Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment

One of the challenges the field of clinical neuropsychology faces is to develop an assessment process that is relevant and responsive to the needs of patients. Indeed, it has been suggested that the survival of neuropsychology as a clinical discipline may be threatened due to an overemphasis on diagnosing cognitive deficits as opposed to developing methods that meet patients’ needs. One way to meet this need is for psychologists to extend their services by developing clinical interventions that contribute to enhancing patients’ cognitive and emotional well-being. Providing feedback from the results of neuropsychological tests is one method suggested as a way to enhance patient care and satisfaction with the assessment process while providing a link between clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions.

In current practice, providing feedback to patients about the results of neuropsychological assessments has been considered an optional procedure by clinicians and thus received little attention in the literature. Yet there is evidence that when feedback is provided to patients the effects are overwhelmingly positive. Feedback provides a bridge between assessment and treatment by facilitating the development of applicable treatment plans. There is no agreed upon conceptual framework for providing feedback from neuropsychological assessment, although researchers have made recommendations. However, these recommendations have done little to affect clinical practice and training despite the fact that including patient-oriented feedback enhances the likelihood that neuropsychological assessment will remain a relevant and important component of patient care. The purpose of this proposed book is to first describe developments in methods of neuropsychological assessment feedback that involve active collaboration with patients in an open exchange of information and results. Second, we will present a comprehensive model for conducting neuropsychological assessment feedback. The authors of this book are expert clinical practitioners and academic researchers who are at the forefront of the development and implementation of Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment methods. Table of contents follows.

Tad T. Gorske, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is a licensed psychologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His specialty areas include psychotherapy, psychological and neuropsychological testing with adults and older adults with mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Dr. Gorske completed his doctoral studies in Counseling Psychology at West Virginia University and postdoctoral training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Clinical Neuropsychology and Addiction Medicine. From these experiences he developed Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment (TNA) with Dr. Christopher Ryan, an internationally renowned researcher in the field of neuropsychology and alcoholism. Dr. Gorske remains on faculty, studying the effects of TNA with clients. He has published in scholarly journals on topics related to addiction, neuropsychology, and counseling. Dr. Gorske is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and is also active as Program and Education Board Chair for the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Board of Directors for the Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association. He has presented his methods and results from a federally funded study in local and national conferences.

Steven R. Smith, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Smith conducts research on the integration of neuropsychology and personality assessment. He is the director of the Psychology Assessment Center at UCSB and is co-editor of two recent volumes on assessment: The Clinical Assessment of Children and Adolescents: A Clinician’s Handbook (with Dr. Leonard Handler; LEA) and Personality Assessment: Evaluation, Application, and Integration (with Dr. Robert Archer; LEA). In 2005, he was presented the Beck Award by the Society for Personality Assessment for outstanding early career research. He completed his doctoral studies in clinical psychology at the University of Arkansas before internship and postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. After training, Dr. Smith remained on staff at MGH as a child psychotherapist and as Director of Consultation Neuropsychology before joining the faculty of UCSB in 2004.