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Assessment

Child Assessment

Adolescent Assessment

Adult Assessment 

Child, Adolescent and Adult Pre-Treatment Assessment

The Pre-Treatment Emotional Functioning Assessment has a necessary and essential function. It is the basis upon which the clinical interview provisional diagnosis is validated, the treatment and implementation is designed, and treatment effectiveness is ascertained. 

Course and Procedure of Pre-Treatment Assessment

Once a prospective patient has contacted the Center, a psychotherapist conducts an initial telephone interview. The telephone triage interview, lasting thirty minutes to three-quarters of an hour, firstly ascertains the treatment needs of the prospective patient. This initial interview assists the interviewer develop impressions of the prospective patient's basic features of interacting with others which can be predictive of the nature of the working alliance-relationship at the outset of treatment.

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A second set of questions seeks to understand the patient's current emotional and behavioral functioning in greater detail. And still another set of questions is designed to attain one's history of psychotherapy, history of counseling, psychiatric hospitalizations and whether the prospective patient is currently prescribed psychiatric pharmaco-therapies (psychiatric medications). Basic demographic information and billing information is collected thereafter.

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The telephone interview asks the caller to provide a narrative of their reasons for seeking services for their child, or theirself. The prospective patient's narrative often is followed by intervierer's questions intended to deepen the impression of how the patient is functioning broadly. Emphasis on one's developmental histories underpins the interviewer's-psychotherapist's focus, and the process of formulating a comprehensive understanding of the nature and reasons for the patient's illness begins.

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If both the prosepctive patient and the interviewer feel comfortable with one another, the prospective patient is asked if s/he would like to schedule an in-office appointment. These appointments serve to deepen and strengthen the working alliance via history gathering that will be conducted for several hours spanning several appointments.

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The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a mainstay in the Center's armamentarium of techniques used to collect these histories, and is introduced during the first in-office appointment. Upon completing the AAI interview, the patient is scheduled for pre-treatment psycho-diagnostic assessments. The treatment phase begins in earnest when the patient is provided both verbal and documented results of the AAI and psycho-diagnostic assessments. Depending upon the nature of the illness, mid-treatment assessments may be conducted to determine treatment progress. 

The Center accepts psychological testing referrals for:

  • Early development assessments
  • Emotional -Personality assessments
  • Achievement-Ability assessments
  • Adaptive behavior assessments
  • Addictions assessments
  • Cognitive assessments

Psychological Assessment-Testing

Psychological testing-assessment services are provided to those not seeking counseling or psychotherapy. Dr. Geoffrey Robinson-Wood provides academic achievement and ability evaluations, cognitive, and emotional functioning assessments. Dr. Robinson-Wood specializes in the assessment of emotional functioning in children ages 12 months through late adolescence.

Course and Procedure of Psychological Assessment-Testing

You, your physician, your psychotherapist, a school, the courts, or an agency has referred you, or your child to undergo a psychological evaluation. The referral is a request for an evaluator to answer one or more questions posed by the referral source. Questions may concern one’s academic achievement, cognitive, or emotional functioning, or motor development. The referral questions may be broadly asked: "Is the psychiatric diagnosis provided by my primary care physician fitting?" Or, the referral question may be specific: "How does my capacity to weather stress compare to others'?" Quite often the referral question is comprised of both general and specific questions. Answering the referral question/s culminates from having conducted interviews, and observations and the collection of administered tests and measures.

The clinical interview is designed to be comprehensive. The evaluator gathers the evaluee’s bio-psychosexual and psychosocial histories. The interview can extend to several hours spanning several appointments depending upon the complexity of the referral question. If found necessary, the evaluator may ask to obtain other sources of information including and academic, employment, medical, and behavioral health records. Signed consents are required permitting such disclosures.

The nature of the referral question guides the selection of tests administered. The numbers of tests administered will determine the time spent testing and gathering data. Testing and gathering test data can take six to twelve hours to complete. Three, sometimes four testing appointments may be necessary.

The Psychological Evaluation document presents a review and interpretive summary of all data collected. The document concludes with a succinct summation of the findings, puts forward answers to the referral question and ends with a section comprised of recommendations designed to assist the evaluee, parents, teachers and guidance counselors, behavioral health service professionals, medical professionals, employers, .

The evaluation concludes when the evaluator meets with the evaluee for approximately one hour to discuss test findings and to answer questions. The evaluee is at liberty to invite other interested parties to the feedback appointment.

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