Postdoctoral residents provide psychological services and continue to develop their skills as community psychologists.  In addition to specialized trainings on clinical interventions and clinical populations, the postdoctoral residents receive specialized training in Therapeutic-Collaborative Assessment.  Based on the work of Constance Fischer (1985, 1994) and Stephen Finn (1997) the Therapeutic-Collaborative assessment process invites the client to become involved in generating questions about themselves, receiving feedback along the way, and participating in the use of the evaluation for identification of important psychological issues and life planning.  The training assists the psychologists in using the testing process as a collaborative endeavor that can produce therapeutic change in the client.  It also teaches the residents to function as a consultant and team member – to use the assessment as a tool to join with the important people in the child’s system to make timely interventions.

The postdoctoral training in advanced assessment includes the following: learning disabilities in the neuropsychological context, issues in Therapeutic-Collaborative Assessment (eliciting questions, feedback: developing story-writing, letter-writing, and caretaker feedback, cultural/social aspects in giving helpful feedback; system collaboration; developing useful recommendations), interpretation and report writing (getting the most out of projective data, professional writing).

For more information on our Post-doctoral Training Program contact Dr. Margaret Nettles, Intern Training Program Director, at (510) 269-9047 or by email at mnettles@westcoastcc.org.

For more information on Therapeutic-Collaborative Assessment contact Dr. Barbara Mercer, Assessment Program Director, at (510) 269-9040 or by email at bmercer@westcoastcc.org.