Psychological Evaluation for Adoption

Adoption is often an emotional process for people wanting to adopt a child. Many adoption agencies, especially international adoption agencies, require psychological evaluations for prospective parents as part of the adoption process.  These specialized Pre-adoption Psychological Evaluations are usually comprised of an interview and psychological testing.

The home visits and the psychological evaluation can often be the most anxiety producing aspects of adoption.  It is normal to fear that one might “say the wrong thing,” in a meeting with the adoption social worker or with the psychologist providing the pre-adoption psychological evaluation.  Also, some people feel frustrated with having to be evaluated for parenting in the first place.  It is important to be yourself and work through these common feelings and experiences during the adoption process.

The Steps of a Pre-Adoption Psychological Evaluation at Soul Work Counseling

The first step is to schedule your back-to-back, 1-hour appointments (please call or email).  After scheduling that 2-hour block of time, you will be sent clinic specific electronic Intake Paperwork to complete, in full, prior to the appointments.  Also, as soon as possible after scheduling, you will want to email copies of the below information to your psychologist prior to that interview date:

1. The psychological evaluation instruction sheet from your adoption agency that specifies what information your particular adoption agency wants to see on the psychological evaluation.

2. Copy of both individual’s written, autobiographical life summaries, IF completed already, which are often a component of the home study.

3. Any adoption agency specific signed paperwork or Releases of Information (ROI) forms they might want you to use.  You will also sign our agency ROI forms.

4. Either fill out the credit card authorization among the electronic Intake Paperwork for our agency, or bring Cash or Check, paid in full, with you on the interview day (payment will be taken up front).

Interview

For International adoption, each host country has its own requirements for what the evaluation should include.  However, the process of the psychological evaluation is mostly the same for each couple.  You and your partner will have consecutive 1-hour appointments, back-to-back; while one person interviews with the psychologist, the other partner will complete psychological testing; then switch places.  You will also spend time with the psychologist as a couple.  The interview portion of the evaluation is an area where some prospective parents may feel frustrated because many of the questions are the same questions asked during the home study.  

It is important and ethical, however, for the psychologist to conduct their own interview.  It is unethical for a psychologist to conduct an assessment without an independent interview and then attempt to interpret psychological testing without a formal clinical interview. 

Psychological Testing

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Third Edition, or the MMPI-3, is typically the standard testing instrument of choice for most pre-adoption psychological evaluations and is the assessment instrument requested by most host countries.  Due to the sensitive nature of the test material, the testing is typically conducted in the office and is not to be taken home to complete.  You will answer the ‘true’ and ‘false’ test items as accurately as possible.  It is important to know that the MMPI-3 is an assessment instrument measuring psychopathology. It assesses for personality and mental health concerns, like a person’s ability to be in touch with reality, or mental health symptoms like severe depression, anxiety, etc.  It is natural to be anxious about taking a psychological test like the MMPI-3.  It is important to remember that this test is looking for psychopathology, not normal responses to life stress (like sadness over failed IVF attempts or normal grief and loss symptoms). 

Some countries request additional psychological tests along with the MMPI-3, and this may change the time duration and cost estimate of your pre-adoption psychological evaluation.

The Evaluation Report

After the interview and testing is completed, the report is drafted during the subsequent few weeks. A designated member in the couple will electronically receive the rough draft for each report to review and re-confirm your intent for the psychologist to release the drafts to the adoption agency (you will have already signed a Release of Information form in the Intake Paperwork).  Some adoption agencies request a review of the rough draft reports prior to final completion of the evaluations, to help edit for potential cultural and interpretation problems.  Almost all countries require that the final reports be notarized and sometimes a copy of the psychologist’s license is also required.  

When completed, the final copies of the evaluation reports will be printed, signed, and notarized, if notarizing is requested, and any other additional information requested will be sent along with the evaluation reports through the mail to designated parties.

Please email or call us at Soul Work Counseling if you would like to get started on your Pre-adoption Psychological Evaluation process!

Telehealth Pre-Adoption Evaluations

Most host countries require that your evaluating psychologist conduct in-person psychological evaluations. However, if your host country will allow for telehealth evaluations, that can be done with Soul Work Counseling through HIPAA compliant video conferencing technology and remote psychological testing software.

Dr. Benson is licensed in the state of Minnesota, but she is also a PSYPACT telehealth provider (APIT # 10303) and is authorized to provide interjurisdictional telehealth psychological services for clients residing in other participating PSYPACT states, via telehealth. If your state is highlighted in blue on the map in the link below, then Dr. Benson can work with you: https://psypact.site-ym.com/page/psypactmap