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WHAT IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT?
A psychological assessment is a process through which a licensed psychologist collects information to explain a client’s behaviors and difficulties. This information may be used to determine if a client meets criteria for a certain diagnosis or to answer specific assessment questions (for example: “Why does my child struggles so much to make friends?”, “Why it is so hard for my child to learn math?”). Further, information gained during the psychological assessments are used to create recommendations on how to best address the client’s needs in different areas of the client’s life.
FOR WHICH CLIENTS DO I OFFER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT?
Over the years, I developed extensive experience providing psychological assessment about a wide variety of concerns. I currently offer psychological assessments for children, adolescents and adults .
Which types of psychological assessment do I provide?
I offer three types of psychological assessments:
- Psychoeducational assessment. A psychoeducational assessment explores a client’s cognitive and academic skills. This type of assessment is used to determine if a learning disability is preventing a client from successfully learn in academic settings and which accommodations may improve the client’s academic performance. Data are also gathered on the client’s emotional symptoms, but the assessment mainly aims at exploring the client's cognitive and academic functioning.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This assessment focuses on gathering information on a client’s executive functioning skills (such as paying attention, controlling impulses, and planning activities), to determine if the client meets criteria for ADHD and if so, how to best address the client’s difficulties in different settings.
- Sociemotional Assessment. A socioemotional assessment examines a client’s emotional functioning and gathers information on emotional symptoms such as internalizing (i.e. depression and anxiety) and externalizing (i.e. aggression and rule breaking behaviors) problems. If the client's has a history of trauma, a socioemotional assessment can help identify the effects of the trauma on the client's emotional functioning, as well as specific symptoms and conditions that may be related to the trauma (such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). Results of a socioemotional assessment inform recommendations targeting the client's emotional wellbeing and behavioral regulation.
- Therapeutic Assessment (TA). Therapeutic Assessment (TA) is a brief intervention which employs psychological tests and therapy techniques to offer clients a better understanding of their unique concerns and practice new strategies to address their concerns. An ample body of research supports the use of TA with adults, teens, children, families, and couples. I am a level 2 certified provider for TA for the adult model, and I am in the process of obtaining certification for the child and adolescent models. Further information on the Therapeutic Assessment can be found at https://therapeuticassessment.com/
Oftentimes, clients present a multitude of symptoms related to different aspects of their functioning. For example, a client may have academic problems and at the same time struggle with significant sad feelings. In these case a comprehensive assessment, which incorporate both psychoeducational and socioemotional testing, may be needed to determine if the client is suffering from multiple clinical disorders, or if there is one major problem that is driving the majority of the symptoms (i.e. a client may have a learning disability and be depressed at the same time, or he may be depressed and therefore unable to focus and learn).
What is my approach to psychological assessment?
- I view the psychological assessment as a cooperative process involving me (the psychologist), the client, and his caregivers in the case of a child. I strive to deeply understand the questions that the clients seeking the assessment have and to find the most effective ways to answer them.
- I believe a psychological assessment is a bit like a complicate puzzle. To put together the pieces of this puzzle, I employ a variety of tools and I gather information from multiple sources. During the assessment I use different techniques, standardized and not (such as observations, questionnaires, tests, clinical interviews, and play-based activities). In case I am assessing a child, I also collect data from a variety of caregivers, who may see the child in different contexts. For example, I may conduct a clinical interview and give some forms to complete to the child’s parents, but I may also send forms for teachers to complete and interview them as needed.
- I believe regardless of the client’s concern, it is important to consider the environment the client lives in. For this reason, I conduct culturally sensitive assessments, where I strive to take into account cultural values in my understanding of the client’s problems and in my recommendations on how to address them. Further, if the client is bilingual, I consider how knowing multiple languages may affect the client’s expression of cognitive and emotional skills. I have extensive experience doing bilingual assessment in English and Spanish.
- I have a strength-based perspective on assessments. Although clients may seek a psychological assessment because they think they themselves or their children have a problem, I always keep in mind the big picture. Every client is a unique combination of strengths and difficulties, and in my assessments I search for the strengths that the clients can capitalize on in order to address their concerns.
- When I do a psychological assessment, I always consider how my understanding of the clients’ concerns and my recommendations can improve the client’s school and/or work experience. For example, most children who struggle with cognitive, behavioral and/or emotional difficulties may benefit from specific school interventions. Through my doctoral training in school psychology and my internship as a psychologist in a school district, I gained extensive knowledge on the academic systems in the United States. When I offer recommendations at the end of the assessment process, I always include specific academic/work interventions that may help my clients being more successful.
How does the psychological assessment process work?
At the beginning of the psychological assessment, I conduct an in depth clinical interview with the clients seeking the assessment. After gathering the assessment questions and the client’s history, I create a testing plan, which includes observations, psychological testing and forms to complete. I then analyze the assessment data and write a report, where all the testing procedures and results are described, as well as recommendations on how to address the client’s concerns. At this point, I schedule a feedback session with the client, where I explain the assessments results, answer questions and share the report. A comprehensive psychological assessment usually takes about 20 hours of work between face-to-face time with client and work on the assessment data/writing the report. I complete the whole assessment myself, as I believe in the importance of gaining a deep understanding of my assessment clients through all the phases of the assessment.
WHAT ARE THE FEES FOR A PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT?
Fee for a psychological assessment vary greatly depending on how comprehensive the assessment needs to be, which types of measures are employed and which assessment questions will be explored.
