International and Domestic Adoption Assessment Although adoption gives a wonderful opportunity to ensure a warm and loving home to a child in need and to grow your family, it may be stressful and emotional process for adoption parent(s). Given this, it is important to make sure that children are going to emotionally, physically, and intellectually healthy and safe homes. Therefore, psychological evaluation is often required. The psychological assessment is an adoptive parent(s) screening to make sure that they are ready to cope with challenges of parenting and it also provides significant information regarding their mental health. We at ARCH Psychological Services understand how stressful process of psychological evaluation may be and our goal is to make it as stress-free as possible by letting you know what to expect upfront and guiding you through the whole process step by step. Here is what you can expect in an adoption psychological assessment: The duration of adoption assessment is approximately eight hours per parent. It is consisted of interview(s) and psychological testing, that are used as tools for collecting information for detailed psychological report. Interview The interview has two segments. The first hour is dedicated to the one-to-one interview between adoptive parent(s) and the psychologist. We see each parent separately and then together as a couple. (For single parent, only one interview is needed.) Psychological testing The last two hours are reserved for psychological testing, which can differ on the basis of the requirements of the adoption agency. There is no preparation or studying needed. Simply answering the questions of the testing battery used, as accurately and as best one can, is all that is needed. Report After collecting information by interviewing and testing, psychologist will create a report in 2-3 weeks from the day of an assessment. If report is urgent, this needs to be mentioned at the time of intake and booking. When the report is completed, psychologist will schedule a follow up appointment to give you feedback on your results. It is important for us to make sure that you understand the information being provided to adoption agency and to have time to answer your potential questions that you may have about the results. If you have any additional questions about the assessment, do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to being a part of your journey of a child adoption and we will do our best in smoothening psychological assessment process.