An Assessment of my Assessment Skills

In clinical psychology training, there are many things that have to be learned. There seem to be even more aspects of clinical work that must be experienced and might be impossible to learn. And then...there's psychological assessment.

Completing psychological evaluations is an epic responsibility, in my opinion. Doing an assessment well, with truthful and loving feedback, can change lives. When a person opens their life to you by telling you what she sees in some inkblots, demonstrating how well he can put together some blocks and solve some other types of problems, and reporting on various experiences she may or may not have, it's like opening a window to the most vulnerable parts of themselves. It's not any one test, but like an amazing painting, each test is a detail that contributes to the overall painting.

Ironically, the closest my profession comes to pure science, statistics, and research validation are the various forms of psychological tests. Many practitioners use this as permission to make impersonal sweeping generalizations and to categorize people just based on the numbers. I, however, prefer an approach that deeply appreciates a person's context. One of my former professors wouldn't even let us look at test scores until we could role play our client convincingly, with every idiosyncratic movement, every voice inflection, and every word. We were only allowed to think about two questions: What did you see? What did hear? Only after intense focus on the client could we move on to testing data.

However, when confronted with an interview, 9 hours of testing data, and a mountain of other responsibilities outside of practicum, my idealistic notions about testing seem overwhelming and impossible. Learning how to write testing reports is a test of self esteem. You have to learn how to give the tests, and learn how to score new tests, then learn how to interpret the results, and then make sense of a humongous amount of data in the context of each unique person. So, you spend supervision time learning all of this, and then you sit in front of a computer to write a report that does justice to a person as an individual while speaking to their pain, while hoping to be able to make some reccommendations that will be of use to them.

The first report may take you hours. I think mine took two full 10 hour days of writing, not including all the scoring, interpreting, and thinking I did. Then, you send it off to your supervisor. And it comes back COVERED in red, or purple, or some color ink....or in my case, as more comments and track changes in a word file than it is document anymore. My first reports were edited back and forth between my supervisor and I 4 times or so. I don't think there's ever been anything else in my life that I have had to redo 4 or 5 times. I began to wonder if maybe I was inept, or bad at this, or fear that I would never get all 10 comprehensive reports required of me before I graduate.

Lately, however, my supervisor has stepped up my responsibility for report writing. Now I am responsible for editing my own reports, with only one editing session from her. This weekend, I wrote my second report under these conditions. I have spent the entire time since then convinced internally that said report sucked. I was convinced of this because I did all the majority of interpretation, writing, and formulations all by myself. (My supervisor still looks at the materials, she just keeps her opinions to herself and speaks up only if I go off base.) I think I was most convinced that it must be a horrible report because it came so much more easily this time. Yeah, I worked on the report for 8 hours of writing or more on Saturday, but the process was much easier, the results seemed much clearer, and it wasn't just the case. In fact, this was one of my hardest cases thus far.

Tonight I got the report returned and....(drumroll)the feedback was really positive! The edits are simple, and overall things look great with a few modifications and rewording on some sections that are new to me. !!!!! The last two years have particularly felt like an uphill climb, a marathon with no landmarks to help me feel like I am making progress. It feels outstanding to know that I am growing and developing new skills. It is such an utter and total blessing and huge responsibility to talk to people about their personhood, the image of God evident in them and the evidence of falleness in their lives. But like anytime we have an encounter with the sacred, there's an exhiliration and reverence for the goodness and peace that comes with such an encounter.