Psychological Assessments
Dr. Hamel is able to treat a variety of populations, including children of all ages (0-12), adolescents (13-18), and adults.
Psychological Evaluations are very useful in diagnostic clarification and provide helpful treatment recommendations.
These assessments can be a useful tool when you are feeling stuck and feel the need for discovery and guidance.
Dr. Hamel can help you by utilizing objective data to help clarify the roots and symptoms of what you’re going through to offer clarity in how to move forward.
Assessments and Evaluations Offered:
Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Please contact Dr. Hamel’s office for more information.
Developmental Disability Evaluations
Developmental Disability Evaluations utilize cognitive and adaptive measures to assess for Intellectual Disability. These are sometimes required by insurance companies to determine appropriate benefits.
Autism Spectrum Evaluations
Autism Spectrum Evaluations are a great option when a person’s symptoms seem to reflect a potential for an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. These evaluations include cognitive measures, adaptive measures, sensory assessments, behavioral and emotional functioning, and social skills.
Learning Disability Evaluations
Learning Disability Evaluations include cognitive and academic achievements measures, in addition to behavioral and emotional measures in the event there are confounding symptoms contributing to the present difficulties. Dr. Hamel will also provide recommendations for accommodations in the academic setting if needed as a part of this process.
Intelligence and Gifted Testing
These evaluations will provide cognitive assessments as a part of the process for entering gifted programming at school.
This is also an option for someone who is just curious about their own IQ and what their cognitive strengths and weaknesses are.
Early Entry Kindergarten and School Admissions Testing
If you plan to try to enroll your child in Kindergarten early, some counties allow for this if the child meets certain criteria. One such criteria includes a cutoff for cognitive and academic achievement scores. These are measured by the psychologist and produced in writing to you for use in your application.
Many private schools require cognitive testing as a part of their admissions process. This is a one visit assessment and results are ready within 48 hours.
Developmental Evaluations
These assessments are tailored to the patient. If you have concerns about possible delays, this assessment can help to determine levels of cognitive, adaptive, and speech development. This can help caregivers to better understand where their child may have deficits and strengths, and subsequently, how to best help them. These are currently available beginning at age 2.5. Though, there are plans to gain the tools to be able to begin these assessments at age 0. If you have an infant and you have concerns about development, please contact me regardless of their age.
Personality Assessments (Adults)
If you find you have a repetitive and pervasive pattern of somewhat dysfunctional behavior, it’s possible there are some underlying factors that may be driving that behavior. These assessments can help an adult learn more about how they interact with, and perceive, the world. They can help to enhance therapy with newfound insights about a person’s approach to life.
Differential Diagnosis Assessments
These assessments are helpful when a person is experiencing a variety of symptoms and determining the diagnosis is tricky. At times, some very different disorders can present very similarly. These assessments help to better understand the roots of symptoms and can help guide therapy and services in a personalized way.
Therapy
Therapy is intended to be useful to everyone, no matter the size of your troubles.
Dr. Hamel has experience working with a large variety of emotional and behavioral struggles. Multiple formats are available including individual insight-oriented therapy, play therapy, dyadic therapy, couples therapy.
Dr. Hamel is a client-centered therapist who pulls from evidence-based treatments including
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
- Parent-Child Dyadic Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Mindfulness
- The tools used in treatment are tailored to each client’s needs.
Therapy Formats Offered:
Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Please contact Dr. Hamel’s office for more information.
Individual Insight-Oriented Therapy
Individual Insight-Oriented Therapy is intended for individuals who are aiming to gain insight into how they function and what drives their emotions and behaviors. Beyond that, therapy is a safe environment for people to be themselves. It is a space in which a person can learn skills to improve their quality of life.
Play Therapy
Play Therapy is utilized with children. Children communicate through play, thus these techniques offer information about a child’s inner world that would not otherwise be achieved. Play therapy is also utilized for the child to gain comfort with the psychologist and to build trust.
Dyadic Therapy
Dyadic Therapy is conducted with parents and children. The goal is to improve the parent-child relationship and to help the parent build skills.
Couples Therapy
Couples Therapy is for partners in a relationship to develop new forms of communication and problem solving skills. Partners will learn to identify and express their emotions and gain understanding of their partners emotions.
Clinical Supervision
Dr. Hamel is an experienced supervisor with a passion for helping you help others while growing as a clinician.
Dr. Hamel has supervised post-doctoral professionals and interns. Her approach to supervision is much like her approach to therapy, centered around the needs of the supervisee. As a supervisor, Dr. Hamel is willing to utilize methods that are best suited to aide the supervisee in achieving their goals.