Assessment FAQS
Do I need a referral?
We do not require a referral. However, if you plan to use extended health benefits to cover part or all of the cost, you may want to check if it is necessary for reimbursement since some insurance companies still require a referral from your medical doctor.
How long does it take?
Psychoeducational assessments typically take anywhere from 3 to 6 sessions depending on how you and your therapist set up the assessment sessions. They can range from one to three hours depending on what type of information is being gathered. After information gathering is complete it will take a couple of weeks to finalize a report. At that time, there will be a final feedback session where we discuss the findings, report, and recommendations. We can also share the findings by phone with school staff, at no additional charge, should you want us to assist in advocating for you or your child.
Other assessments can take as little as one session or up to 6 sessions depending on what is being assessed. Please contact us about your particular situation.
When can I get in for an appointment?
Please contact us for current wait times.
What’s involved?
Psychoeducational Assessments. During an initial session we gather background and developmental information as well as review any previous assessments and report cards that are provided to us. We then administer tests related to cognitive and academic functioning as well as screening tests for general and mental health functioning. This often involves having parents, teachers, and other collateral sources complete questionnaires. When needed, we administer additional tests if there are questions related to specific areas of functioning (e.g., Attention-ADHD, Memory, Executive Functioning, Anxiety, Depression, etc.). This is followed by a feedback session where we discuss the findings, report, and recommendations. We can also share the findings by phone with school staff, at no additional charge, should you want us to assist in advocating for you or your child.
Other assessments generally involve gathering background information, administration of tests, and feedback but a formal report is only included if you require one.
Will I receive a report and what’s in it?
For psychoeducational assessments we provide a comprehensive report with summaries of background, developmental, general, and mental health functioning as well as detailed sections on cognitive and academic functioning. We also provide detailed diagnostic information and whether or not Ministry of Education criteria has been met for additional school support. In addition, we provide comprehensive recommendations that addresses things that can be done by the individual, parents, counsellors, school, and other learning environments. We can also communicate some or all of the findings with the school (or other learning environments e.g., work) by phone, at no additional cost, should you would like us to assist in advocating for you or your child.
For other assessments, if you require a formal report, the detail and length is dependent on the type and amount of information gathered. Please contact us to discuss the details.
Will you attend a meeting with the school?
Included in the assessment fee is the option of having us attend a school based team meeting via conference call or speaking with staff at the school over the phone. If you would like us to attend in person we are happy to do so but will typically charge for the time involved.
Will I or my child receive extra supports from the school?
The Ministry of Education has established specific criteria for extra school support. We address this in our report by discussing our findings and how they relate to the criteria.
What are your rates?
Our current rate for a psychoeducational assessment is $3675.00.
Who pays for the services?
Assessment fees are not covered by your provincial Medical Service Plan insurance. Typically people pay out of pocket and/or seek reimbursement through their extended health insurance coverage. Often, if you make a request, extended health insurance will allow you to use your regular coverage towards psychological assessments. Contacting them ahead of time is important so we can provide them with any specialized receipts they may require. In certain circumstances we will provide direct billing to specific organizations including post-secondary institutions, employers, and government agencies. Please note, fees are considered a health care cost and as a consequence are tax deductible.
What do I need to know to use my extended health insurance benefits?
The amount of coverage is determined by the agreement between your employer and insurance provider. Please contact your insurance provider or human resource department to find out the details of your coverage including:
- Whether or not you need a referral from a medical doctor?
- How much coverage and is it a straight dollar amount or is it a percentage up to a certain amount?
- Is it a dollar amount per family member per year or a total for all members?
- Can you use the coverage to pay for an assessment?
- Do they require a receipt with a time or item break-down when using your coverage for assessments?
What kind of payment do you accept?
At this time we accept payment by e-transfer and credit card.
When is payment due?
For psychoeducational assessments we require 50% of payment at the initial session and the remainder at the second session.
For other assessments, similar payment arrangements can be made if the type of assessment involves more than one session and requires a report. Please contact us for more information.
What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling of some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
– Victor E. Frankl
Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.
– Victor E. Frankl
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have know defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
When we love, we strive to be better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
– Paulo Coelho
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes, on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
– John Lubbock
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
– Henry David Thoreau
We will find that kindness is a way of making less effort. It is the most economic attitude there is, because it saves us much energy that we might otherwise waste in suspicion, worry, resentment, manipulation, or unnecessary defense. It is an attitude that, by eliminating the inessential, brings us back to the simplicity of being.
– Piero Ferrucci
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? … Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do… And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
– Marianne Williamson