U of T doctorate in hand, school psychologist returns to her practice with a fresh outlook

Maaike Canrinus was an experienced school and clinical psychologist when she founded Riverwise Psychological Services – a clinic that provides services for children and adolescents in Barrie and Muskoka, Ont. – in 2019. But like many business owners, nothing could prepare her for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I honestly didn't know what was going to happen to the practice," Canrinus said as she recalled how business slowed down in the early period of the pandemic. "I had never even been on a Zoom call with a client before.”

But while she grappled with the challenges facing her practice, Canrinus also spotted an exciting opportunity on the horizon: the newly-launched doctor of education (EdD) in school psychology program at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Having put off doctoral studies for several years to prioritize her career and family, Canrinus decided to take the leap and enrolled in the first cohort of the program.

“Running a practice, having a family and doing school was definitely a lot to manage, but the fact that this program was designed for people working in the field already made it doable for me,” she says.

On Wednesday, Canrinus crossed the stage at Convocation Hall to receive her EdD in school psychology. Her doctoral research explored how psychologists can improve their practice of giving feedback to families around psycho-educational assessments – something that’s hugely relevant to her practice at Riverwise.

“[My degree] is directly linked to what I'm doing all of the time, and it has given me new ideas and different perspectives about how to engage in the practice of giving feedback to families,” she says. “It also has given me ideas about how I can support others, supervise others and train other clinicians to do this better.”

Canrinus explains that many clinicians experience a gap in training when it comes to how to provide feedback on psycho-educational assessments in a meaningful and supportive way. “We get a lot of training on how to do assessments, how to do testing, how to synthesize and formulate diagnoses... but we'd never really get a ton of training on how to actually conduct the [feedback] meeting,” she says.

To explore the issue, Canrinus completed a case study by interviewing psychologists in Ontario about how they developed the skills and capacity to provide feedback to caregivers. Her research identified three key themes: feedback must be tailored to the unique needs of each parent or caregiver; delivery of feedback requires navigating complex emotional landscapes and supporting parent and caregiver emotions; and finally, mastering the art and science of feedback is a multi-faceted and career-long process.

A major takeaway is that there needs to be dedicated training for budding school psychologists in the realm of feedback delivery. “Given that assessments are a cornerstone of school psychology practice, and effective feedback can provide significant benefits to children and families, we owe it to both clinicians and clients to prioritize this training,” she says.

To that end, Canrinus has already taken the lead by offering a training session to graduate students taking a course on clinical supervision, taught by Archie Kwan, assistant professor, teaching stream and director of clinical training for the EdD in school psychology program.

“I look forward to further opportunities to connect with and train others in this critical area,” she says.

Canrinus also regularly sought out discussions with her mentor Susan Graham-Clay, a school psychologist practising in Barrie, on everything from ethical dilemmas to challenging case conceptualizations and considerations when supervising other clinicians.

Graham-Clay praised Canrinus for pursuing innovative avenues in her practice, such as collaborating with First Nations communities, running treatment groups for children and experimenting with different psychological report formats to make them more user-friendly. “It is indeed exciting to see such an accomplished early-career psychologist excel in serving the needs of children and youth in our community,” Graham-Clay says.

For her part, Canrinus credits OISE for crafting a program that serves the needs of practitioners like herself. “A program like this is so much more accessible for people in different locations, in different stages of life,” she says. “I love that, [I’m] so grateful for that.”

She says she’s also grateful for the close bond shared among peers in her cohort. “As a group, we provided so much support to each other – from the very beginning right through to the very, very end for me,” she says. “They are hugely supportive and amazing.”