence list of clinical psychologists.

Competences of Clinical Psychologists

Clinical psychologists are experts in mental and behavioural disorders, the continuum
from mental health to disease, psychological and psychobiological mechanisms of mental
and behavioural disorders and physical diseases, epidemiological and health economic
relevance of mental and behavioural disorders, vulnerability and resilience factors of psy‐
chological health, and evidence-based treatments for mental disorders and psychological
factors of physical diseases. Clinical psychologists are engaged in diagnosing, treating
and scientifically investigating mental and behavioural disorders and psychological fac‐
tors of physical diseases within a bio-psycho-social and developmental framework. They
plan, conduct, and evaluate activities to promote mental and behavioural health on a sci‐
entific basis in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. They do not only apply current
scientific knowledge, but they are also able to work with new complex problems and pro‐
fessional challenges, in a permanently changing environment. They have the competence

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
Competences of Clinical Psychologists 4

to support the scientifically-driven progress of the field, and to permanently integrate the
latest scientific findings into their work.

List of Competences
More detailed competences of clinical psychologists are:

a) General Psychological Processes in Health and Disease

Clinical psychologists are experts in identifying and describing psychological,
psychosocial, psychobiological and neuroscientific aspects of normal and abnormal
human behaviour and experiences, hereby considering the whole life span. They
have expertise in analysing the role of cognitive processes such as perception,
learning, memory, language, of emotional and motivational processes, in
developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology of the whole life
span, of the biological basis of human experiences and behaviour, individual
differences and dimensions of personality, and they can identify the social and
cultural influences on normal and abnormal behaviour and experiences. They are
familiar with scientifically sound models to better understand normal and abnormal
behaviour, and can apply them to understand and treat psychological problems
across life span.
b) Mental and Behavioural Disorders and Psychological Processes in Physical
Disorders
Clinical psychologists are experts in informing the public, political stakeholders,
institutions, affected people and their relatives about psychological problems and
mental disorders, their varying appearances, and how to classify them. They can also
identify psychological and psychosocial aspects of physical diseases. They are able to
detect, diagnose, classify and describe mental disorders and psychological processes
of physical diseases, using observational techniques, self-rating scales, expert ratings
and other evaluated assessment tools. Clinical psychologists reflect on cultural,
societal and historical relativism in diagnosing mental and behavioural disorders and
continually contribute to the development of international classification systems.
c) Psychological Diagnostics
Clinical psychologists are able to develop, evaluate, employ, analyse, and report
results of diagnostic tools to improve the objectivity, reliability and validity of
diagnosing psychological, psychosocial and neurobiological aspects of mental and
behavioural disorders and psychological mechanisms relevant in physical diseases.
In their diagnostic work, they consider the continuum between healthy and
clinically relevant processes, age- and socioeconomically relevant aspects, and other
environmental and cultural determinants of psychological well-being and
dysfunctional processes. They employ best-evidence self-rating scales, scientifically
evaluated interview techniques, and other assessment tools, both for clinical

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
EACLIPT Task Force On “Competences of Clinical Psychologists” 5

purposes, but also to assess personality characteristics, performance profiles, deficits,

skills, and resources.
d) Intervention: General Aspects
Clinical psychologists know about the different evidence-based psychological
interventions, their historical development and current evidence-based evaluation.
They can critically think about different treatments and can inform the public about
scientifically based treatment guidelines and typical treatment characteristics, hereby
considering disorder-, person- and sociocultural-relevant aspect. They use
scientifically-based interventions to enhance resources of the patients and clients to
improve psychological well-being, and to reduce vulnerability and risk factors for
psychological problems and mental and behavioural disorders. Clinical psychologists
can inform patients, their relatives, public institutions, stakeholders and others about
the potential and risks of psychological treatments, based on a current critical
scientific evaluation of them.
e) Prevention, Rehabilitation: General Academic Expertise
Clinical psychologists are able to inform about prevention and rehabilitation
programmes, their scientific evidence, and their potential use for society and specific
target groups. They can develop, apply and evaluate such programmes. Clinical
psychologists can promote mental and behavioural health and develop mental health
literacy in various settings.
f) Scientific Methodology
Clinical psychologists can use qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigate
psychological, psychobiological and psychosocial processes and clinical applications
to better understand normal and abnormal behaviour and experiences. They are able
to plan, conduct and analyse the results of studies using modern criteria for scientific
evaluations and advanced statistical modelling. In particular, clinical psychologists
are able to plan, conduct, analyse, report and explain clinical trials and their results,
to evaluate psychological interventions according to modern scientific standards.
They are also able to understand and use methods and results from developmental,
cognitive and experimental psychology, or from any other field related to scientific
psychology important for the understanding of the aetiology, maintenance and
treatment of mental and behavioural disorders. They know methods and central
elements of psychotherapy and psychological intervention research, and how to
incorporate that knowledge into their clinical practice. They actively take part in
psychological intervention and psychotherapy research by developing research
questions, designs and treating patients in clinical trials.
g) Ethical and Legal Aspects
Clinical psychologists consider and respect current ethical standards and legal
regulations for their professional work. Clinical psychologists are sensible regarding
cultural diversity and respect it in their work with clients.

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
Competences of Clinical Psychologists 6

Depending on national regulations, the following skills are either acquired dur‐
ing university studies, or during postgraduate trainings often connected to the
term psychotherapy:

h) Skills for Psychological Interventions: Meta-Competences

• Clinical psychologists are able to provide psychological interventions that follow
treatment aims and a treatment plan, based on current scientific knowledge about
mental and behavioural disorders and interventions. Major competences to provide
interventions have been acquired according to current standards of learning how
to practise these interventions.
• Clinical psychologists are able to motivate patients to engage in psychological
interventions, and to foster and maintain a good alliance with their clients/
patients, their relatives and significant others. They can explain the intervention
rationale to patients, other health care specialists, and further involved people.
• Clinical psychologists have the competence for perspective taking, empathy and
mentalisation. They have professional skills to identify the diversity of verbal and
nonverbal communication signals of others. They have professional competences
to communicate with others, based on a broad variety of acquired communication
skills, even during difficult communication sequences, or with patients with
difficult communication patterns. They can verbally address emotional, cognitive,
behavioural and interactive aspects of the patient’s/client’s behaviour.
• Clinical psychologists have an advanced ability to regulate their own emotions and
behaviour, and to reflect their own emotions, cognitions, and behaviour during
professional encounters. They can reflect the consequences of past learning and
socialisation processes on current behaviour and experiences, not only in others,
but also in themselves. They can cope with professional stressful situations, but are
able to relax and plan their life according to an adequate work-life-balance.
• Clinical psychologists are able to evaluate on-going interventions of themselves or
of others, to detect unfavourable or unexpected events, and to react adequately in
the event of occurring risks (e.g., suicidality). They are able to address treatment
problems (e.g. adherence problems of patients) and problems of the therapeutic
relationship accordingly. They are able to use the patient’s/client’s feedback to
adapt intervention processes.
• When confronted with new problematic professional situations, they have
concepts about how to develop new problem-solving strategies, based on a
profound framework theory how to plan interventions.
• Clinical psychologists are able to end interventions in a planned manner, to plan
for long-term maintenance of treatment gains, and to reduce the risk of relapse
after the intervention.

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
EACLIPT Task Force On “Competences of Clinical Psychologists” 7

• Clinical psychologists aim to continuously improve their professional abilities.

They are able to learn from their own and other experiences, from supervision and
intervision, and to transfer current scientific knowledge to clinical practice and to
integrate recommendations of others (e.g. supervisors) in their clinical work.
• Clinical psychologists are able to communicate with other health-professionals,
and to coordinate their diagnostic and intervention plans with other experts
involved in the overall treatment plan.
i) Skills for Psychological Interventions: Disorder-, Person-, and Context-
Specific Diagnostics and Interventions
Following recommendations of official scientifically based guidelines, clinical
psychologists can select evidence-based diagnostic tools and evidence-based
psychological interventions for specific mental and behavioural disorders and
psychological aspects of physical diseases. For treatment planning, they consider the
different severity degrees and courses of mental and behavioural disorders, the
comorbidity profiles, further associated problems, the patient’s and setting’s
resources, as well as cultural aspects.
j) Skills for Psychological Interventions: Prevention, Rehabilitation
Clinical psychologists are able to prepare, conduct, and evaluate clinical prevention
and rehabilitation programmes according to current scientific standards. They have
public relation skills to present programmes and persuasive skills to promote the
relevance of the programmes to significant stakeholders.
k) Skills for Psychological Interventions: Setting-Specific Interventions,
Modern Technologies
Clinical psychologists are able to provide professional, scientifically based work with
individuals, with couples, with families, and in groups. They can provide expert
knowledge and they have the ability to work in complex systems (e.g., hospitals,
occupational health services, political institutions). They are aware of options to
increase effectivity, reachability, and benefit-cost-ratios for providing clinical
psychological interventions also by using modern technologies.
l) Skills for Psychological Interventions: Documentation, Evaluation
Clinical psychologists continuously document and evaluate their work. They
consider aspects of quality insurance.

Conclusion
We provide a first list with the characterising competences of clinical psychologists that
aims to cover the needs of all European nations, but also of representatives of different
specialisations and orientations of clinical psychology. However, we do not consider this
proposal as an exhaustive list of criteria, but as a living discussion paper that could be

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
Competences of Clinical Psychologists 8

updated regularly. Therefore, we invite our colleagues to contribute to this discussion,

and to submit comments via email to the corresponding author.

Funding: The authors have no funding to report.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Acknowledgments: The authors have no support to report.

Author Note: Members of the EACLIPT task force on “Competences of Clinical Psychologists” and the EACLIPT
board which has approved this proposal are: Gerhard Andersson, Natasa Jokic Begic, Claudi Bockting, Roman
Cieslak, Celine Douilliez, Thomas Ehring, Philipp Kanske, Andreas Maercker, Agnieszka Popiel, Winfried Rief,
Chantal Martin Soelch, Svenja Taubner.

References
Bartolo, P. A. (2005). Regulating the psychology profession in Malta. European Psychologist, 10(1),
76-77. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.10.1.76
Lane, D. (2011). Ethics and professional standards in supervision. In T. Bachkirova, P. Jackson, & D.
Clutternuck (Eds.), Coaching and mentoring supervision: Theory and practice (pp. 99–104).
Maidenhead, United Kingdom: Open University Press.
Nodop, S., & Strauß, B. (2014). Kompetenzbereiche in der psychotherapeutischen Ausbildung.
Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 43(3), 171-179.
https://doi.org/10.1026/1616-3443/a000272
Roth, A. D., & Pilling, S. (2008). A competence framework for the supervision of psychological
therapies. Retrieved August, 18, 2011 from www.ucl.ac.uk/CORE/.
Sburlati, E. S., Schniering, C. A., Lyneham, H. J., & Rapee, R. M. (2011). A model of therapist
competencies for the empirically supported cognitive behavioral treatment of child and
adolescent anxiety and depressive disorders. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14(1),
89-109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-011-0083-6
Willutzki, U., Fydrich, T., & Strauß, B. (2015). Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der
Psychotherapieausbildung und der Ausbildungsforschung. Psychotherapeut, 60(5), 353-364.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00278-015-0048-1

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551
EACLIPT Task Force On “Competences of Clinical Psychologists” 9

Clinical Psychology in Europe (CPE) is the official journal of the European

Association of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment (EACLIPT).

PsychOpen GOLD is a publishing service by Leibniz Institute for Psychology

Information (ZPID), Germany.

Clinical Psychology in Europe

2019, Vol.1(2), Article e35551
https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.v1i2.35551