At Northern Colorado Assessment Center, we offer a wide range of testing batteries that are personalized to the needs of our clients. Psychological assessments may incorporate a number of individual tests that help individuals, their assessment psychologist, therapist, physicians, educators, and other stakeholders understand their areas of strength and struggle with greater clarity to ensure they are receiving the best possible resources and creating beneficial therapy plans. In this blog, we’re going to spend a few minutes describing the top five reasons people schedule psychological assessments with our team.
1 – Your Therapist Refers You for Assessment
If you’ve experienced a lot of complex life challenges and you’re having trouble focusing therapy sessions or finding counseling resources that work for you, your therapist may encourage you to receive a psychological assessment. The results of these assessment can be an invaluable tool to guide therapy sessions.
2 – To Determine Whether or Not Medication Would Be Beneficial
Assessments can also help determine whether or not an individual would benefit from incorporating medications into their therapy plans. Most assessment psychologists don’t provide prescriptions, but they may recommend you visit a physician or other medical professional for medication management based on the results of psychological assessment.
3 – Receive an Accurate Diagnosis
In many cases, it’s not necessarily important to receive a clinical diagnosis in order to make progress in therapy. However, many psychological conditions have very similar or overlapping symptoms, and it can be difficult to set and achieve therapy goals without differentiating between the conditions. In this case, you may want to receive a more accurate diagnosis via assessment. Additionally, some common conditions, like anxiety, actually present in a variety of ways. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), social anxiety, and panic disorder are all forms of anxiety. While anxiety may be the underlying cause of these conditions, the right therapy approach for each form of anxiety may be different, so in these situations, it can be beneficial to have a more precise diagnosis.
4 – Legal Requirement
There are many situations where an individual may be legally required to receive a psychological assessment. Psychological testing may be legally required to determine whether or not a person is fit to stand trial, able to parent children, or if they are in sound mind to choose elective medical procedures.
5 – Curiosity
Many people know they struggle in certain areas and excel in others, and they want to better understand why. Psychological assessments offer clarification of areas where you are stable and functioning well and areas where you may need to learn skills to ensure resilience, maximize therapy work, and generally improve your life experiences and relationships.
Ready to Get Started with Psychological Assessment?
If you’re interested in finding out more about psychological assessment or you’re ready to schedule your introductory session at Northern Colorado Assessment Center, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about psychological assessment, and if this type of assessment isn’t right for you, we’ll create a personalized testing battery that meets your needs.
