More Than a Diagnosis: Discover What Makes You Whole

Learn about Therapeutic Assessment

 

At Arcus, we believe psychological assessment is more than a tool for diagnosis. It is an opportunity for transformation. Traditional assessments, particularly when they are focused only on labeling or diagnosing, can unintentionally reduce people to their symptoms. This contributes to stigma, serves the interests of a profit-centered healthcare system, and often neglects the fuller, more nuanced picture of who we are as people. Instead, our approach to assessment is rooted in collaboration, curiosity, and growth. This work is relational. It should be grounded in cultural humility. We recognize the historical and ongoing harms of colonization in psychology, including in diagnosis and pathologizing of minorities, and we strive to practice in ways that honor identity, context, and lived experience. While diagnostic clarity can be useful and we offer it when requested or needed, we prioritize insight over labels.

 

Therapeutic Assessment is a thoughtful and collaborative process that uses psychological testing not to find what is wrong, but to deepen self-understanding; including our approach to ourselves and others, our personal strengths and values, rules we have established about ourselves and our life, and how others might experience us emotionally and our understanding of healthy relationships. We see testing as a chance to learn about ourselves, ask meaningful questions, identify some blind spots, and maybe learn what we should be focusing more on in ongoing therapy, especially when we feel stuck.

 

This process is vulnerable and requires courage to look in the mirror, but if you are seeking answers, direction, or want to better understand who you are and how you move through the world, we invite you to explore therapeutic assessment with us. We do not just interpret test results. We use them to help you tell your story in a new and more empowered way.