Introduction to Therapeutic Assessment: Using Psychological Testing as Brief Psychotherapy - Stephen E. Finn, PhD

Psychological assessment has typically been viewed as something one does to diagnosis psychological disorders or to plan for or evaluate an intervention. However, in the last 20 years, a new paradigm developed by Constance Fischer and Stephen Finn is sweeping the assessment world, in which psychological testing is viewed as a brief powerful intervention with clients and their important others. After a recent meta-analysis, Poston and Hanson (2010) concluded: “Clinicians should … seek out continuing-education training related to [Therapeutic Assessment]. Those who engage in assessment and testing as usual may miss out, it seems, on a golden opportunity to effect client change and enhance clinically important treatment processes” (p. 210). In this introductory workshop, Dr. Finn will explain how Therapeutic Assessment works and will present the different steps for how to conduct this method in practice. In addition to the presentation of didactic material and discussion, Dr. Finn will show video vignettes from his sessions with clients to demonstrate the power and impact of his model. Case illustrations will be drawn from both adult and child assessments. The workshop assumes some familiarity with standard psychological assessment instruments such as the WAIS-IV, the MMPI-2, the Rorschach, and the TAT and is the introductory step toward the practice of and certification in Therapeutic Assessment.

Date & Time:

Friday, November 4th, 2011

9:00 to 5:00 (7 CEU’s)

Location: Presbyterian Village North

8600 Skyline Drive Dallas, TX 75243

About the Presenter:

Stephen E. Finn, Ph.D., founder of the Center for Therapeutic Assessment, is a licensed clinical psychologist in practice in Austin, TX, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Senior Researcher and Director of Training at the European Center for Therapeutic Assessment at Catholic University of Milan, Italy. He has published 50+ articles and chapters on psychological assessment, psychodiagnosis, and other topics in clinical psychology, and is the author of In Our Clients’ Shoes: Theory and Techniques of Therapeutic Assessment (Erlbaum, 2007), A Manual for Using the MMPI-2 as a Therapeutic Intervention (1996, University of Minnesota Press), and (with Hale Martin) Masculinity and Femininity in the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A (2010, University of Minnesota Press). Dr. Finn received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1984 from the University of Minnesota. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the Society of Personality Assessment, for which he served as President in 2002-2004. Dr. Finn is the recipient of the 2011 Bruno Klopfer Award from the Society of Personality Assessment, for distinguished lifetime contributions to the field of personality assessment.

Registration Info:

Early Registration Rates (before 11/01/11): DPA Members - $120; Non-Members - $160; Students/Interns/Postdocs - $50 Registration after 11/01/11 or onsite: DPA Members and Past Members - $130; Non-Members - $170; Students/Interns/Postdocs - $60

Onsite registration and continental breakfast begin at 8:30 am – the workshop will start promptly at 9:00 am. Lunch provided onsite for pre-registrants.