Psychological Testing

Psychological assessment, also known as psychological testing, is the process we use to arrive at some hypotheses about a person's behavior, personality, and capabilities.

Psychological Testing

In addition to offering outstanding counseling services, we also offer excellent psychological evaluations which are often necessary to clarify mental health diagnoses and/or guide treatment. These evaluations are conducted to diagnose a wide range of emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders in children, adolescents, and adults including ADHD, learning disabilities, intellectual disability, and a variety of other clinical syndromes including depressive and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. These evaluations involve integrating information gathered through a clinical interview, a review of records (e.g., medical, psychological, educational) and information from collateral sources, and test data accumulated through the results of standardized psychological tests. Please know psychological “tests” can be a misnomer in that psychological testing does not involve looking for “right” or “wrong” responses, but for accurate information that can help your provider provide the most accurate diagnosis and intervention recommendations.

What to Expect

Many people who are referred for psychological testing or are seeking an evaluation for themselves or someone else do not know what to expect and may feel intimated by the process. Knowing this, we want to do what we can to help you feel comfortable throughout the process, and believe giving you a realistic picture of what to expect is a really important factor in helping that to occur. The process for psychological evaluations at our practice typically involves the following:

A person (usually the person being evaluated or that person’s parent or guardian if they are a minor) calls our office and speaks with our office manager to set up the appointment. You will receive an intake appointment and general information related to receiving services at our practice. You may be asked to complete some intake or other paperwork prior to arriving for your first appointment.

First appointment. You (and your child, if they will be the person being assessed/evaluated) will meet with a psychologist to discuss issues and concerns related to your referral for psychological testing. Additionally, the psychologist will gather an educational and developmental history during this meeting.
Schedule the test administration appointment(s) or wait for pre-authorization to be obtained from your insurance company. If you are paying out of pocket or your insurance company does not require pre-approval for psychological testing then you will likely schedule your next test administration appointments. However, if pre-approval is needed we will seek this on your behalf and contact you to schedule the next appointment(s) when we have received the approval.

Test administration. Depending on the nature and number of the psychological tests being administered this step of the process can vary, but typically it involves participating in 2-5 hours of in-person testing at our office. Generally, we try to complete this step on one (or two) days. You will conclude the final test administration appointment by scheduling a feedback session that likely will occur about two weeks from that day.

Feedback session. Approximately two weeks after the test administration phase was completed, the psychologist will meet with you to review the test findings and results. This usually includes discussing the relevant diagnosis(es) and recommendations, as well as receiving a copy of the formal psychological report. The report can be sent to other pertinent parties (e.g., medical professionals, schools) as needed assuming a release of information has been signed and the psychologist believes this is clinically indicated.

You can learn more about psychological evaluations at CCPR and schedule the initial appointment by contacting us at 318-224-7223. We look forward to serving you!

Also, if you would like to learn more about psychological testing/assessment then we encourage you to read this ARTICLE published by the American Psychological Association on understanding what psychological evaluations are and how they can help helpful. American Psychological Association’s website: https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/assessment