The Testing Psychologist Podcast

Let’s rewind to four years ago when I was super confused and overwhelmed with the financial aspect of my practice. I knew I needed to be saving for retirement but didn’t know how to balance that need with other financial obligations. Luckily, I got connected with Ariel Ward and her team at Abacus Wealth. She’s here today to walk us through the ins and outs of financial planning and retirement savings for mental health practice owners.

Welcome back to another happy hour episode! After having so much fun during the first episode back in February 2020, we thought we’d make this a regular thing. These episodes are meant to be a more informal, casual discussion of a wide range of topics - testing-related and otherwise.

Today’s episode is about revisiting your rates. Theoretically, we should be raising our rates at least once a year, but many of us either forget or run into other hurdles in actually doing so. I’ll talk through how you might raise your rates whether you take insurance or run a private pay practice.

Dr. Esther Geva is here to talk through her work with assessing English language learners. She has worked for years in this arena and has literally co-written the book on culturally and linguistically diverse children. Esther shared a number of meaningful stories and case examples to really bring these principles to life.

For Summer Slam #2, we’re talking about revising your battery. How many of us have been giving the same measures year after year, with little thought to how they work for US or work for the CLIENT? Today, I’m challenging you to dig in and see if your battery is truly what you want it to be.

Preschool assessment is a relatively untouched topic here on the podcast, but that changes with today’s episode! Dr. Stephanie Meyer is here to chat with me about her extensive work in assessing children under five years old. We cover a wide range of topics, from her general approach to testing all the way to specific measures that she uses.

The Summer Slam series will have a few quick, to-the-point episodes with simple, actionable tips for you to put in place immediately. The strategies will mirror my own areas of focus from my last quarterly retreat. For Summer Slam #1, we’re talking about revisiting your schedule.

Dr. Ben Lovett is back and talking all about his book, Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities. He has a stellar command of the research in this field from having done it himself and reviewed so much of it while writing the book.

How many times have you entered the testing room, started the battery, and figured out that you left something crucial in another office (for me, it’s always my phone/stopwatch)? Or how many times have you sent out a report only to get an email back from the client asking why there’s another name on the report? Today’s episode is a commentary on mistakes and how to avoid them. It draws heavily on material from Atul Gawande’s book, The Checklist Manifesto.

How many times have you run into challenging or ambiguous ethical situations and looked around your office, wishing an attorney would appear to answer all of your questions? For me, it’s countless. Dr. Amanda Zelechoski doesn’t answer ALL the questions that have ever come up, but she came really close on today’s episode!