A taxonomy for education and training in professional psychology health service specialties: evolution and implementation of new guidelines for a common language

The Education and Training Guidelines: A Taxonomy for Education and Training in Professional Psychology Health Service Specialties was endorsed as a policy of the American Psychological Association in 2012. These Guidelines have the potential for broad impact on the field by providing both a structure and recommendations for the consistent usage of language--definitions and terminology--to reduce current descriptive inconsistencies across education and training programs in professional psychology. The Guidelines are not designed to define specifics of the training or practice of individual psychologists; they are to be used only to describe programmatic structure in a consistent manner. This article details the developmental history of these Guidelines and highlights the strong alliance between the leaders of the various recognized specialties in professional psychology and the education and training community in health service psychology. The content, application, future dissemination and impact of the Guidelines are presented.