A guide to conducting Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment to promote client growth Mental health professionals are increasingly enthusiastic about and ready to use psychological test data, research, and theory in life-relevant ways to improve diagnosis, client care, and treatment outcomes. With Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (C/TA), clients participate actively with the assessor in exploring how their test scores and patterns reflect who they are in their daily lives and how they can learn to help themselves cope with life's challenges. Using a case study approach to demonstrate how to apply C/TA in practice, Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment provides practitioners with a variety of flexible and adaptable case examples featuring adults, children, adolescents, couples, and families from different backgrounds in need of treatment for assorted concerns. Designed for both experienced and novice clinicians, the book begins with a brief history of C/TA, and provides clear definitions of the distinctions among many common approaches. It uniquely presents: Eighteen diverse C/TA assessments covering: depression, multiple suicide attempts, severe abuse, dissociation, an adolescent psychiatric ward, custody evaluation, a couple in crisis, and collaborative neuropsychology Guidance on how both client and clinician can agree on the best course of action through joint exploration of assessment procedures, results, and implications Closely related approaches to psychological testing, including Individualized Assessment, Collaborative Assessment, Therapeutic Model of Assessment, Collaborative/Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment, and Rorschach-based psychotherapy Clearly labeled Teaching Points in each chapter Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment provides psychologists in all areas of assessment, and at all levels of experience, with powerful C/TA examples that can dramatically illuminate and improve clients' lives.

Assessments by psychologists, educators, and other human-service professionals too often end with the client being reported in terms of scores, bell-shaped curves, traits, psychodynamic forces, or diagnostic labels. Individualizing Psychological Assessment uses these classification devices in ways that facilitate returning from them to the individual's life, both during the assessment session and in written reports. The book presents an approach and procedures through which a person's actual life becomes the subject matter of assessment. Thoroughly revised from the previous edition, the book presents a wide range of concrete examples and illustrative cases that will serve both students and practicing professionals alike in individualizing assessments.

The Oxford Handbook of Treatment Processes and Outcomes in Psychology presents a multidisciplinary approach to a biopsychosocial, translational model of psychological treatment across the lifespan. It describes cutting-edge research across developmental, clinical, counseling, and school psychology; social work; neuroscience; and psychopharmacology. The Handbook emphasizes the development of individual differences in resilience and mental health concerns including social, environmental, and epigenetic influences across the lifespan, particularly during childhood. Authors offer detailed discussions that expand on areas of research and practice that already have a substantive research base such as self-regulation, resilience, defining evidence-based treatment, and describing client-related variables that influence treatment processes. Chapters in newer areas of research are also included (e.g., neuroimaging, medications as adjuncts to psychological treatment, and the placebo effect). Additionally, authors address treatment outcomes such as evaluating therapist effectiveness, assessing outcomes from different perspectives, and determining the length of treatment necessary to attain clinical improvement. The Handbook provides an entrée to the research as well as hands-on guidance and suggestions for practice and oversight, making it a valuable resource for graduate students, practitioners, researchers, and agencies alike.

Therapeutic Assessment with Children presents a ground-breaking paradigm of psychological assessment in which children and families collaborate with the psychologist assessor to understand persistent problems and find new ways of repairing their relationships and moving forward with their lives. This paradigm is systemic, client-centered, and culturally sensitive and is applicable to families from many different backgrounds who often feel misunderstood and disempowered by traditional assessment methods. In this book, the reader will find a step-by-step description of Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA-C), with ample teaching examples to make each step come alive. Each chapter includes detailed transcripts of assessment sessions with Henry, a ten-year-old boy, and his parents as they progress through a Therapeutic Assessment and find new ways of appreciating each other and being together. The combination of didactic and clinical material will give even new clinicians a groundwork from which to begin to practice TA-C. The volume demonstrates how the core values of TA-C—collaboration, respect, humility, compassion, openness, and curiosity—can be embedded in psychological assessment with children and families. Therapeutic Assessment with Children will be invaluable for graduate assessment courses in clinical, counseling, and school psychology and for seasoned professionals wanting to learn the TA-C model.

In Our Clients’ Shoes conveniently assembles a number of important papers on the Therapeutic Assessment approach in one resource, explicating its history, theory, techniques, as well as its impact on clients and assessors. Author Stephen E. Finn incorporates pieces presented at various conferences over the past 13 years, in addition to previously unpublished work, with the intent to allow psychologists greater insight into their clients’ perspectives. Arranged in three sections, the first set of papers describes the history and development of Therapeutic Assessment, including personal experiences of the author, which ultimately led him to focus on psychological assessment as a potential therapeutic intervention. The second section follows with a variety of essays to illustrate particular techniques of collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment. In this section, readers gain an understanding of how to integrate test findings, engage clients in discussing their experiences of a test, conduct assessment intervention sessions, and teach Therapeutic Assessment to graduate students. Finn concludes by drawing a link between Therapeutic Assessment and two major schools of psychotherapy: intersubjectivity theory and control-mastery theory. He also discusses how assessors grow and change as a result of practicing psychological assessment, and addresses practical matters such as when to apply the approach, how to bill for Therapeutic Assessment sessions, how to market Therapeutic Assessment, and where to find professional support for this kind of work. In Our Clients’ Shoes is appropriate for all clinicians who wish to further impact the lives of their clients and enhance their own wisdom, compassion, and personal and professional development.

One of the challenges the field of clinical neuropsychology faces is to develop an assessment process that is relevant and responsive to the needs of patients. Indeed, it has been suggested that the survival of neuropsychology as a clinical discipline may be threatened due to an overemphasis on diagnosing cognitive deficits as opposed to developing methods that meet patients’ needs. One way to meet this need is for psychologists to extend their services by developing clinical interventions that contribute to enhancing patients’ cognitive and emotional well-being. Providing feedback from the results of neuropsychological tests is one method suggested as a way to enhance patient care and satisfaction with the assessment process while providing a link between clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions. In current practice, providing feedback to patients about the results of neuropsychological assessments has been considered an optional procedure by clinicians and thus received little attention in the literature. Yet there is evidence that when feedback is provided to patients the effects are overwhelmingly positive. Feedback provides a bridge between assessment and treatment by facilitating the development of applicable treatment plans. There is no agreed upon conceptual framework for providing feedback from neuropsychological assessment, although researchers have made recommendations. However, these recommendations have done little to affect clinical practice and training despite the fact that including patient-oriented feedback enhances the likelihood that neuropsychological assessment will remain a relevant and important component of patient care. The purpose of this proposed book is to first describe developments in methods of neuropsychological assessment feedback that involve active collaboration with patients in an open exchange of information and results. Second, we will present a comprehensive model for conducting neuropsychological assessment feedback. The authors of this book are expert clinical practitioners and academic researchers who are at the forefront of the development and implementation of Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment methods. Table of contents follows.

This collection of articles by Constance T. Fischer represents many of her major contributions to Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment. Fischer’s work on the conceptual foundations and practices for individualized/ collaborative psychological assessment are assembled in this volume. Also included are her thoughts about how to teach individualized assessment to students. This monograph will serve mental health professionals interested in Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment and instructors and students in graduate courses on psychological assessment.

Therapeutic Feedback with the MMPI-2 provides the clinician with empirically-based, practical information about how to convey the abundance of information in the MMPI-2 profile in a way that is collaborative, empathic, hopeful, and facilitates a therapeutic alliance. Readers will find this book to be as useful and applicable as the MMPI-2 itself, which is used in psychiatric hospitals; correctional settings; in evaluations for job selection, general medicine, forensic and child custody cases; and even in screenings for television, game, and reality shows. The authors expand upon this already robust test by demonstrating how therapeutic assessment and feedback can be improved upon by considering three contributions from positive psychology: that behavior can be viewed as potentially adaptive; traditional pathological and maladaptive behaviors can be reframed as understandable responses to stressors that therapeutic feedback is empathic, nonjudgmental, and mostly jargon free; humans respond to overwhelming stress in understandable ways that the therapist can give coherence and meaning to lastly, that therapeutic feedback stresses self-esteem and resilience building through self-awareness as a goal. Discussion centers around ten scales and 27 common code types. Each section addresses the complaints, thoughts, emotions, traits and behaviors associated with the profile; therapists’ notes; lifestyle and family background; modifying scales; therapy and therapeutic pitfalls; feedback statements; and treatment and self-help suggestions. The larger page size reflects the size of the MMPI-2 interpretive reports and makes it easy for clinicians to copy pages of the book to share with their clients. Therapeutic Feedback with the MMPI-2 is the most detailed volume available on MMPI-2 feedback and is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any clinician who uses this test.

This book has been replaced by Managing Suicidal Risk, Third Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-5269-6.

The only pocket-size reference on supervising psychological testing and assessment In 2014, the American Psychological Association (APA) adopted a set of guidelines for clinical supervision for health service psychology. While technically covered by these guidelines, supervising clinical psychological assessment includes additional tasks (such as ensuring accurate administration, scoring, and interpretation of tests) and tensions. Supervisors must often instruct supervisees on the data-integration process—which can involve more direct teaching than standard clinical supervision—while encompassing the same interpersonal, therapeutic, and less structured guiding aspects as psychotherapy supervision. It is increasingly common to view clinical supervision in the assessment process and supervision of psychotherapy as two significantly different tasks. Surprisingly, there is very little training and guidance available on appropriate, effective, and beneficial methods of psychological assessment supervision. Essentials of Psychological Assessment Supervision seeks to remedy the lack of literature in this area, offering guidance on supervising psychological testing and assessment. This much-needed guide provides supervisors with authoritative, up-to-date information on guidelines relevant to assessment supervision. Additionally, detailed coverage of supervision of cognitive, personality/emotional, psychoeducational, neuropsychological, forensic, and therapeutic assessments, among others, provide supervisors with guidance and structure in the supervision process. Focusing on practical application, this book offers guidance on topics such as assessment models appropriate in different areas of assessment; diversity issues; evaluation and feedback of supervisee performance; and ethical, legal, and regulatory considerations relevant in each assessment context. An invaluable resource for practitioners, this book: Offers practical advice on supervising a wide range of clinical psychological assessments Includes contributions from experts in their respective subfields Provides guidance on incorporating new American Psychological Association (APA) and Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) guidelines into the supervision process Fills an urgent need for an up-to-date reference on assessment supervision Essentials of Psychological Assessment Supervision is a must-have reference for both psychology practitioners who supervise the assessment process and instructors of psychological testing and assessment.