Autism Diagnostic Assessments

My Assessment Process

My assessment process is a little different from other providers and includes a psycho-educational consultation component. Through these consultation sessions, we will collaborate to understand your unique neurobiology and how that may be influencing the things you find most challenging. Through this process we will also identify strategies to support you with these challenges.

The process begins with an initial session where you provide me with background information and the reasons you think you might have ASD. From there, we will do clinician-administered rating scale so that I can gather more information about the characteristics of autism that are present in your life now and when you were a child. In between sessions, you will complete some rating scales online to provide me with further information. Sometimes I will ask you to have a partner, parent, or other close person fill out rating scales, too, so that I can understand how other people perceive your challenges and strengths.

Sometimes it is necessary for me to gather more information and I might ask you to come in to complete another assessment. These assessments include the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale, 2^nd Edition (ADOS-2) and/or the Monteiro Interview Guidelines for Diagnosing the Autism Spectrum, 2^nd Edition (MIGDAS-2).

In these sessions we will explore how your brain works and use that information to understand your strengths, as well as the challenges you experience in navigating a non-autistic world. Based on that understanding, we will collaborate to find strategies that work with your brain to support your needs. Between sessions, you will try these strategies and report back on what works for you and what does not. The topics we cover in the psychoeducational sessions may include: 

• Sensory and emotional regulation (2-4 sessions)
• Monoprocessing, gestalt thinking, associative thinking, object permanence, memory retrieval (1-2 sessions)
• Executive functioning (2-3 sessions)

Once we have completed all these steps, I will take all the information we have gathered together and write a detailed report summarizing your test results, narratives of your lived experiences, and information gathered from others. We will then meet to debrief the report and answer anymore questions you might have.

The cost for this assessment will be billed per session at $235/hour. The sessions are typically 60 minutes long. At a minimum, this process will take 14 sessions (this includes an initial intake/clinical interview, two hours of testing, five hours for test scoring and report writing, five psychoeducational sessions, and one debrief session). However it may take more depending on whether other measures are needed or together we determine that more psychoeducational consultation sessions are necessary. As such, the minimum cost for this assessment is $3080. The cost of this assessment may be more than what other clinicians charge for a traditional assessment. However, given the therapeutic nature of the psychoeducational sessions, individuals often find additional value in the process. I am happy to provide referrals if the cost of this assessment is prohibitive. 

This can be a longer process than more traditional ASD assessments and it requires a commitment from you to be open to learning and trying new things. There are also limitations to this process. I do not provide cognitive (IQ) testing, which other service providers often do. Sometimes this kind of testing is necessary if you are seeking funding supports, if you suspect you have a learning disability, or if you need extensive and specialized work or school accommodations.  

Adult ASD assessments range in cost from $3290- $4465 depending on your needs. Assessments are administered in-person or virtually.