The registrar program is Board-approved supervised practice completed after an accredited postgraduate degree, leading to area of practice endorsement. A master's level registrar completes 3,000 hours over at least 88 weeks, including 80 hours of supervision and 80 hours of active CPD. Doctoral graduates complete 1,500 hours over 44 weeks.
Those numbers are the easy part. What derails registrars is procedural: hours accrued before the Board approved the program, a supervision mix that quietly breaches the individual-versus-group ratio, or a principal supervisor whose approval lapsed halfway through. Below is what the Guidelines on area of practice endorsements and the Board's registrar program page require, in the order you meet them.
What is the psychology registrar program?
It is a period of supervised practice in one of nine approved areas, undertaken after an accredited postgraduate qualification in that same area, to develop the competencies expected of an endorsed psychologist. It has three components: psychological practice, supervision with a Board-approved supervisor, and continuing professional development.
The nine approved areas are clinical neuropsychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, counselling psychology, educational and developmental psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology, organisational psychology, and sport and exercise psychology.
Endorsement is not specialist registration. Psychology has a single register, the endorsement is a notation on it, and the Board says endorsement "is not a mechanism to extend or restrict scope of practice". That matters when you write your website copy, because the advertising rules on the word "specialist" are strict: see Ahpra advertising guidelines for psychologists.
While in the program you may call yourself a registrar, for example "registrar in clinical neuropsychology". You must not use a title suggesting you already hold the endorsement.
How many hours is the registrar program?
Your qualification determines the requirements, not your experience. The Board sets four combinations:
- Master's degree approved to sixth year, or a bridging program for a first endorsement: 88 weeks minimum duration, 3,000 total hours, 80 hours of supervision, 80 hours of active CPD.
- Bridging program for a subsequent endorsement: 66 weeks, 2,250 hours, 60 hours of supervision, 60 hours of active CPD.
- Combined Master's/PhD, approved to sixth year with a doctoral thesis: 66 weeks, 2,250 hours, 60 hours of supervision, 60 hours of active CPD.
- Doctoral degree approved to seventh year or above: 44 weeks, 1,500 hours, 40 hours of supervision, 40 hours of active CPD.
Two things clinicians routinely get wrong. First, the total hours include your supervision and CPD hours, they are not added on top. Second, prior experience reduces nothing: the Board states that experience acquired before the new learning, in another profession such as social work, or outside the program "will not reduce the registrar program requirements".
Separately from the total, your practice must include a minimum of 176 hours per year of direct client contact: assessment, intervention, prevention, consultation and management planning. Variation needs Board approval in special circumstances.
If you already hold an endorsement and are working towards a second one, you complete 75 per cent of the usual hours: 2,250 instead of 3,000, or 1,125 instead of 1,500.
Do I have to apply before I start the registrar program?
Yes, and this is the single most expensive mistake in the process. The guidelines state that an application for approval "must be submitted to, and approved by, the Board before the applicant begins the registrar program". Practice you accrue while your application is sitting in your drafts folder is not registrar practice.
The sequence is: finish the degree and obtain your transcript, hold or apply for general registration, find a Board-approved principal supervisor who agrees to take you, secure a work role that lets you meet the practice requirements, then design the program of practice, supervision and CPD and lodge the AEAP-76 form. You do not need to wait for the graduation ceremony, only for the transcript confirming you are eligible to graduate. Doctoral candidates can apply for early general registration once coursework and placements are done and the thesis has progressed substantially.
If you are also setting up on your own, this sequencing overlaps with starting a private psychology practice in Australia and your Medicare provider number application.
What are the supervision requirements?
This is where the detail bites, because the requirements are proportional and only become visible when you total them at the end. Supervision in the registrar program must be:
- provided by the principal supervisor for at least 50 per cent and up to 100 per cent of total supervision
- delivered frequently, with fortnightly given as the guide while you are practising, though the supervisor may vary this as long as total hours are met
- predominantly in sessions of at least one hour, with no more than 25 per cent of total supervision accrued in shorter sessions
- individual (one to one) for at least 66 per cent of the total, so small group supervision is capped at 33 per cent
- at a minimum rate of 40 hours per full time equivalent year of practice, and at least 10 hours a year if you take a leave of absence for part of the year
- direct, meaning real time verbal communication in the same room, by video or web conference, or by telephone.
Secondary supervisors are capped by their own credentials. One who holds endorsement in the same area of practice as your program can provide up to 50 per cent of total supervision. One endorsed in a different area, or not endorsed at all, can provide up to 33 per cent.
Who can be your principal supervisor?
Not simply any endorsed psychologist. A principal supervisor needs a separate Board approval as a "Registrar Program Principal Supervisor", on top of ordinary Board-approved supervisor status, and to obtain it they must have held endorsement in the relevant area of practice for at least two years. Secondary supervisors need no extra approval beyond being a Board-approved supervisor.
Board-approved supervisor status itself requires three years of general registration plus full training with a Board-approved provider, and it must be refreshed at least every five years. Here is the trap worth checking today: if that approval lapses, the Board's requirements for supervisors say plainly that "any supervision provided while you are not a Board-approved supervisor will not be recognised". The supervisor is responsible for telling you, but you are the one who loses the hours, so verify your supervisor on the Board's list of approved supervisors at the start and check the renewal date against your expected end date.
Your supervisor also carries documentation duties: keeping monthly documentation, directly observing your work including by video or audio recording, and viewing your active client files intermittently. Our clinical supervision notes templates cover the structure.
What CPD counts during the registrar program?
Only active CPD, which the Board defines as written or oral activities that engage you in active training designed to enhance and test learning. A seminar with a written test qualifies. Passively sitting through a webinar does not, and if an activity is not inherently active your supervisor must set written work or another task to make it so. Other accepted examples: a structured series of articles followed by an online assessment, presenting a genuinely new topic to peers, a workshop requiring role play, and trialling a new technique then evaluating it.
The good news is that it stacks. A full time registrar doing 40 hours of supervision and 40 hours of CPD a year already exceeds the 30 hour annual CPD standard for general registration, which requires 10 hours of peer consultation and 20 hours of other activities. You will need to top up separately if you work under 2.5 days a week, take extended leave, or start part way through the registration year, which runs 1 December to 30 November.
What do you submit to the Board along the way?
Four moments, and only one of them is at the end:
- AEAP-76 to have the program approved before you begin.
- PREA-76, a progress report submitted once you have completed half of your required supervised practice hours, with your supervisor's assessment of the competencies.
- Approval for substantial changes, sought before the change, including a change of primary work role or a change of supervisor.
- AECR-76 with a final progress report signed by your principal supervisor, once every component is complete.
How do you track 3,000 hours without losing any?
Because the requirements are ratios rather than a single total, a spreadsheet updated from memory each quarter is how registrars discover, in month twenty, that group supervision has crept past 33 per cent or that too many sessions ran to 45 minutes. Track five figures continuously rather than annually: cumulative practice hours, direct client contact against the 176 per year floor, supervision split by principal versus secondary, supervision split by individual versus group, and session length. If your session records already carry a date, duration and client-contact flag, most of this falls out of the diary you already keep rather than being a second system. PractaLuma is AI-native practice management software for Australian mental-health practices, and its supervision tools and clinical documentation features are built around that principle: capture once at the point of care, report from it later. Plans and pricing are published for practices comparing options.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the registrar program take in practice? The minimums are duration based as well as hours based, so a master's level registrar cannot finish faster than 88 weeks even full time, and a doctoral graduate cannot finish faster than 44 weeks. Part time practice extends the calendar accordingly.
Can supervision be done by video call? Yes. The Board accepts direct supervision in the same room, by video or web conference, or by telephone. What it does not accept is asynchronous contact, since supervision must be real time verbal communication.
Do I need a new registrar program for a second endorsement? Yes, but a shorter one. You complete an approved one year postgraduate qualification in the new area, then 75 per cent of the usual supervised practice hours for that endorsement.
What if I completed supervised practice overseas? The Board may recognise prior supervised practice if it was formal, post qualification, in the same area of practice, and recognised by the local registration authority. It is assessed for comparability rather than granted automatically: see pathways to endorsement.
Can I call myself a clinical psychologist while I am a registrar? No. Until the endorsement is granted you may use the registrar titles, such as "registrar (clinical psychology)", but not a title that suggests you already hold the endorsement. Psychologists still completing the postgraduate degree for a first endorsement may only use "psychologist" or "registered psychologist".
This article is general information about the Board's published requirements, not registration advice. Check the current Psychology Board of Australia guidelines and your own program approval before making decisions.