ABSTRACT
This chapter describes feedback to Clients About “Defensive” Test Protocols and explains a number of conundrums we encounter in the practice of clinical assessment as a result of different internal and external pressures we face. The author explains the complex context of clinical assessment by proposing five different guidelines regarding guarded or “defensive” test protocols. For example, in collaborative or Therapeutic Assessment, we are likely to discuss with clients any test score whose meaning is ambiguous, thereby enlisting them as “co-investigators” in the assessment and keeping us from reaching erroneous conclusions. In Therapeutic Assessment we work to reduce clients’ reservations about the assessment process in various ways. Before we begin an assessment, we give them detailed information about psychological assessment in general and about their evaluations in particular and then attempt to answer all their questions. Finally, we check our assessment findings with clients during the feedback session, ask them to comment on early drafts of written reports.
