National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology

About the National Register

The National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, established in 1974, is the largest credentials bank for doctoral level psychologists. We are a national nonprofit organization that is committed to advancing psychology as a profession and improving the delivery of high quality health services to the public. We credential doctoral level psychologists, offer free continuing education, and work closely with doctoral level psychology students to verify and bank their credentials. We designate doctoral programs in psychology, verify credentials for health care organizations, provide primary source verification of practitioner education to health care providers, and review foreign doctoral degrees and education for state psychology boards. We distribute standards for evaluating the education and training of licensed psychologists, assess programs that enhance psychologist training and delivery of services, provide information on psychologists to the health care community and general public, and review the practices and ethics of psychologists to ensure integrity in the profession and first-rate patient care. We disseminate timely industry information and news, and supply self-help resources and a free, unrestricted referral database to consumers.

A Health Service Provider in Psychology is a licensed/certified psychologist, at the independent practice level in his/her state, province, territory, or country, who is trained and experienced in the delivery of prevention, consultation, assessment, and treatment (rev. 2010).

Vision Statement

To improve the health of a diverse and global community.

Mission Statement

National Register Mission: The National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology credentials psychologists, promotes credentialed psychologists to consumers, provides distinction and value to Registrants, guides psychology students toward credentialing, enhances psychologists' contributions to integrated healthcare, and facilitates identification of qualified psychologists in a global community.

Mission-Driven Activities

The National Register is a nonprofit organization with more than 35 years of experience serving consumers, psychologists, and the healthcare community. We are the largest and most successful credentialing organization in psychology.

To realize our goal of credentialing psychologists, we:

determine which licensed psychologists meet the National Register’s stringent requirements for education, internship, and experience as healthcare professionals;
disseminate standards for evaluating the education, training and credentialing of health service psychologists;
collaborate with the APA Committee on Early Career Psychologists (ECP) to award credentialing scholarships;
raise funds to provide ECP credentialing scholarships.

To realize our goal of promoting credentialed psychologists to consumers, we:

provide the FindaPsychologist.org public website to connect informed consumers with health service psychologists;
offer free self-help and consumer resources on FindaPsychologist.org;
monitor the licensure status and ethical conduct of credentialed psychologists by verifying licensure status with the primary source at least twice yearly and ethical conduct through psychologists’ annual attestation.

To realize our goal of providing distinction and value to Registrants, we:

promote the unique identity of health service providers in psychology nationally;
expedite licensure mobility for psychologists in 47 jurisdictions in the US and Canada, as well as internationally;
market Registrants to consumers through FindaPsychologist.org;
provide consumers with additional information on Registrants through Profile Pages;
verify psychologists’ credentials to healthcare organizations through NationalRegisterPro.org;
offer free continuing education (CE) programs* for Registrants;
reward and recognize early career psychologists through the Judy E. Hall ECP Awards;
recognize lifetime achievement in psychology through the A.M Wellner Distinguished Career Awards;
advocate for the services and scope of practice of psychologists at the state and federal levels;
publish The Register Report online and in print featuring articles on current healthcare practice and ethical issues, including articles published by early career psychologists;
develop and maintain social networking sites to connect Registrants and other interested parties.

*The National Register is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The National Register maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

To realize our goal of guiding psychology students toward credentialing, we:

offer the National Psychologist Trainee Register (NPTR) as the entry point for banking approved credentials and charting progress toward licensure and credentialing;
collaborate with the American Psychological Association Graduate Students (APAGS) to award NPTR credentialing scholarships to qualified doctoral students;
raise funds to provide NPTR credentialing scholarships;
develop and maintain social networking sites to connect doctoral students/trainees and other interested parties;
publish articles by doctoral students in The Register Report;
identify qualified doctoral programs in psychology through the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB)/National Register Designation Project;
distribute the 4-volume DVD series (A Legacy of Excellence) on education, supervision, specialization, and credentialing to students and faculty/supervisors.

To realize our goal of enhancing psychologists' contributions to integrated healthcare, we:

monitor healthcare reform and disseminate information on the integral role of psychologists;
identify and promote examples of effective models for quality healthcare services;
advocate for the integration of psychological services into primary healthcare through collaboration with other organizations, such as community health centers, patient-centered health homes, Medicaid/Medicare, Accountable Care Organizations, governmental programs, and private insurance;
serve as the only National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) deemed source for credentials verification of psychologists' education, training and board certification;
support emerging practice areas for psychologists through credible methods of identifying areas of expertise;
disseminate criteria for the evaluation of postdoctoral psychopharmacology programs in collaboration with the ASPPB.

To realize our goal of facilitating the identification of qualified psychologists in the global community, we:

review international applicants for credentialing in the US;
identify qualified international doctoral programs in psychology through the ASPPB/NR Designation Project;
assist state, provincial, and territorial licensing boards in their review of international applicants for licensure;
contribute to the development of an international register of psychologists;
disseminate information and resources to international psychologists and psychology students.