Assessment and Evaluation

At TheraThrive we offer reparative assessment as part of our assessment services. Reparative assessment is often sought out when someone has had a challenging, difficult, and/or even potentially traumatizing assessment experience in the past, where they felt dismissed and/or unheard. Sadly, this can happen often and we are here to help you recover from such an experience.

From the moment we meet with you, we want to learn more about you, your life, your strengths and your struggles. We include you along the way when determining the best tests to utilize and symptoms to focus on. We offer a collaborative feedback session as well, to ensure that we communicate our findings to you and what these findings then mean. Our goal is to help you discover more about yourself, your mental health, and to leave here feeling heard and acknowledged.

At TheraThrive, we provide collaborative assessment, which involves a process of working together with you and with your support system. We take into account and do our best to accommodate your unique needs and challenges.  

Our assessors also collaboratively clinically with one another. Instead of a single professional conducting the assessment, a collaborative approach may involve two or more clinicians with different areas of expertise contributing to the evaluation. The different professionals involved will review the results of these assessments and share their insights with each other to develop a comprehensive understanding of your functioning.

The collaborative approach allows for a more thorough assessment that takes into account all aspects of your psychological well-being. By working with a team of professionals, you can benefit from their different perspectives and areas of expertise, leading to a more accurate and tailored treatment plan.

According the California Association of Professional Clinical Counselors (CALPCC Scope of Practice), “assessment means selecting, administering, scoring, and interpreting tests, instruments, and other tools and methods designed to measure an individual’s attitudes, abilities, aptitudes, achievements, interests, personal characteristics, disabilities, and mental, emotional, and behavioral concerns and development and the use of methods and techniques for understanding human behavior in relation to coping with, adapting to, or ameliorating changing life situations,” which are part of the counseling assessment process.

Through counseling assessment, we develop a therapeutic client/clinician relationship (we work therapeutically and collaboratively). We use carefully selected standardized tests and measures to help clarify and assess the presenting problem(s) or question(s) you may have. Next, we identify and set treatment goals through interpretation and integration of the assessment testing results. Last, we design and implement interventions through a detailed and personalized report that contains recommendations and referrals (all of our report types include personalized recommendations).

Please do not coach or prep your child for assessment, and please do not expose your child to assessment testing material prior to the evaluation. This would invalidate test results. Instead, the best way to prepare is to help your child understand that they will need to listen carefully, to follow directions, and to relax and just be themself. It is also helpful to start the testing process well rested and not hungry.

The assessment process typically takes a few weeks to a few months, depending upon the type of assessment and scheduling needs.

Testing meetings generally last between 1-3 hours each, depending upon the test type, attention of the tester, and scheduling needs. We typically schedule only one meeting per day, however if it is your preferene and it makes sense to do so, we may schedule more than one meeting in a given day with breaks between.

Meeting duration times may also vary because some test takers test shorter or longer than others. Thus, the amount of time actually required to complete testing may depend upon your unique presentation.

We may generally schedule younger children with more shorter meetings, and older children or adults with fewer, longer rmeetings. However please keep in mind that some people work faster or slower than others, regardless of age.

At our first clinical meeting, in addition to starting the testing process, we will review the testing plan together, and schedule future sessions.

In general, it is probably best to plan on spending approximately 1- 2 hours per scheduled session. We will let you know ahead of time approximately how long each meeting will take, and if it seems that the process will take longer or shorter than anticipated, we will certainly let you know.

You or your child will not have to sit still for longer than it is comfortable to do so. We allow for breaks and appropriate pacing. We provide weighted stuffies, blankets, pillows, fidgets, and snacks. We encourage you or your child to take restroom breaks, hydrate or have a snack, as needed. We understand the need to move around, and will be kind and accommodate you or your child’s needs.

Although we welcome parents to join their children for family therapy meetings, the assessment process is different, and in most cases it is not advisable for a parent to observe the assessment.

The assessor will meet with parents prior to beginning testing. Parents are expected to wait in the waiting room during the evaluation, and reading material, internet access, water and tea are provided for waiting parents.

One important source of the information is how your child responds during when parents are not present. This will also provide insight regarding how your child will perform in school. If you have a special situation, please talk with us ahead of time. We will do our best to accommodate your needs within allowable parameters of the assessment.

The assessor will work to help your child feel relaxed, and will approach the activities positively. In addition, test items are designed to be appealing and engaging to children, which will help them feel more at ease.

We will schedule a feedback meeting to go over assessment results with you after the tests are scored, evaluated and written up in a diagnostic note or comprehensive report. This may take a few weeks -to- a few months, depending upon the type of testing and the testing process duration. If you have a deadline, we will make every effort to assist you, however please schedule assessments with sufficient time to guarantee any deadlines are met.

Yes. Appointments are often made several weeks or months in advance. For this reason, we ask that if you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, please be considerate to those who may be able to use that time, and provide at least 48 hours in advance notice for a cancellation. Please note that a late cancellation fee of $329 (or $300 with an associate assessor) per each 50 minutes scheduled will be charged for appointments cancelled without 48 hours’ notice (except in cases of true emergency).