Collaborative / Therapeutic Assessment

A guide to conducting Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment to promote client growth

Mental health professionals are increasingly enthusiastic about and ready to use psychological test data, research, and theory in life-relevant ways to improve diagnosis, client care, and treatment outcomes. With Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (C/TA), clients participate actively with the assessor in exploring how their test scores and patterns reflect who they are in their daily lives and how they can learn to help themselves cope with life's challenges.

Using a case study approach to demonstrate how to apply C/TA in practice, Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment provides practitioners with a variety of flexible and adaptable case examples featuring adults, children, adolescents, couples, and families from different backgrounds in need of treatment for assorted concerns.

Designed for both experienced and novice clinicians, the book begins with a brief history of C/TA, and provides clear definitions of the distinctions among many common approaches. It uniquely presents:

• Eighteen diverse C/TA assessments covering: depression, multiple suicide attempts, severe abuse, dissociation, an adolescent psychiatric ward, custody evaluation, a couple in crisis, and collaborative neuropsychology

• Guidance on how both client and clinician can agree on the best course of action through joint exploration of assessment procedures, results, and implications

• Closely related approaches to psychological testing, including Individualized Assessment, Collaborative Assessment, Therapeutic Model of Assessment, Collaborative/Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment, and Rorschach-based psychotherapy

• Clearly labeled Teaching Points in each chapter

Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment provides psychologists in all areas of assessment, and at all levels of experience, with powerful C/TA examples that can dramatically illuminate and improve clients' lives.

Stephen E. Finn, PhD, is the founder of the Center for Therapeutic Assessment and an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Manual for Using the MMPI-2 as a Therapeutic Intervention and In Our Clients’ Shoes: Theory and Techniques of Therapeutic Assessment.

Constance T. Fischer, PhD, ABPP, is the Duquesne University N.J. Dick Endowed Chair of Commonly Outreach. She is best known for Pioneering and individualized/collaborative/therapeutic approach to psychological assessment, for which she received several awards. She edited Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Introduction through Empirical Studies and received the Carl Rogers Award from the APA division of Humanistic Psychology and Dusquense University’s Presidential Award for Scholarship.

Leonard Handler, PhD, ABAP, is Professor and Associate Director of the Clinical Training Program at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Handler is coeditor of the Journal of Personality Assessment and serves on its editorial board. He has received numerous research awards and has also served as Director of the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic.