Psychological Assessment

Understanding What's Beneath the Difficulty

Psychological assessment can be useful when someone has been struggling emotionally or psychologically and it remains unclear what is contributing to the difficulty. Sometimes a person has been in treatment before, has received different diagnoses or recommendations, or simply feels that the usual explanations do not fully capture what they are experiencing.

My approach to assessment is not simply to generate test scores or assign a diagnosis. I use psychological testing together with a careful clinical interview and relevant history to develop a more complete understanding of the person. The goal is to clarify patterns of thinking, feeling, personality, and relationships that may be contributing to current difficulties.

Assessments may address questions involving personality functioning, emotional difficulties, diagnostic clarification, and treatment planning. I work with adolescents and adults, and the particular tests used depend upon the questions the assessment is intended to answer.

Following the evaluation, I meet with you to discuss the findings and what they may mean. When appropriate, I provide recommendations that can help guide psychotherapy or other treatment.

Getting Started

An assessment begins with a conversation about the questions you would like to better understand. From there, I can determine whether psychological assessment is likely to be useful and what type of evaluation would best address those questions.