Information for service users

A psychological assessment is not a test or an exam. It is about helping you, and helping us understand your current needs, difficulties and strengths. You only have to talk about what you want to talk about. The more open and honest you are, the easier it will be to get you the right help.

During the assessment, you and healthcare professionals will talk about your needs. The conversation might cover mental health symptoms and experiences, feelings, thoughts and actions, physical health and wellbeing, past experiences, housing and financial circumstances, employment and training needs, social and family relationships, culture and ethnic background, your safety and other people’s, strengths and skills, and what helps you best, hopes and aspirations for the future. You only have to talk about what you want to talk about but the more you’re able to share, the easier it will be to find out what will work best for you. An assessment can also include completing some questionnaires.

When the professionals you are talking to have all the information they need, they will make their assessment and explain it to you in clear language. You should get the chance to ask questions about your difficulties, the possible causes, and the treatments on offer, and how those might affect your life. You should also be involved in making decisions about what available treatments are best for you.

We also offer other kinds of psychological assessments including neuropsychological assessment and cognitive assessment (which looks at things like thinking, language and memory), and other more specialist assessments.

Should you be offered a psychological therapy, there are several different reasons why you may need to wait. For example, where we offer more specialised therapies like EMDR, which have fewer therapists trained and available to provide the therapy, waiting times may be longer.  Some therapies we offer are delivered in groups, therefore waiting times are often shorter. Waiting times vary depending upon what we have agreed with you as the most suitable therapy for you. Another reason why there may be a wait is if you have recently completed a course of therapy. Sometimes a break can be useful to try out the different strategies you have learnt before trying a new or extended therapy. In other situations, support from another member of the team may be most helpful, before you start a psychological therapy. There may also be barriers which may make a therapy less likely to be successful, such as family relationship issues, social challenges, housing needs or substance misuse. In these cases sometimes it may be better to resolve or manage these challenges before embarking on a therapy.

We understand that waiting is hard and we do our best to ensure the most efficient use of our resources, so that we can offer the most appropriate support to our service users. We use telephone support and are trialling innovative digital technologies to provide support before and during your therapy.

Generally, psychological therapy is specific and time-limited. The length of your therapy will be a conversation between you and your therapist about the goals you have for your therapy and the models that will be best suited to meet your needs. The length of therapy will be dependent on the model agreed upon, the goals set and progress made. You and your therapist will discuss your progress as part of your therapy. This is a conversation you will revisit as you work together.

To commit to attending the sessions

To set goals with your therapist and review these together

You may need access to technology (e.g. phone, computer) if you opt for a treatment that is delivered virtually rather than in person.