Assessment Services

During a psychological assessment, a trained clinician administers tests, surveys, and/or clinical interviews with the goal of gaining a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s primary concerns. Results from assessments are often used to establish psychological diagnoses (learning disabilities, ADHD, mood/anxiety disorders, etc.) and generate tailored recommendations for parenting and self help strategies, instructional practices, and psychological therapies that will be most effective.

We begin by learning about your concerns, relevant history, and the questions you hope the evaluation will answer. The evaluation may then include clinical interviews, standardized tests, behavioral rating scales, and review of relevant records, with additional information gathered from parents, teachers, partners, or other important individuals when appropriate.

After the assessment, we thoughtfully integrate all sources of information to develop a comprehensive understanding of the individual, reach accurate diagnostic conclusions, and develop individualized recommendations. Finally, we meet with you to review the findings, answer your questions, and provide a comprehensive written report with practical recommendations for moving forward.

Assessments are often most helpful for a) identifying learning difficulties that may require a higher level of educational support, and b) assessing psychological symptoms and generating diagnoses that can be used to seek out appropriate therapeutic support. An assessment could be helpful for individuals who:

• Find certain school subjects particularly difficult or have more general learning difficulties
• Struggle to remain focused when completing schoolwork
• Feel they are less mature compared to others their age and/or frequently require assistance with daily tasks
• Have difficulty following directions or listening
• Have difficulty getting along with others or forming meaningful relationships
• Often seem irritable and have outbursts when things don’t do their way?
• Often seem sad or down
• Often seem anxious or worried
• Have experienced major life stressors or trauma that could be affecting their mood, motivation, or daily stress levels?

If you’re still not sure that an assessment is needed, you can always complete an initial intake to discuss any concerns you have and learn more about how a psychological assessment may or may not be the best next step.

Rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach, we tailor each evaluation to the questions being asked and the information needed to reach well-supported clinical conclusions. We’ll discuss the anticipated timeline with you during the scheduling process.

Yes. We offer evaluations for children, teens, college students, and adults. Many adults seek an evaluation after recognizing lifelong patterns of attention or executive functioning difficulties, experiencing increased demands at work or home, or after a child or family member receives an ADHD diagnosis. College students often pursue evaluations to better understand academic challenges or to obtain documentation for disability support services when appropriate.

Our evaluation process is individualized to reflect each person’s stage of life, responsibilities, and referral questions.

Yes. When supported by the evaluation findings, our reports include documentation that may be used to support requests for accommodations and other services in educational or workplace settings.  Recommendations are individualized and based on the specific ways the individual’s symptoms affect everyday functioning. Depending on the evaluation findings, recommendations may support eligibility for 504 Plans or Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), specialized academic interventions, classroom accommodations, executive functioning supports, therapy, college disability accommodations, workplace accommodations, and other evidence-based services designed to address the individual’s unique needs.

While schools, colleges, testing agencies, and employers each establish their own eligibility criteria, our reports are designed to provide clear, well-supported clinical documentation that can support requests for accommodations and other services when appropriate.

Calhoun Psychology is a self-pay practice for psychological assessment services. Our self-pay model allows evaluations to be individualized based on clinical needs rather than insurance requirements or predetermined testing limitations. This flexibility allows us to recommend the assessment approach that best addresses each individual’s unique referral questions rather than tailoring the evaluation to insurance coverage criteria.

If your evaluation is completed by one of our Licensed Psychologists, we can provide a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company to request possible out-of-network reimbursement. Because reimbursement policies vary widely by insurance plan, we recommend contacting your insurance provider directly to determine your specific out-of-network benefits.

To help make comprehensive psychological evaluations more accessible, we also offer reduced-fee evaluations completed by doctoral-level psychology interns and postdoctoral clinicians who are closely supervised by our Licensed Psychologists. While these clinicians receive extensive supervision and all evaluation findings are reviewed by a licensed psychologist, services provided by interns or postdoctoral clinicians are generally not eligible for out-of-network insurance reimbursement.