Psychological Evaluations
Neuropsychological Evaluations
Understanding the Importance of Neuropsychological Assessments: Who Needs Them and How They Help
Who Needs a Neuropsychological Assessment:
A neuropsychological assessment can be invaluable for individuals of all ages, including children, teenagers, and adults. These evaluations provide insights into brain functionality and its impact on various life aspects. They elucidate learning capabilities, attention span, intellectual strengths, and limitations, as well as behavioral patterns and emotion regulation abilities.
How Can A Neuropsychological Evaluation Help?
It can help in several different ways:
Facilitating eligibility for academic accommodations, particularly for students
Formulating personalized treatment recommendations based on individual needs
Establishing a benchmark to gauge the efficacy of future treatments
Setting realistic academic or occupational expectations
Offering a comprehensive diagnosis to guide further interventions.
What Happens During a Neuropsychological Evaluation:
Neuropsychological assessments function similarly to medical tests, aiding psychologists in understanding cognitive functioning comparable to diagnosing physical problems.
A neuropsychological assessment includes an in-depth, clinical analysis of the patient, inclusive of several different cognitive, academic, executive functioning, psychodiagnostic, and/or behavioral tests. The patient meets with their dedicated CFR psychologist who conducts a personalized series of tests, exploring various cognitive and behavioral domains, as well as life experiences.
Afterwards, in the Post-Evaluation phase, the psychologist interprets the results of the evaluation and prepares a detailed report outlining the findings, explanations, and recommendations.
Once the report is completed, the patient and their CFR psychologist meet for a Post-Evaluation Feedback session, during which results and any recommendations are explained with clarity.
At every step of the way, your CFR psychologist will answer any of your questions and ensure you understand the process, results, and recommendations.
Psychological Evaluations for Trauma
If you have experienced a stressful life event(s) that catapulted emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and social shifts in you, maybe you are suffering from post-trauma sequelae. Not every stressful or traumatic life event will result in the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Some individuals with trauma histories can present with a straightforward, clear-symptoms presentation, but others will present with complex and seemingly confusing symptoms. If you need help identifying how your trauma history has impacted your emotion regulation, perspectives, and behaviors, then a trauma-informed evaluation can help answer those questions.
The goal of a trauma-informed psychological evaluation is to obtain the most reliable and valid information about an individual’s exposure to traumatic events and determine if/how it is linked to their current symptomatology, present health and overall functioning. Trauma -informed evaluations can be a valuable resource for attorneys and courts striving to obtain a fair and effective representation of clients who have suffered adverse life events.
At CFR, all psychological evaluations are performed by licensed psychologists who receive specialized training in the type of evaluation they are providing to you.
Immigration Evaluations
An immigration evaluation is any psychological evaluation that is used in an immigration case. Depending on the type of immigration case, the evaluator will determine which measures to administer to the client during the evaluation.
Who can conduct an immigration evaluation:
Any licensed mental health provider can conduct an immigration evaluation. Some states will allow unlicensed mental health clinicians under the supervision of a licensed clinician.
At CFR, Dr. Carol Chu-Peralta performs all immigration evaluations. She is a licensed Clinical psychologist who has expertise in trauma and immigration. What this means for clients is that your evaluator is a doctor that specializes in the study of psychology with over a decade of experience in performing immigration evaluations. Through her immigration evaluations, she has aided many attorneys in helping them win their client’s immigration cases. Dr. Chu-Peralta is trained in an array of psychological tests and knows which are the best to use for succeeding in an immigration case. She has a rapid turn-around time and works collaboratively with attorneys.
Types of Immigration Cases and Immigration Evaluation Focus:
Extreme Hardship Waiver & Cancellation of Removal
In this type of immigration evaluation, the goal is to evaluate the U.S. citizen or lawful Permanent Resident in order to determine and cogently demonstrate how they would be excessively affected if their immigrant family member was not permitted to remain in the U.S.
Asylum, VAWA, U & T Visas:
Immigration evaluations supporting these cases are all centered on demonstrating the applicant’s traumatic life experience(s). The goal of the evaluation is to show how the client’s past trauma exposure is impacting their mental and physical health, and overall functioning.
Naturalization Waivers or N-648
Immigration evaluations supporting these cases can only be conducted by a doctoral-level psychologist or medical provider due to the tests involved in the evaluation. Only psychologists and some medical providers are trained on the administration and interpretation of these types of tests. This type of waiver is for an immigrant who is incapable of taking the naturalization test due to severe cognitive or psychological impairments.