Could the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview Hold Therapeutic Potential? Suggestions for Further Exploration and Adaptation Within a Framework of Therapeutic Assessment

The Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is a person-centered instrument for systematically appraising the impact of cultural factors in psychiatric assessment. A number of key areas in the future development of the CFI have been identified in order to ensure further clinical uptake. In this paper, we suggest that applying a Therapeutic Assessment (TA) approach in using the CFI—i.e., framing the interview in a way that gives primacy to its self-transformative potential by explicitly focusing on those issues that are seen as the most urgent, relevant, and meaningful by the patient—could prove helpful in alleviating patients’ suffering beyond what is achieved by merely collecting relevant cultural information that may inform diagnosis and subsequent treatment interventions. The TA methodology has been designed as a collaborative approach to psychological assessment in which the assessment procedure itself is meant to induce therapeutic change. This is achieved by explicitly focusing on the particular questions and queries that patients have about themselves with respect to their mental health problems or psychosocial well-being; these questions are then allowed to guide the assessment process and the interpretation of the findings. We suggest a number of potential modifications to the related Outline for Cultural Formulation and to the CFI content that could strengthen a TA-inspired focus. With this paper, we do not claim to offer a definitive integration of the TA approach in using the CFI but hope to further the discussion of a therapeutic potential of the instrument.

Therapeutic Assessment as an Interventional Model of Psychological Evaluation: Case Study

Therapeutic Assessment is a model of psychological evaluation that adopts a collaborative approach and a semi-structured systematization to the extent that it has well-defined steps. Considering its intervention nature, Therapeutic Assessment seeks to bring about positive changes in the lives of clients and/or people close to them. The present study aimed to evaluate how the Therapeutic Assessment process presented therapeutic consequences, using the case study as a research method. The description of the results was based on the assistance of a client using the Therapeutic Assessment model. The findings corroborate the hypotheses related to the therapeutic benefits of the Therapeutic Assessment, providing the clients with increased self-knowledge and self-reflection and changes in the way they deal with difficult situations. We conclude that more research on Therapeutic Assessment should be developed to verify other possible benefits of the model.

Smoothing Skeleton Avatar Visualizations Using Signal Processing Technology

Movements of a person can be recorded with a mobile camera and visualized as sequences of stick figures for assessments in health and elderly care, physio-therapy, and sports. However, since the visualizations flicker due to noisy input data, the visualizations themselves and even whole assessment applications are not trusted in general. The present paper evaluates different filters for smoothing the movement visualizations but keeping their validity for a visual physio-therapeutic assessment. It evaluates variants of moving average, high-pass, and Kalman filters with different parameters. Moreover, it presents a framework for the quantitative evaluation of smoothness and validity. As these two criteria are contradicting, the framework also allows to weight them differently and to automatically find the correspondingly best-fitting filter and its parameters. Different filters can be recommended for different weightings of smoothness and validity. The evaluation framework is applicable in more general contexts and with more filters than the three filters assessed. However, as a practical result of this work, a suitable filter for stick figure visualizations in a mobile application for assessing movement quality could be selected and used in a mobile app. The application is now more trustworthy and used by medical and sports experts, and end customers alike.

Therapeutic assessment and the art of feedback: A model for integrating evidence-based assessment and therapy techniques in neurological rehabilitation

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic assessment involves the integration of evidence-based approaches and humanistic principles, and there is empirical support for the use of this approach in the context of neuropsychological assessment broadly. OBJECTIVE: We propose that therapeutic assessment (TA) and collaborative therapeutic neuropsychological assessment (CTNA) principles are appropriate and effective for application within a neurological rehabilitation population specifically. METHODS: We review TA and CTNA principles and propose a model for their application to a neurological rehabilitation population, with an emphasis on describing the strengths of the collaborative approach, guidelines and principles for maximizing the efficacy of feedback, and transitioning the patient into psychotherapy services to further address their personal goals. A case example of a neurologically injured individual engaged in CTNA and subsequent intervention is shared to highlight the principles discussed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The proposed model and case study demonstrate the clinical utility of TA and CTNA principles with a neurological rehabilitation population.

Een sprong in het diepe: therapeutische diagnostiek bij adolescenten met een psychosegevoeligheid

A leap into the dark: therapeutic assessment of adolescents with sensitivity to psychosis. The adolescence is a time of chances and opportunities, but also of challenges and threats. It is a structuring moment in which the youngster builds upon earlier life experiences. At the same time, it all feels as a leap into the dark. The adolescent doesn’t know if and where he or she will land. In this article, we try to understand why psychotic symptoms often appear at that moment. Furthermore, we explore which ideas can help us understand these phenomena. Working with adolescents and working with people with psychotic symptoms both have their own particularities. In this article, we describe how VRINT deals with these particularities. We focus on therapeutic assessment with a great sensitivity for psychic wounds of the past. Sometimes it can be an opportunity to work through these difficulties, if this was not possible in the past. We plead for a broad approach with a great sensitivity for the whole person and his or her context. It requires some courage to face the psychotic world, but it is fascinating and helpful to get in touch with these experiences through the adolescent.