Psychological Testing Services

What is Psychological Testing?

Psychological testing is an evaluation of how we think, feel, and behave for the purpose of answering a specific question about mental or behavioral health. These evaluations involve a clinical interview and the administration of standardized, research-based tools.

Is Psychological Evaluation Right For Me?

Many people can benefit from psychological evaluations. For example, an evaluation can be helpful if:

  • You want to know if you are a good fit for a certain type of school, career, or educational/training program. Some programs even require testing for this reason.

  • You are struggling to be successful at school or work, or do not seem to be achieving your full potential. If you do not understand why these things are so difficult, or have tried different solutions without sufficient improvement, testing may be able to help clarify the problem and identify practical, helpful solutions. There are a number of things that can impact success at school or work: Some people may process information differently or have certain strengths or weaknesses in how they absorb or process information. Some people struggle with attention or concentration. In other situations, emotional symptoms or interpersonal functioning can impact our success. Testing can tease apart if any or a combination of these are impacting you.

  • You have received multiple and possibly contradictory mental health diagnoses, or you would like to re-assess a diagnosis you have been given. This can be an indication of complex difficulties that are hard to tease apart with just interviews and therapy. Testing can help gather comprehensive data to better understand what is going on and how to manage it.

  • You have been in mental health therapy for a long time and are not seeing the type of improvement you are hoping for. In such situations, testing can clarify diagnosis and an understanding of how problems are caused or maintained. It can also be used to generate recommendations for treatments that will be more effective and take into consideration how the person processes information or learns best.

What can you Assess in a Psychological Evaluation?

I am experienced in doing psychological evaluations to assess the following:

  • Intellectual Abilities, Strengths, and Weaknesses; Learning Styles, Challenges, or Disabilities.

  • Evaluations for appropriateness for gifted programs, private schools, or special education services/settings.

  • Presence or Severity of ADHD

  • Identifying and Understanding Autism

  • Identification or Clarification of Disorders related to Mood, Anxiety, Trauma, Severe Mental Illness, or other behavioral health issues

  • Interpersonal Style/Patterns and Presence of Personality Disorders

How long does psychological testing take?

The length of testing depends on the questions being asked and the individual needs of the client. It is likely to take anywhere between 3 hours and 12 hours. The initial consultation session takes approximately 60-90 minutes and involves a clinical interview; at that time, an estimate of the projected testing time is given. One or two testing sessions are then scheduled

What happens after the testing session?

After the completion of all interviews and measures, a comprehensive report will be written that reviews all of the measures used and all of the results, offers any diagnoses or answers to questions asked, and provides recommendations if appropriate based on those conclusions.

One of the things I value most is using testing results to provide you with helpful recommendations. Recommendations are tailored to be specific to your needs and the questions identified for testing. I focus on the development of recommendations that are both comprehensive and practical so that you can immediately apply the results of testing to living a healthier and more successful life.

We will also have a testing feedback session, a meeting lasting approximately one hour to review the results of testing. This gives you a chance to ask questions and to identify any other recommendations that would be helpful. It is very important to me that you leave the testing process confident in your understanding of the results and with next steps to take action for positive change. I can also offer additional consultations to discuss the results with other providers or attend relevant meetings to discuss testing results.