It has been an essential and enjoyable element of my career to continue to learn and develop my clinical, teaching, research, and professional governance skills. This must be a self-directed process but has been facilitated by the RANZCP and AHPRA CPD requirements which for me has had the following key elements.

1. Clinical skills. These have been refined and developed through the processes of individual supervision and as a component of regular practice review groups. For example, PRGs have related to neurodevelopmental disorders, promoting healthy early infant attachment, assessment treatment and psychotherapy skills, both psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural, and family group interventions. The process of ‘see one do one” is the best form of both learning and teaching these clinical practices. Another process is a 360-deg. review of clinical cases including discussion of assessment reports directly with the family/patient, review with multidisciplinary colleagues and feedback from referring medical practitioners.
    
2. Clinical Research. Reflection on clinical practice of necessity raises questions and doubts which form the basis of clinical research. In my experience, this necessarily leads to developing collaborative multidiscipline groups to develop methods to research these questions, consider and gain approval of ethical inquiry, consult with those with lived and cultural experience of the issues, apply for funding, analyse and publish the findings which necessarily introduces another peer reviewed process. The publication of the papers that arise from this process is a key demonstration of professional development.
    
3. Professional Education. This is a two-way process involving firstly, a continuation of attendance at professional meetings and conferences, which have been further facilitated by being available online. Secondly, involvement in preparing and presenting teaching materials, contemporaneously as webinars, involvement in international and national conference planning, and peer review of research papers and supervision and mentoring of colleagues.

Another issue not directly inherent in the CPD programmes, for all practitioners, is attention to one’s own health and well-being in balanced work, life and relationships. For some a further element is development of clinical governance skills and mental health delivery policies. This is a task that requires opportunities for continuing professional development.