Psychological Assessment: You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers

Post written by: Dr. Shelby Zavala-Barajas

Imagine this, you’re having stomach pains and lightheadedness. You schedule a visit with your doctor where she reviews your medical history, recent symptoms, and runs a number of tests. She may have some blood work done, do an ultrasound, or an MRI. All of this information would be used to help her determine what may be causing your discomfort and how best to proceed forward with treatment and symptom relief. Psychological assessment works the same way! If you notice difficulties or changes in your mental health, seeing a psychologist for assessment is the best way to get to the root of the issue and improve your quality of life.

Psychological assessment utilizes historical information, interview, observation, self-report measures, and standardized psychological tests to determine diagnoses, increase insight, and provide recommendations on how to best move forward in all areas of life, at any age.

Some questions or concerns you might have:

The lists below are often the starting points for why someone might pursue a psychological assessment:

• Academic/Educational Functioning: Identifying challenges and/or strengths in specific academic/educational areas, such as mathematics, reading, and written and oral language
• Adaptive Functioning: Assessing for abilities and challenges in activities of daily living at home, school, and/or work
• Attachment Status: Identifying the ways one relates to others
• Attention/Concentration Functioning: Assessing for ability to maintain focus during both simple and complex tasks
• Cognitive Functioning: Problem solving, reasoning, vocabulary, comprehension, memory, and overall intelligence
• Personality: Identifying personality traits and how they impact an individual in their daily life
• Social Functioning: Assessing one’s ability to develop and maintain healthy social interactions and relationships
• Trauma Responses: Identifying reactions to trauma including PTSD and complex trauma

Some people come in with symptoms they would like to identify the root of, such as:

• Changes in mood
• Excessive nervousness
• Social anxiety or withdrawal
• Difficulties in relationships
• Changes in sleep or eating habits
• Difficulty concentrating
• Trouble completing schoolwork or work tasks
• Lack of interest in previously enjoyable activities
• Engagement in unwanted behaviors with difficulty changing/stopping behavior
• Physical symptoms (i.e., stomach aches, headaches, muscle tension, frequent urination, etc.) that cannot be attributed to medical causes
• Confusing feelings that cannot be identified or attributed to something specific
• Difficulty moving through a past trauma or painful experience
• Feeling different than others in a way that makes you uncomfortable or unhappy

What can an assessment provide?

• Insight, self-awareness, self-compassion
• Diagnoses
• Recommendations for treatment
• Possible accommodations for home, work, or school settings
• A better idea of what will help improve one’s quality of life

What’s different about getting an assessment at The Mendery?

Individualization: Every assessment at The Mendery is developed specific to the person and what concerns/questions they have. There are NO one size fits all assessments at The Mendery. Five people with the same concerns/questions could come in, but they will have at least some variation in the tests administered due to their specific needs.

Customization: We can assess for as many or as few questions/concerns you have. We can look for just one specific thing, or we can cover a very wide range of possible etiologies of your concerns.

Therapeutically Focused: We approach assessment with a goal of working together with you to gather the most accurate information. This means that we take the time to really understand what you’re hoping to get out of the process, we use our expertise to select tests that will measure what you’re looking for, we utilize the testing sessions to see where your challenges lie and what might be helpful for you, we take our time to write a comprehensive report, and we spend time going over all the gathered information, diagnoses, and recommendations with you. Our assessment process can be more therapeutically valuable than short term therapy.

Consistency: You will work with one psychologist throughout the process. Some assessments are conducted by a mix of providers. This means that the psychologist misses out on incredibly valuable information in the form of observation and therapeutic interaction during testing. Here at The Mendery, you have the same psychologist with you or your child from start to finish!

Licensure: Psychologists are the ONLY professionals that can administer the FULL range of psychological tests. While other professionals (i.e., psychiatric nurses, school psychologists, and medical doctors) can administer and interpret select psychological tests, only a psychologist has specialized training and authority to administer and interpret the complete collection of psychological assessments. This is especially true for projective measures, which assess attachment status, personality, relational functioning, and mood disorders. Psychologists are the only people who can utilize these tests, which often lead to the most therapeutic information in an assessment.

Ready to get started? Or have more questions? Reach out to us!