James Fitzgerald Therapy, PLLC
James Fitzgerald, MS, NCC, AAP, Psychotherapist
Strengthening Your Conscious Self © 2022
An Inventory of Assessments I use with my Clients
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During the assessment stage of therapy…
- We will determine behavioral, emotional, and attitudinal information toward an assessment of specifiers relevant to a DSM diagnosis, the efficacy of treatment, and the nature of the therapy relationship.
- Your therapist will help you identifying your current stage of change. We will assess your level of insight (syntonic versus dystonic) toward the “presenting problems”
- Do you demonstrate good insight into the problematic nature of the “described behavior,” agrees with others’ concern, and are you motivated to work on change?
- Do you demonstrate ambivalence regarding the “problem described” and are you reluctant to address the issue as a concern?
- Do you demonstrate resistance regarding acknowledgment of the “problem described,” you are not concerned, and you have no motivation to change?
- We will determine if you meet the criteria for co-occurring mental health disorders using the necessary evidence-based assessments (oppositional defiant behavior with ADHD, depression secondary to an anxiety disorder) including vulnerability to suicide, if appropriate (increased suicide risk when comorbid depression is evident).
- We will determine if there are any issues of age, gender, or culture that could help explain the currently defined “problem behavior” and factors that could offer a better understanding of the behavior.
- We will assess the severity of the level of impairment to functioning to determine appropriate level of care (if the behavior noted creates mild, moderate, severe, or very severe impairment in social, relational, educational, or occupational endeavors)
- We will continuously assess this severity of impairment as well as the efficacy of treatment (no longer experiencing severe impairment but the presenting problem now is causing mild or moderate impairment).
Assessments
Please do not complete any assessments unless I have asked you to complete one. Many of them have been adapted directly from the official testing/assessment instrument. They may require assistance in completing, scoring and interpreting results. Thank you for your cooperation.