One of the most frequent questions I hear is, “What happens during an ADHD assessment?” To help demystify the process, I want to walk you through how I approach ADHD evaluations and what you can expect during this two-session process.
Session One: Gathering the “What Is”
The first session focuses on building a comprehensive clinical history. This session is dedicated to understanding your current experiences, your challenges, and the broader context of your life. To do this, I gather information from multiple sources:
- Questionnaires: Before the session, you and someone close to you (a friend, family member, or partner) will complete detailed forms about your experiences and behavior. These questionnaires provide valuable perspectives and help us establish a full picture.
- Clinical Interview: During the session, I ask structured and open-ended questions to understand your symptoms, history, and how ADHD may be impacting your daily life. This conversation forms the cornerstone of the assessment process.
The first session is really about uncovering the “what is” — painting a clear and accurate picture of where things stand. Following this session, I send over a few additional questionnaires to validate the findings from our discussion. These extra steps are crucial in ensuring that our conclusions are as accurate as possible.
Session Two: Charting the Path Forward
The second session is all about “where do we go from here.” This is a jam-packed 45 minutes where we cover three key areas:
- Assessment Results: First, we review the results of your assessment in detail. I’ll walk you through the findings, explaining how they align with your experiences and the data we’ve gathered.
- Understanding Your Brain: Next, I’ll share what’s happening neurologically inside your brain. This step is crucial because once you understand the “why” behind your experiences, the therapeutic interventions we discuss will make much more sense.
- Therapeutic Recommendations: Finally, I present my recommendations. These might include therapy, coaching strategies, or other supports. If medication is a part of the plan, I’ll provide a one-page clinical summary that you can share with your primary care physician to start that conversation.
Why the ADHD Assessment Process Works
One of the strengths of this approach is its thoroughness. We collect a variety of data points — from questionnaires, clinical interviews, and outside observations — and cross-check them to ensure consistency. The clinical interview remains the most important part of the process, as it provides the richest and most detailed insights. The questionnaires serve as a secondary check, validating the conclusions we reach during the interview.
As I often explain to clients, this process is like assembling a puzzle. Each piece of data contributes to the full picture, and when all the pieces align, we can feel confident in the accuracy of our diagnosis and the plan we create moving forward.
Wrapping Up
The ADHD assessment process is thorough, collaborative, and designed to provide clarity. By the end of the second session, you’ll have a clear understanding of your assessment results, insight into how ADHD affects your brain, and a concrete plan for next steps. My goal is to empower you with knowledge and strategies to move forward with confidence.
If you’re considering an ADHD assessment or have questions about the process, don’t hesitate to reach out. Every journey starts with a single step, and I’m here to guide you along the way.
