I hold in the front of my mind that assessments can potentially be an anxiety provoking and triggering experience. My approach is to be careful, respectful and gentle. I like to have a two-hour assessment appointment. However, I am flexible with this if a client is unable to manage a two-hour session. I highly value having the therapist attend the assessment as this is a familiar person for the client and they can also provide me with information that will help the assessment process. I ask the therapist and client to complete questionnaires at their next appointment together. After we have completed the assessment, I go away and type it up. Once I have completed this, I meet again with the client and the therapist to read over the report to make sure it is correct before I send it to ACC.

In light of covid-19 Level 4 restrictions, I have been offering clients and therapists ACC assessments conducted via zoom. Zoom is a video service which can link up multiple people in the same video session. That means that the client, the therapist and me are in a ‘virtual room’ together by video. Before I do an assessment by zoom, I have a consent form I ask clients to complete. This outlines the pros and cons of zoom sessions and the parameters of confidentiality (i.e. that the session will not be recorded by anyone and that no one else is in the room but the client, the therapist and me). The confidentiality agreement is to keep everyone safe. After the zoom assessment, the client and the therapist usually meet either in another ‘zoom room’ or by phone to process how the assessment was for the client. After I have typed up the report, we meet again by zoom to read through the report together.