In my Denver practice, the people who come for psychological assessment usually arrive by one of a few roads. Some have spent years aware of a gap between what they know they're capable of and what they're actually producing, and have started to wonder whether attention or learning difficulties might be part of the answer. Others have been told by a residency director, a therapist, or someone else whose judgment they trust that an evaluation might explain difficulties that haven't responded to effort alone. And many need documentation: a report rigorous enough to satisfy a licensing board or credentialing body — for Step I and Step II, the bar exam, the LSAT, the GRE, the NCLEX, and similar requirements — not a brief screening but a thorough evaluation.

What I offer in any of these situations is less a verdict than an account — a clear picture of how someone functions and what accounts for the difficulties they've described. That means taking seriously explanations that don't always fit neatly into a single diagnosis, and writing conclusions and recommendations specific enough to actually be useful to this person, in this situation.

For over a decade I've done this work at the University of Colorado Anschutz, evaluating graduate students and medical residents in demanding academic and professional environments. I also assess in private practice across a broader range of ages and referral questions. That experience has given me a close understanding of what rigorous testing looks like in complex cases — and what it takes to produce findings that are thorough and well-supported.

Evaluations typically address attention and executive functioning, learning and academic skills, cognitive functioning, and the personality and emotional factors that affect performance. Findings are shared in a detailed written report and in a feedback session — a conversation where results get connected to what they mean practically, not just clinically.

If you're wondering whether an evaluation might be useful in your situation, I'd welcome the chance to talk it through.