Amy Louden, MA Psychologist Amy is a licensed psychologist whose primary goal is to assist her clients in actualizing their greatest potential. She helps children, adults, and families in their efforts to cope with a wide range of mental illnesses, including everyday psychosocial stressors. She enjoys a special emphasis on working with adolescents in their journey toward individuation. Amy is a member of the West Virginia Association of Professional Psychologists and the American Mental Health Counselors Association.

WHY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT? There was a time when almost any client coming to a psychologist for help would first be given a ?test? or a battery of tests to determine the basis for the problem. While that doesn?t happen routinely, there is still a place for psychological assessment. Although many people view tests as a necessary evil or become anxious even hearing the word ?test?, psychological assessment can be a vital part of the journey toward mental health. Psychologists can accurately identify personality problems, personality patterns, and how the brain functions in particular individuals. Tests can discover whether or not people have personality characteristics that are likely to allow them to be successful in education, industry or the military or in a chosen vocation. They can be used to aid personal development. Through the judicious combination of appropriate psychometric instruments (tests) - written or verbal - the psychologist can distinguish anxiety from depression, a psychological symptom from a medical one, and lack of ability from lack of motivation. Mental health practitioners, often rely on test results as a critical component to accurately diagnose and plan treatment of clients. A skillful psychologist calmly and carefully establishes rapport with the client prior to beginning a testing session. A quiet and peaceful environment is necessary so that the individual needs of the client can be attended to and the assessment will be illuminating and accurate. So if your treatment provider poses the ?Request to Test? issue , don?t panic! You can be comforted in knowing that he or she does so in an effort to provide professional, accurate, and goal-directed treatment.