With traditional clinical assessment, clinicians are often guided by the question, “What do I want to know?” As psychologists, we can tend to prioritize own interests and goals when determining an assessment’s purpose as well as the questions we attempt to answer. In doing so, we can overlook the client’s interests and priorities. It’s much less common for a clinician to revise the question of “What do I want to know?” to “What do you want to know?,” and focus the assessment around what is personally meaningful to the client. Additionally, traditional clinical assessment tends to prioritize the identification of what’s “wrong” with the client. However, our client’s interests are often not limited to insights into what is wrong; they also have an interest in identifying their strengths and adaptive traits.

Moreover, it can be easy for clinicians to overlook what it is like to be “in our client’s shoes,” and recognize just how unnerving and intimidating an assessment can be. Think about it—some mysterious person is asking several mysterious questions, administering a series of mysterious measures and tasks with mysterious activities and items–all the while, providing limited feedback along the way. This uncertainty can make assessment a frightening and overall negative experience for our clients, which can potentially have an adverse impact the on the quality and accuracy of the collected data as well as the quality of the relationship with the client.

At the IPA Fall Conference on October 6, Dr. Bethe Lonning was presented with the Ann Ernst Public Service Award. This award honors a psychologist who has made, on a pro bono basis, significant contributions of a psychological nature that have benefited society as a whole. The contribution(s) may have been a single major contribution or reflect a consistent history of volunteer service to the community at large.

When was the last time you got a new referral who had seen five therapists in recent years but didn’t feel like any of the clinicians really “got” them or helped them feel better? Or how about  worked with someone who checked their symptoms with Dr. Google or was taking some “classes” at TikTok University? We see folks with these types of experiences every day, and it might seem tempting to roll our eyes or sigh deeply at yet another person who has lived with their pain for so long or hearing about another self-diagnosis/TikTok-diagnosis of autism, DID, or another diagnosis de jour. Through the lens of Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (C/TA), these presenting concerns provide a chance to invite data from all sources into the room…believe it or not, even TikTok. When clients/patients come in seeking care, we can create a rich opportunity to deepen a person’s curiosity, increase their ability to understand their strengths and problems in living, develop new narratives about themselves and their life, and support meaningful change in just a few sessions.

If you haven’t completely written this off based on my generous acceptance of so-called “TikTok data,” thank you. And I’ll take this opportunity to remind you of the chance to learn more about C/TA at IPA’s upcoming fall conference, Following the Breadcrumbs: The Basics of Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment and How it Can Enhance Clinical Practice. You may be thinking, “I do therapeutic assessment!” or wondering what C/TA is and how it’s different from traditional assessment. You may also be curious about how this semi-structured assessment method could enhance your practice, especially if your practice is more (or entirely) therapy focused. Or, if you’re a carb-lover like me, you may even have noticed your stomach rumbling at the mention of bread. While I can’t help you with a snack in this moment, I’m delighted to share a bit about my presentation at the upcoming conference, C/TA, and why (besides the snacks) it might be worth your while to spend the day together, learning and connecting as we engage our curiosity together. 

IPA’s mission is to promote the science and practice of psychology for the benefit of all Iowans. Our volunteer leaders and paid contractors have been working hard in 2023 to carry out that mission in alignment with our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan. I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the important developments from the first part of the year and the people who have been generously donating their time and energy for all our benefit.

Education and Training

This is the second of two blog posts detailing the Iowa Psychological Association's two-day Spring Conference, which occurred April 28-29, 2023.

The Iowa Psychological Association Spring 2023 conference was unlike any other professional meeting I had ever attended! I knew it would be a unique day as I drove to the event from my home in Des Moines. Navigating across parts of Iowa I had never visited with vast farmland and small-towns drifting by, I was deep in thought about the future of our state. Not far from the venue, I turned too early and encountered a herd of cows in a field, with beautiful rolling hills and tiny gravel roads in the distance. I definitely wasn’t in Colorado anymore!

This is the first of two blog posts detailing the Iowa Psychological Association's two-day Spring Conference, which occurred April 28-29, 2023. 

The morning of IPA’s Spring conference likely had two “kick offs.” One was occurring being the scenes, where the conference planning committee was creatively pivoting to respond to unforeseen challenges related to the resort’s amenities. My hat goes off to all those incredible individuals as they managed that kickoff with grace and innovation in order to deliver what was promised to attendees.

Several awards were presented on April 29, 2023 during lunch at the Spring Conference. Read on to learn more about the well-deserved recipients. 

Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award

Isn’t it strange how time can be perceived as crawling at a snail’s pace or flying by at lightspeed? Somehow, it is the end of March already and spring is right around the corner—I mean, I hope it is…but it’s the Midwest, so you never can tell…

Another strange thing: I’m writing my first President’s Update in my fourth year as a licensed psychologist. When I joined IPA in 2019, I had just moved to Iowa after completing my postdoc at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston. I was new to Iowa, new to independent licensure, and new to group practice. Just a few months later, the pandemic started and, well, that was more newness. When I joined IPA, I imagined I would run for President Elect maybe eight or 10 years down the line—you know, after I was comfy and firmly established in my career, had acquired a decent amount of IPA institutional knowledge, and was more familiar with Iowa. But in the summer of 2021, I was asked about my interest in running for IPA President Elect. The call to run came early. Really early.

Flowstate Health is a behavioral health services company operating in Iowa and Nebraska. We are a collaborative team of mental health professionals providing medication evaluation and management, psychotherapy, crisis evaluation, and other services for adults and seniors. Full- and part-time positions available for onsite and telehealth work for licensed providers.

The annual awards ceremony occurred on April 5, 2022, in conjunction with the IPA Spring Conference in Des Moines. 

The IPA Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award is intended to honor an IPA member for outstanding service to the association. All IPA members are eligible to be considered for this award except those currently serving on the IPA Executive Council. The 2022 award was presented to Dr. Kevin Krumvieda, who was nominated by Dr. Karen Nelson: