Psychological assessment refers to scientific methods that psychologists use to understand the human personality. Psychological assessment provides accurate and objective information to help answer questions about treatment planning, treatment outcome, placement and decision-making in a wide range of contexts, including the Courts.
Psychologists’ training in assessment is unique among health care providers. Psychologists learn to select, administer, score and interpret psychological tests and place the results in a wider context to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the individual.
I have extensive expertise in the use of psychological tests to assess personality and emotional functioning and I am a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment. I apply these skills in civil, criminal and family cases in the Courts (see my other website for more information). Although this is a separate service, my experience in this area has a beneficial impact on my psychotherapeutic work in four main ways:
- I have interviewed hundreds of people in very challenging situations
- I recognise common patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviour
- I appreciate how each individual is both similar to others and yet also different and unique from others
- I can integrate extensive, complex information across different modalities to arrive at a psychological formulation.