If you have ever tried to find someone to test your child for ADHD, or tried to get an autism assessment for yourself as an adult, you may have had this experience. You open a large therapy directory, filter by your zip code, and find dozens of kind, qualified people. Then you call five of them and learn that none of them do testing.
That’s because therapy and evaluation are different kinds of work, and most directories are built for therapy.
What a therapist does
A therapist meets with you over time to help you work through something. The relationship is ongoing. Licensed professional counselors, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists can all provide therapy. Fit matters a lot, so therapy directories focus on personality, approach, and the issues someone treats.
What an evaluator does
A psychological evaluation is a defined project with a beginning and an end. A psychologist gathers history, often from several people. They give standardized tests, which might measure attention, memory, reasoning, academic skills, language, emotional functioning, or social communication, depending on the question. They review school or medical records. Then they put it together in a written report that answers a specific question and makes recommendations.
Most of that testing is done by licensed psychologists, many of whom have spent years training specifically in assessment. Some evaluations are done by neuropsychologists, who focus on how brain functioning relates to thinking and behavior. Plenty of psychologists who do excellent therapy don’t do formal testing at all.
Why the search goes wrong
A few things make this harder than it should be.
The words are confusing. “Assessment” on a therapist’s profile might mean a first appointment where they get to know you. “Evaluation” might mean the same thing. Neither guarantees standardized testing or a written report.
Evaluators are specialized. Someone who does excellent learning disability evaluations for school-age kids may not assess adults for autism. Someone who does custody evaluations for courts may not do ADHD testing. You need a match for your question, and broad directories rarely let you search that way.
Waits can be long. Because fewer psychologists do this work, calling around one practice at a time can eat weeks.
Questions to ask when you call
When you reach a practice, these questions save time:
- Do you do full psychological evaluations with standardized testing and a written report?
- Do you evaluate for my specific concern, and for this age group?
- What does the process look like, and how many appointments?
- How long until the first appointment, and how long after testing until I get the report?
- What do you charge, and do you take my insurance or provide paperwork I can submit myself?
- Can any part of it happen by telehealth?
The answers vary a lot from practice to practice, so it’s normal to ask all of them.
What to have ready
It helps to write down, in plain words, what you want to understand. “Why does my son melt down after school but seem fine there?” is a better starting point than a diagnosis you’ve read about. Gather any past report cards, school evaluations, or medical records. If the evaluation is for you as an adult, think about what was going on in childhood too, since many evaluators will ask.
You don’t need to know what test you need. Figuring that out is the evaluator’s job.
About telehealth
Some parts of an evaluation, like interviews and the feedback session, often work well by video. Other parts may need to happen in person. If you live near a state line, you may also be able to work with a psychologist licensed in a neighboring state through PSYPACT, an agreement among participating states that allows telehealth across state lines. You can see which states participate on the PSYPACT website.
Search by the evaluation you need
We built Find My Psychologist for exactly this search. Every psychologist listed does evaluations, and you can filter by the type you’re looking for, whether that’s ADHD, autism, learning differences, or something else, and see who offers telehealth across state lines. Start your search at findmypsychologist.com.