PhD/PsyD From Psychotherapy to Assessment/Testing

[hum1]

Hello,

I have been doing psychotherapy for the past 20 something years and am in need of a career change. I also teach for a PsyD program during the Summer and I really enjoy it. However, I would not want to leave my clinical practice to become a full time adjunct and have a precarious and highly unstable job situation.

I thought about starting to do some psychological assessment/testing and am wondering what first steps I would need to take? In the past I have applied some tests such as the MMPI, WAIS, WISC, BDI, TAT, etc. however I did not do my internship nor my post doc in assessment. I thought about applying some of the aforementioned tests, do autism evaluations, or do simple court evaluations, etc. but would not want to do more complex evaluations such as e.g. neuro psych evaluations.

I am aware that applying tests and writing reports is an extremely difficult and very specialized task, however I was wondering if it would be possible to do a career change without having to go back in training an do an internship and post doc in testing? If so, which steps should I take? Is there training, supervision? Thank you for your thoughts.

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[psych.meout]

What do you mean by "simple court evaluations?"

 

[hum1]

What do you mean by "simple court evaluations?"

In the state where I live, Massachusetts, there are clinicians who do immigration evaluations for attorneys. I meant a diverse group of legal evaluations and reports, not forensic evaluations.

 

[psych.meout]

I'm confused. How are "legal evaluations" not forensic evaluations? How are you defining and operationalizing these terms to differentiate them?

 

[hum1]

I'm confused. How are "legal evaluations" not forensic evaluations? How are you defining and operationalizing these terms to differentiate them?

I am sorry, I know very little of forensic and legal assessment. The point I was trying to make is that I believe that psychologists that conduct neuropsych and forensic assessments start this route in their practicum/internship/post docs, therefore I would exclude pursuing such assessments.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Hello,

I have been doing psychotherapy for the past 20 something years and am in need of a career change. I also teach for a PsyD program during the Summer and I really enjoy it. However, I would not want to leave my clinical practice to become a full time adjunct and have a precarious and highly unstable job situation.

I thought about starting to do some psychological assessment/testing and am wondering what first steps I would need to take? In the past I have applied some tests such as the MMPI, WAIS, WISC, BDI, TAT, etc. however I did not do my internship nor my post doc in assessment. I thought about applying some of the aforementioned tests, do autism evaluations, or do simple court evaluations, etc. but would not want to do more complex evaluations such as e.g. neuro psych evaluations.

I am aware that applying tests and writing reports is an extremely difficult and very specialized task, however I was wondering if it would be possible to do a career change without having to go back in training an do an internship and post doc in testing? If so, which steps should I take? Is there training, supervision? Thank you for your thoughts.

First, I don't think it'd be possible to go back and do an internship, at least via the APPIC route. A formal or informal postdoc is possible, but it'd likely be full-time and you'd probably take a pay cut. Peer-to-peer consultation (combined with self-study) is typically how folks go about expanding their competence once they're already practicing.

Beyond that, it's all going to depend on what types of assessments you're wanting to provide, which will probably be dependent in (large) part on what's in-demand in your area.

If it's been a while since you've done any type of assessment, which it sounds like is the case, I'd stay away from anything court-related, at least initially. When you want to start dipping your toes into that, you're going to need peer-to-peer consultation/supervision at the very least. Ideally, you'd conduct evaluations in partnership with another psychologist, maybe even observe a couple done by them to start. I have no experience with immigration evaluations, so I can't speak to how simple they are. But it's a niche, and you'd need someone knowledgeable in that area, which includes not just knowledge of whatever assessments are appropriate, but of how to use and interpret those assessments in the context of the overall purpose of the eval.

From a clinical perspective, you're still going to want some peer-to-peer consultation. I'd start by selecting probably one type of assessment to gain experience with. Maybe ADHD evals, maybe adult autism evals, maybe broader psychological assessments based on referrals from a psychiatrist. Ideally something you have some prior training and experience with, and something someone else in the area is already doing and willing to consult with you on.

 

[smalltownpsych]

In our local area, psychologists have a 3 to 4 month waiting list for assessments. If I was looking to get some experience in assessment and get that aspect of my practice rolling again, I would reach out to a couple of them and offer to help with some of their backlog and in exchange for consultation and the referral, offer a 50/50 split.