CRPO Exam Lab
Canada Therapy & Wellness
Printable sheet
canadatherapy.ca/crpo/sheets/traps
The traps, on one page
A method for every section, five questions before every click, and the traps that catch good clinicians.
Work every section the same way
- Read the stem twice. Name the type, the selection rule, the purpose and the time frame.
- Read every option before clicking any. Sort, then select, strongest first.
- Information Gathering: take what serves the purpose in the stem, now, not one day.
- Decision Making, select as many: build the whole response (name it, work it with the client, document, follow up). One option alone leaves most of the credit.
- Decision Making, choose only one: rank, and take the single best.
Five questions before every click
- Do I know enough yet for this to be the right act?
- Is consent real: understood, specific, current?
- Whose discomfort does this serve, the client's or mine?
- Whose job is this: mine, or another profession's?
- Do I have the authority to do or disclose this?
The traps
- Acting before assessing: the right tool too early. A safety plan started before the risk assessment can score negative; after it, positive.
- Consent as a form: signatures without understanding, or a general release where consent must be specific.
- Your discomfort driving the action: over-referring, rushing to procedure, ending early, handing the moment to someone else.
- Another profession's job: communicating a diagnosis, advising on medication, legal advice, custody recommendations.
- Disclosing without authority: a request, even a lawyer's letter, compels nothing. Narrowing a disclosure does not cure missing consent.
- Over-correcting a boundary: the most forceful remedy at the client's expense. Aim for proportionate and collaborative.
- Identity as the pathology: making culture, faith, sexuality, gender, disability or status the problem. Ask what their context means to them.
Consult, or act?
- Consult when it is beyond your competence or obligations compete. Refer if that is not enough.
- Never instead of a duty: with reasonable grounds to suspect a child needs protection, report it to a children's aid society yourself, immediately.
- Risk in the room, or a rule that settles it: respond to the client first, consult after.
Endings: who starts them?
- The client: respect it, explore without pressure, review progress, offer referrals, record reasons.
- You: a proper reason, explained and documented, a referral, and unused fees refunded.
- An outside cause (benefits end, closure, a move): plan early, name other services, give notice.
Ignore how the client reacts: judge each option on its principle. Never skip a section.