Have you been spending months or even years in therapy without making progress? Maybe you’re feeling like therapy doesn’t work for you. Maybe you find yourself repeating self-defeating patterns and feel like you have lost direction in your treatment. Do you wonder if there is something that you are missing or not addressing in your therapy work, something that could be taking away from your happiness or joy?

Psychological testing and Evaluation

We find that in these cases, psychological testing or evaluation can be helpful. Think about it this way - when you visit your primary care doctor when you’re sick, they check all your vitals and draw your blood. They take your temperature and blood pressure, look at hormone and vitamin levels, as well as check out all your major organs and systems during their exam. Doctors need to look at the whole picture, taking into account any issues that could be anywhere throughout your body, in order to look for a diagnosis that could potentially be causing the symptoms that are bothering you.

After doing this, the doctor can tell you what the problem, or suspected problem is, and what the recommended next steps are. They’ll usually give you a plan of treatment and medication if needed.

In this sense, psychological testing is very similar - through it, psychologists can help determine the presence of different symptoms, what they might reflect, understand their impact on your life and how they might manifest, and evidence-based ways to address them.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Before beginning the psychological testing and assessment process, we will meet to obtain a thorough history, including discussing your childhood experiences, family life, history of mental health problems or strengths, and the current problems you face or are experiencing. From this, we can develop specific questions we would want answered by testing.

The next step is the face-to-face work. The tests that we use depend on the questions we want to answer, and specific demographics. We will choose the most appropriate tests. During this next session, the time will be devoted to the testing process. This might involve you using specifically developed computer software to complete tests, or might require you to respond to questions through writing, drawing or storytelling. All of the tests that we use are specifically designed to help us to better understand you.

This process, combined with your history and experiences, will help us to arrive at an appropriate DSM-V diagnosis. Finally, we will meet to discuss the results and recommendations. A copy of the report, or a summary, is also provided. Although psychological testing is typically performed at our Palm Beach Gardens office, Dr. Chin can travel to your location (school, treatment facility or other higher level of care) to facilitate testing.

Prices for Assessment Procedures