About Our Neurodiversity Assessments

Our comprehensive adult neurodiversity assessments are designed to explore your sensory, cognitive, and socio-emotional profile in detail. Together, we will determine whether your experiences align with autism, ADHD and/or related diagnoses. In our assessment process, we take care to account for high-masking, multiply-neurodivergent, complex and other less common presentations. We will also perform a full psychological assessment, evaluating any co-occuring mental health conditions.

As part of the process, we will explore different areas of your life and history, taking care to identify both strengths and areas of challenge. We will consider the impacts of being undiagnosed and how this may have shaped your life experiences. 

We don't believe in just "checking boxes" to arrive at a diagnosis. We believe an assessment should be a precious opportunity to tell your story fully, to feel heard, and to put words on your unique set of experiences. Our goal is to help you gain an understanding of your profile, empowering you with insights and personalized recommendations. 

Our approach to assessment aims to be neurodiversity-affirming and non-pathologizing: we recognize and celebrate each individual's set of experiences as a normal part of the diversity of human existence.

  • The structure of our assessments designed to be flexible and personalized. We can adapt to your specific needs in preferences, for examples by using fewer questionnaires, including more testing, or relying more heavily on written communication over oral communication.

    Because we rely heavily on interviewing, our assessments tend involve more face-to-face session time than many other assessment models (7-10 hours, as compared to 2-5 hours for most assessment models). 

    The main advantage is that we can explore the different facets of your life in greater depth and focus on your internal experiences, not just externally observable behaviours. In our experience, this approach is helpful in accurately diagnosing individuals who are very high masking, those with atypical presentations, and those with complex profiles where co-occuring conditions may mask each others. For many, this is a unique opportunity to gain a bigger-picture perspective on your life and experiences, which can enable you to see new patterns and gain helpful insights. 

    The main disadvantage is that this type of assessment is more time- and resource-intensive than an assessment that relies more heavily on other tools. This type of assessment is not appropriate for those who have low verbal communication fluency.

    We do note use some of the commonly-used 'diagnostic' tests for autism such as the ADOS-2 or the ADI-R because they are widely considered not to be neurodiversity-affirming, and because they may not capture the complexity of experiences of high-masking individuals.

Assessment Process

Our assessments are completed over the course of a few sessions lasting 60-120 minutes each. The length of the assessment depends on a variety of factors, including how frequently we schedule assessment sessions. It could be a couple of weeks, or a couple of months. We will try our best to adjust to your needs and preferences. 

An assessment involves a personalized combination of the following:

Interviewing

1

We will spend a number of hours talking in detail about your history and experiences in various facets of your life. Our assessment leans most heavily on these interviews, as our goal is to understand your inner world as best as we can. Interviewing typically takes place over a few sessions.

Questionnaires

2

We will send you several questionnaires to complete at home, in order to facilitate collecting information about different parts of your life. This will help orient, streamline and complete the collection of information, complementing interviews. Questionnaires also allow us to compare your answers to statistically-defined norms, which can give us interesting insights.

Review of Notes and Documentats

3

We will take time to review any notes you may want to share with us between sessions, as well as any relevant documents (such as report cards from childhood, job performance reviews or previous assessment reports). 

Cognitive Testing

4

In some cases, it may be helpful to complete some tests in-session to help us better understand how your brain processes information. For example, we might use tests that help us understand the strength of your attention and impulse control, or the ways in which you process non-verbal communication. Intelligence testing is sometimes recommended in order to confirm intellectual giftedness or to identify areas of intellectual strengths and weaknesses.

Some tests can be performed at no additional cost. However, an additional $300 fee applies for IQ testing. 

How can I contact you?

5

At the end of the process, we will meet to review the data and conclusions from your psychological assessment. During this session, we will walk you through the data collected and conclusions, highlighting key insights about your strengths, challenges, and overall profile. We’ll discuss any diagnoses, if applicable, and explore how the findings relate to your experiences and goals.

A shorter follow-up session can be scheduled after the feedback sessions to address any concerns, questions or needs that remain after you have had time to process the diagnoses and recommendations that were communicated.

Documentation

6

We will consolidate a summary of the assessment process, findings and recommendations into a report, summary or diagnostic letter that will be sent to you after the final payment has been received. This serves as an official record of the assessment process. If needed, we can also provide a letter in support of work accommodations or fill out forms to help you access supports. Letter are generally ready within a week after the feedback session, and reports are usually ready 6-8 weeks after the feedback session.

Optional Follow-Up Session

7

If desired, a follow-up session can be scheduled after the feedback sessions to address any concerns, questions or needs that remain after you have had time to process the diagnoses and recommendations that were communicated.

This time is billed at the clinician's regular hourly rate.