Assessment & Formulation

Psychological assessment usually takes between one to three sessions depending on the complexity of the situation.

I’ll ask questions to help me begin to get to know you and understand:

·        what life has been like for you

·        what’s brought you to seek psychological help

·        how you’d like things to change

·        what you already know about what helps or doesn’t help you.

Many people find this phase helpful in starting to make sense of what’s been going on for them, envisage possible ways forward and feel emerging hope.

You don’t have to answer any questions you don’t feel comfortable to, and can take breaks or pauses if you need.

Care is taken to ensure Psychological Assessment is paced and feels safe: this is important for everyone but especially for children and young people who are often brought to sessions by parents/carers and so need a structure that’s appropriate for their age and stage of development, that enables them to understand what’s happening and gives them appropriate levels of choice in the process.

Throughout the time we work together – especially when talking about sensitive issues – I will regularly check-in with you about how the conversation is feeling and whether you think I’m understanding things correctly, so I can adapt accordingly. It’s also very helpful if you feel able to let me know when things feel helpful or unhelpful as we go along – that feedback helps me do my job.

Yes! Different approaches to assessment suit different people and I will seek to understand and adapt my approach to suit you/your child - including accounting for any accessibility needs linked to disability and/or neurodivergence. 

Sometimes I suggest using questionnaires alongside discussions to explore certain patterns of symptoms in a structured way. Children quite often like to engage with drawing, puzzles and play activities as part of assessment.

In particularly complex circumstances, sometimes the assessment phase is extended beyond three sessions: this will always be discussed with you as part of making collaborative plans for our work.

Psychological formulation is a linchpin of clinical psychological practice: it’s a kind of working explanation of what difficulties are being experienced, what might have led to those difficulties, what’s keeping them going, what helps and how any patterns of difficulty and distress might be changed for the better through psychological intervention.

Formulations usually bring together psychological understanding based on scientific research alongside information and observations you have brought from your own life. This guides treatment approach (e.g. choice of psychological therapy) in line with best practice and awareness of what works for your own circumstances and preferences.

Because they are working explanations rather than “set in stone”, psychological formulations allow for open and collaborative exploration and learning - ideas can be checked out and tried out, and rich shared understanding gained.

Many people find that psychological formulations can help them make sense of things that have felt complex – and often begin to feel more compassion for themselves in what’s been happening.

Psychological formulations can be particularly helpful when people have more than one difficulty or potential diagnosis – enabling shared thinking about how symptoms, thoughts, feelings and patterns of behaving might link together, even when they seem to belong in different diagnostic “boxes”.

Sometimes people find it helpful to share their psychological formulation with people they are working with (e.g. health and education professionals) and options for providing psychological reports or summaries can be discussed if helpful at this stage. (See Privacy Policy for how your information is protected).