Psychological Assessments – are they right for me?
Co-authored by Jenna Zorik and Dr. Marina Heifetz
When we are struggling, it is important to not only seek support but to also figure out the why. After all, without determining what needs to be addressed, we can hardly find the best way to deal with the issue at hand. As they say, we do not know what we do not know. Just as with physical ailments, one would consult a physician to seek out a diagnosis before proceeding with treatment, so it is also important to seek out an assessment for psychological challenges.
Psychological assessments are designed to work in the same way – to help the clinician determine what needs to be addressed and to create a course of treatment best suited to the person they are attending to. When it comes to development or mental health concerns, many conditions go hand-in-hand (e.g., depression and anxiety), though not always; and some condition can look very similar in presentation but require different approaches (such as learning disability and ADHD). Moreover, psychological assessments serve an additional purpose of helping the clinician to find out strengths and weaknesses in each client so the treatment can be customized to strengthen everything that works for the client.
Assessments can take different forms and are unique to each client. For example, a socio-emotional assessment focuses on mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, while a psycho-educational assessment also includes assessment of cognitive and information-processing abilities. All assessments include clinical interviews, which help access the client’s strengths and challenges. Use of standardized questionnaires allow the clinician to assess their client based on the existing body of research and help further tease out potentially similarly-presenting conditions which may be hard to distinguish during interviews. Further assessment of cognitive and information processing skills are conducted utilizing standardized measures that allow comparison of individual to their age groups. These tools provide useful diagnostic information and allow for a richer understanding of individual’s abilities in different learning domains.
Here at Mindful Psychology and Wellness Centre, our specialization is working with children and adolescents. We have a variety of assessments to help children, youth, and their parents to address their unique needs. For example, psychoeducational assessments address students’ strengths and challenges and provide an understanding of what may be impacting the individuals’ learning and attention. Assessments of giftedness help students who show above-average academic strengths to determine if enrolling into the gifted program is right for them. Socio-emotional assessments are used to assess mental health more broadly. Attention assessments are used to assess the child or teen on attention and executive function skills, and whether they meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Developmental assessments provide an opportunity to address developmental or adaptive challenges. We invite you to check the assessment page of our website or contact our office to learn more.
