Psychological Testing

Psychological testing for clients age 6 years old and older (children, adolescents, and adults).

[For in network insurance, check coverage with Shawna M. Benson, PsyD, LP at Soul Work Counseling, supervisor of psychological testing and evaluation. If you have out of network insurance and would like to pay upfront, we can provide a Superbill after services are complete for submitting to your insurance company for reimbursement.]

What is psychological testing? 

The central purpose of psychological testing and evaluation is to answer specific referral questions that will aid in the decision-making process for getting you help. To fulfill this purpose, we must integrate data from various sources (such as from intake paperwork, a clinical interview, and collaborative information from other people in the client’s life), select testing and assessment measures appropriate to the client, to the setting, and appropriate for the clinical problems that need to be evaluated. Then we will administer, score, and interpret these psychological tests into a report.

How can we help you? 

Our specialties consist of psychological testing and evaluation that measure and assess various behavioral and emotional difficulties. Here are some indicators that testing may be helpful for you or for your loved one:

• • Personality: An individual might start to suspect that they struggle with a personality difficulty, or even a personality disorder, if problems persist in their personal and/or employment relationships even after they have gotten psychological help for mood disorders like depression or anxiety. Personality Disorders typically do not improve with mental health medication alone or with just brief psychotherapy. These disorders often develop due to genetics (it runs in their biological family), or for people who have experienced various traumatic or abusive childhoods and a protective way of thinking and behaving develops over time to help you successfully survive that difficult situation. However, once into adulthood, those same ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting have become rigid and disruptive. It becomes difficult to accurately perceive what is happening in your current adult relationships and to respond to those relationships in a healthy and adaptive way. Personality Disorders are not typically diagnosed until age 18 or older, but sometimes warning signs for personality problems can be observed in adolescents and early detection and treatment is helpful for a positive adult prognosis. Tests at this clinic designed to measure personality are the MMPI-3 and MMPI-A-RF along with various Millon Inventories (MCMI-IV/MACI-II).
    
    
  • Emotional Disorders: There are many emotional disorders of childhood that create problems for children and families in the school environment, social environments, and in the home. An evaluation may be needed if your child shows multiple different types of behavioral difficulties that are difficult to assess without testing. Strong emotions or mood disorders can be difficult for children to handle and children often act out emotions through their behavior rather than talk about their thoughts and feelings. Instruments used at this clinic are designed to measure behavior (BASC-3), a trauma symptom check-list (TSCC), and other tests that measure mood and disruptive emotions (Robert’s Apperception Test for Children/M-PACI/MACI-II).
    
    
  • Bipolar Disorder: Bipolar Disorder is the name for when depression exists on “one pole,” and on the “other pole” are manic symptoms (this disorder used to be called Manic Depression). You might suspect that you have bipolar disorder if you go through periods of time depressed and then periods of time experiencing manic or hypomanic symptoms like excessive energy, decreased need for sleep, starting multiple projects but not typically finishing them, excessive talkativeness, racing thoughts, and sometimes euphoria and grandiosity (feeling better or more enlightened than other people). At its most extreme, mania can bring on paranoia or psychotic symptoms. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota has information to help you learn more about the various types of bipolar disorder. This mood disorder can be diagnosed from a detailed history taken by a mental health professional, but since it also can be easily missed or is difficult to assess when additional problems are present for people (e.g., ADHD or history of substance abuse) or when manic/hypomanic episodes are brief or far and few between. Clients tend to ask, “Why would I want to treat my mania; that is when I feel at my best?!” Unfortunately, if you do have manic episodes, the depressive pole of this disorder is not likely to improve much if you do not treat them together. “The higher up you go, the harder the fall.” Test instruments like the MMPI-3 combined with the MCMI-IV are helpful to identify bipolar disorder in adults.
    
    
  • Anxiety Disorders: Various anxiety disorders can also be diagnosed simply from a complete history taken by a mental health professional. However, if your anxiety is intense or you have multiple different types of anxiety symptoms, it may be helpful to go through psychological testing. Common anxiety symptoms include panic symptoms, excessive worry, intrusive and unwanted thoughts, difficult to control behaviors (like compulsive counting and excessive checking and rechecking), post-traumatic stress symptoms that come from trauma experiences, and physical symptoms like painful muscle tension and migraine headaches can also be a sign of anxiety. Common psychological tests used for assessing anxiety include the MMPI-3, the MCMI-IV, Beck Inventories, and child and adult trauma check-lists (TSCC/TSI-2).
    
    
  • Intelligence/IQ: An IQ test can help diagnose intellectual disabilities or measure someone’s intellectual potential (instruments used at this clinic are the WISC-V for children/adolescents and a WAIS-IV for adults). According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 85% of intellectually disabled children receive IQ scores between 55 and 70. An IQ score of about 100 is considered average. When combined with tests to measure a person’s adaptive functioning ability (the Vineland-3, for example, which measures ability and disability in areas of Communication, Daily Living Skills, and Socialization), the psychological evaluation can support a diagnosis for an Intellectual and Developmental Disability (this type of assessment is sometimes referred to as a DD Assessment). This assessment can be conducted for children and adults. Sometimes, full IQ testing is used in ADHD evaluation as well but usually only if it is medically necessary to assess for general intelligence while also assessing for executive functioning and attention deficits.
    
    
  • Memory: Changes in memory quality is mostly normal as our age advances, but sometimes memory problems become significantly problematic for day-to-day functioning. Having your memory strengths and deficits evaluated can be helpful. Prior illnesses or past injuries, like traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or severe concussions, can create memory problems. For ages 16 and older in this clinic, you will be assessed with the WMS-IV memory testing instrument. [If you have been referred to see a neuropsychologist for specific advanced neuropsychological testing, you will often find those specialists working in neurology clinics or other specialized medical clinics.]
    
    
  • Identifying the strengths and limitations of adults who have Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease: It can be frightening and stressful to be diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, or to be a family member of a loved one struggling with dementia. It is important to involve your medical doctor in diagnosing dementia because some forms of dementia can be caused by other medical problems and are more easily treated than other types of dementia. In general, dementia is a combination of severe memory problems, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. Evaluations for the purpose of measuring strengths and limitations due to dementia are likely to include Memory Testing (see above), Adaptive Behavior and Daily Living Sills Testing (like the Vineland-3), and instruments to assess mood disorders like depression and anxiety. A neuro-screening test called RBANS may also be helpful (this is not a complete neuropsychological assessment, which would be a longer and more complicated evaluation completed by a specialist called a neuropsychologist).
    • If you or your family are looking for a proactive safety evaluation for driving, you will want to contact a Driving Rehabilitation Specialist (typically in Occupational Therapy) to conduct a Comprehensive Driving Evaluation. A resource to learn more about these evaluations is on AAA’s Senior Driving website. In Minnesota, testing centers can be found at various Allina Health Courage Kenny locations. Another Minnesota company that provides driving evaluations is Adaptive Experts. Typically, these assessments involve out-of-pocket costs. You can learn more about driving restrictions and evaluations on Minnesota’s DMV website.
      
      
  • Adaptive skills, daily functioning struggles, and evaluation for the purpose of placement at facilities that provide day treatment or other intensive mental health programs: If outpatient mental health treatment alone has not been helpful for your child or for you as an adult, sometimes a referral to a “higher level of care,” like a day treatment program or partial hospitalization program can make more of a difference in improving mental health (programs where you attend daily mental health treatment and see multiple different providers in individual therapy, group therapy, and often working with medical professionals as well, like psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists). We can help you gain access to treatment by providing the facility a comprehensive behavioral and emotional testing evaluation. This service can be done for both children and adults.
    
    
  • ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Children and adults can struggle with the hyperactivity and/or attention difficulties associated with ADHD. Psychological testing and evaluation for this mental health disorder is comprehensive due to the need to carefully document client history associated with these difficulties and to rule out other factors or mental health concerns that could be, instead, creating an attention deficit. In addition to some of the various tests already mentioned above to rule out other problems, we also utilize the CNS-Vital Signs testing program to help assess for executive functioning and other potential cognitive problems, or we will use more traditional measures like the DKEFS scales for executive functioning and the TOVA as a measure of continuous performance.
    
    

    We have a webpage devoted to this topic so you can learn more about childhood and adult ADHD difficulties. Please refer to our main ADHD testing page on our Soul Work Counseling website to also access the free ADHD rating scales provided: Soul Work Counseling ADHD.

    Also, CHADD is a national education, advocacy, and support group for children, adults, and families struggling with ADHD and a website where you can learn more about ADHD in children and adults.
    
    

  • Evaluations requested only for achievement assessment purposes, and/or primarily to identify Learning Disorders (LD), are out-of-pocket pay only. Although we can screen for learning disorders, which most often occurs while evaluating for ADHD, achievement tests within any clinical evaluation are NOT covered by medical insurance. Most school districts will conduct Learning Disability evaluations, if you request one for your child in writing to your school. Learn more about getting you and your family members help with learning disorders from Pacer. You may also be served best by working with a Licensed School Psychologist for this type of comprehensive learning disorders evaluation.

Collaborative and Comprehensive Evaluations

Our role as evaluating clinicians is to conduct testing and assessments to answer specific questions and make clear, precise, and reasonable recommendations to help improve upon the wellbeing and daily functioning of our clients. Psychological tests attempt to evaluate an individual in a problem situation so that the information derived from the assessment can help with the problem. We will collaboratively work to help you determine your testing and evaluation goals and determine which testing instruments would be the most valuable for your evaluation.

How do I know that my testing is being done competently and ethically?

To ensure there is minimal testing error and not to violate APA principles related to administration, scoring, and interpretation of psychological tests, it is best practice to implement informed consent so clients understand what tests they are taking and how tests might be used. It is imperative that your clinician have a working knowledge of these psychological tests to present the directions clearly to minimize possible mistakes. Additionally, there are other associations and resources which provide a clear indication of test and interpretation expectations: the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and the National Council on Measurement in Education, for example, provide guidelines for testing and interpretation.

Additionally, cultural diversity competency within the field of psychology increases the likelihood that tests and measurements will expand the knowledge needed to provide services for a wide variety of individuals of different backgrounds. Cultural competency in psychological evaluation and assessment work improves the lives of individuals and gives therapists and researchers additional avenues to offer valuable services to people.

Please give us a call today to schedule your intake session!

763-746-0842