And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband Revelation 21:2

The Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (AHPCZ) on 31 March 2021 through its Chairperson signed into effect the regulations governing the practice of Psychology which shall be herein referred to as Regulations of 2021. Before the coming into effect of the Regulations of 2021 the psychology profession been guided with Regulations of 2016 which were done under the Chairperson of Dr Machando. The current psychology representative is Dr Hebert Zirima who took the mantle in 2021 via elections in accordance with the Health Professions Act (Chapter 27:19). The term for the psychology representative started by him as AHPCZ making a call and consulting on what proposals to include in the regulations. As Society of Zambezi Psychology we made our proposals and we feel that it was worthwhile. The regulations of 2021 we see them as reformatory and developmental in the field of psychology in Zimbabwe. The regulations of 2021 build on the regulations of 2016 and also amend some aspects within the regulations of 2016.

The regulations of 2021 clearly spells it out Psychological practice as a Masters practice (p14, 2021 psychology regulations). The regulations of 2016 had set this in motion but had not clearly stated as done in section 7 of the (p14, 2021 Psychology Regulations). This means for one to register as a psychologist in psychology as of 2021 one needs to be in possession of (a) Masters in psychology qualification in the relevant category (p7, 2021 Psychology Regulations) of registration category e.g a Msc Counseling psychology holder can register in the category of counseling psychology. (b) One year Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (AHPCZ) supervised internship practice in the relevant practice category p7,14 section 7 2021 Psychology Regulations (c) An honours degree in psychology and 5 O level passes including English, Mathematics and a science subject (p7,8 2021 Psychology Regulations).
The other issue which has emerged from the regulations of 2021 is the categories of fully registered psychologists. The categories of registration have emerged to be three which are (i) a Fully registered psychologist after passing board exams (ii) Supervising/Senior psychologist (p9, 2021 Psychology Regulations) which can be applied after three year of continuous practice after registration and (iii) Chartered psychologist with 5years of minimum practice (p4, 2021 Psychology Regulations) which again should be applied for (p20, 2021 Psychology Regulations) after publication by AHPCZ at least three times a year.
The new requirement for supervisors in the 2021 regulations is that they should have at least one publication in 5 years in the relevant area of practice and if one is to apply as of year 2022 to be a supervisor one should have at least that publication article. Section 5 subsection (ii) sets in motion the application process (p9,10 2021 Psychology Regulations). This then seeks in our perspective to make psychology to talk to the public rather than just being good listeners.
Psychologists are now under the current regulations allowed to practice just after being registered as psychologists, the only condition being that they can do so co-practicing in the first year with an experienced registered psychologist only for one year after which they can then sorely practice(p25, 2021 Psychology Regulations). This is a departure from the 2016 Psychology regulations which allowed private practice for those registered as psychologists to commence after three solid years.
On internship the most notable change is that of hours of internship and the period of internship one can do under private practice. The period of internship is now defined for all the internship categories which is a shift from the previous 2016 Psychology regulations which had defined internship hours for clinical psychology internship as 40 hours per week. The Regulations of 2021 sets 520 hours per year for all interns which is an average of 10 hours per week (p11, 2021 Psychology Regulations). The 2021 Psychology Regulations extents a period in which one can do internship in private practice from the previous regulations which allowed up to three months only to the now six months with a provision of extension if one is to write to the board if they fail to secure public placement for internship (p13, 2021 Psychology Regulations).
The changes have also affected on how board exams are conducted the regulations of 2021 migrates the exam process from a manual system to a virtual system. All exams from file submission to the board examination are to be done online “virtually” (p16, 15, 2021 Psychology Regulations). It’s a new world order I must say. Exam sittings have been increased from the regular two to three per year (p20, 2021 Psychology Regulations)
The current regulations includes section 16 for student psychologists(p26, 2021 Psychology Regulations). It makes such registration for students mandatory and introduces issues of a penalty if one is in future seeks registration as an psychology intern without prior registration as a student psychologist with AHPCZ (p12, 2021 Psychology Regulations).
In conclusion one cannot help but agree that the only constant on earth is change.

Prosper K Mushauri

Coordinator

Society of Zambezi Psychology