Collaborative / Therapeutic Assessment: A Casebook and Guide

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface vii About the Contributors xix 1 Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment: Basic Concepts, History, and Research 1 Stephen E. Finn, Constance T. Fischer, and Leonard Handler Part I: Assessments of Individual Adults 2 Therapeutic Assessment of a Dissociating Client: Learning Internal Navigation 27 Judith Armstrong 3 Therapeutic Assessment of Depression: Love’s Labors Lost? 47 Marc J. Diener, Mark J. Hilsenroth, Thomas D. Cromer, Frank P. Pesale, and Jenelle Slavin-Mulford 4 Collaboration in Neuropsychological Assessment: Metaphor as Intervention With a Suicidal Adult 69 Diane H. Engelman and J. B. Allyn 5 Collaboration Throughout the Assessment: A Young Man in Transition 93 Constance T. Fischer 6 Therapeutic Assessment for a Treatment in Crisis Following Multiple Suicide Attempts 113 J. Christopher Fowler 7 Using Therapeutic Assessment to Explore Emotional Constriction: A Creative Professional in Crisis 133 Jan H. Kamphuis and Hilde de Saeger 8 Therapeutic Assessment Involving Multiple Life Issues: Coming to Terms With Problems of Health, Culture, and Learning 157 Hale Martin and Erin Jacklin 9 Collaborative Assessment for Psychotherapy: Witnessing A Woman’s Reawakening 179 Patrick J. McElfresh 10 Therapeutic Assessment of Severe Abuse: A Woman Living With Her Past 199 Carol Groves Overton Part II: Assessments of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults 11 Therapeutic Assessment of an Adolescent: An Adopted Teenager Comes to Feel Understood 225 Marita Frackowiak 12 Collaborative Storytelling With Children: An Unruly Six- Year- Old Boy 243 Leonard Handler 13 Rorschach- Based Psychotherapy: Collaboration With a Suicidal Young Woman 269 Noriko Nakamura 14 Collaborative Assessment of a Child in Foster Care: New Understanding of Bad Behavior 291 Caroline Purves 15 Therapeutic Assessment With a 10- Year- Old Boy and His Parents: The Pain Under the Disrespect 311 Deborah J. Tharinger, Melissa E. Fisher, and Bradley Gerber 16 Collaborative Assessment on an Adolescent Psychiatric Ward: A Psychotic Teenage Girl 335 Heikki Toivakka Part III: Special Applications 17 Therapeutic Assessment Alternative to Custody Evaluation: An Adolescent Whose Parents Could Not Stop Fighting 357 F. Barton Evans 18 Therapeutic Assessment With a Couple in Crisis: Undoing Problematic Projective Identification via the Consensus Rorschach 379 Stephen E. Finn 19 Case Studies in Collaborative Neuropsychology: A Man With Brain Injury and a Child With Learning Problems 401 Tad T. Gorske and Steven R. Smith Afterword: Forward! 421 Constance T. Fischer, Leonard Handler, and Stephen E. Finn Author Index 427 Subject Index 430

About the Author :
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.