What Is The Benefit Of Psychological Testing & Evaluations

We are all on a unique journey. Our personalities, past trauma, and experiences all play a huge role in our lives. Knowing how to fit all of these puzzle pieces together and make sense of them can be challenging. Making this feel even harder is not even knowing where to start.

Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed method that will work for every single person to help them through their struggles. Counseling and medication are great starts, but it can be a lot of trial and error before something sticks.

This is when psychological testing & evaluations can be highly beneficial. It helps the clinician you will be working with to get a better picture of what approaches will help you out the most. Here are just a few of the benefits of psychological testing and evaluations.

Mental Health Diagnosis

Are you tired of doing countless internet searches to find out what is wrong with you? Do your searches of symptoms you are struggling with mentally come up with a lot of different possibilities?

You aren't alone if you are frustrated by this. With psychological testing, you are taking the guesswork out of figuring out what exactly is going on. You won't have to wonder if it's depression or bipolar disorder. There won't be any wondering if you are dealing with anxiety or PTSD.

This alone can save a lot of time and headaches.

Medication Treatment

Sometimes, a person needs more than just traditional therapy. While medication is certainly not the answer for everyone or a solution in itself - it can definitely help. For instance, one person may find therapy alone is enough to help them with their anxiety or depression. Yet, another person may need a combination of therapy and medication. There is no one size fits all solution to mental health.

A psychological test and evaluation can help pinpoint if therapy alone can help or if a psychiatrist referral will be needed for medication.

Counseling Plan

Everyone has heard of traditional or talk therapy. But did you know that there are types of therapy that are specifically tailored to help with certain issues?

EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, for instance, is highly useful for PTSD or trauma. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the other hand, is beneficial for those who have bipolar disorder.

Getting testing done before you start counseling can help determine what type of therapy you need. By extension, then, it can help you determine what therapist to work with who offers the type of therapy that will be most beneficial to you.

A Learning Experience

The great thing about psychological evaluations is that they may reveal more than what you were expecting. We don't mean this in a bad way. However, maybe your online symptom searches indicated one thing. But, after the psych testing, it turns out it's something else entirely.

Furthermore, an evaluation can also show the presence of learning disabilities. This is especially useful for children who may struggle but nobody really knows why.

Sometimes, as adults, we struggle with something our whole lives. ADHD, for instance, while more commonly diagnosed in children, can go undiagnosed in adults. The evaluation process helps with the discovery of these types of situations. 

Psychological testing may sound scary at first. But, they are really just laying a foundation and path to get you on a journey to healing and growth. Just because you need one or think you might does not mean there is something wrong with you.

At my practice, I specialize in psychological testing and evaluations. I can help you lay the ground work for a brighter and happier future, so don't hesitate to reach out.