Autism Assessment

An autism assessment is a comprehensive process designed to explore your sensory, cognitive, and socio-emotional profile in detail, and to determine whether your experiences align with autism. We will take care to identify both strengths and areas of challenge. The assessment evaluates whether diagnostic criteria for autism are met, while exploring the impacts of being undiagnosed and how this may have shaped your life experiences.

As part of the assessment process, we must consider and rule out other potential explanations for behaviours and experiences. We will also screen for co-occurring conditions such as ADHD, mood disorders, anxiety, OCD or trauma that may contribute to the clinical presentation.

My goal is to help you gain an understanding of your profile, empowering you with insights and recommendations tailored to your needs.

I offer assessment services for adolescents and adults aged 16+.

My approach to assessment is neurodiversity-affirming and non-pathologizing: the unique profile of each individual is recognized and celebrated as a normal part of the diversity of human experiences.

Process

Screening - An initial session is spent collecting information about the way your life looks currently, as well as clues as to whether you might be autistic. At the end of the screening session, I will give you an opinion as to whether an in-depth autism assessment might be warranted or not.
Interviewing - We will talk in detail about your history and experiences in various facets of your life. My assessment leans most heavily on these interviews, as my goal is to understand your inner world as best as I can.
Battery of questionnaires - I will send you several questionnaires to complete at home, in order to facilitate collecting information about different facets of your experience. This will help orient, streamline and complete the collection of information through interviews.
Consultation with close others - People who know you closely can often be involved in the assessment process. They may be invited to participate in an interview and/or asked to fill out some questionnaires. This can be helpful in gaining a different perspective on your personality and behaviour.
Social cognition or cognitive performance tests - In some cases, it may be helpful to complete some tests in-session to help us better understand how your brain processes information.
Feedback session - At the end of the process, we will meet to review the findings from your psychological assessment. During this session, I will walk you through the results, highlighting key insights about your strengths, challenges, and overall profile. We’ll discuss any diagnoses, if applicable, as well as explore how these findings relate to your experiences and goals.
Report - I will consolidate a summary of the assessment process, findings and recommendations into a report that will be sent to you after the final payment has been received. This serves as an official record of the assessment process.

Cost

The initial screening is priced at $390 for a 90-minute session. The rest of the assessment is priced at a package rate of $2610, for a total of $3000.

A combined ADHD and autism assessment is priced at $4000.

Autism Assessment FAQ

How are your autism assessments different from others?

Because I rely so heavily on interviewing, my assessments tend involve more face-to-face time than many other assessment models. The advantage is that we may explore more of your experiences this way. The disadvantage is that this type of assessment is more time- and resource-intensive than an assessment that relies more heavily on other tools.

Do you use tests like the ADOS-2 or ADI-R?

No. I do not use these tests in my practice, because they are widely considered not to be neurodiversity-affirming, and because they may not capture the complexity of experiences of high-masking individuals.

How long does the assessment process take?

The length of the assessment depends on a variety of factors, including how frequently we schedule assessment sessions. I will try my best to adjust to your needs and preferences. It could be a couple of weeks, or a couple of months.

What is included in the cost?

An assessment involves many hours of work in the background, in addition to session time. The cost covers an unlimited number of face-to-face session time necessary to complete the assessment, hours spent scoring, interpreting and organizing data, and report-writing.

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