PSC offers a wide range of psychological evaluation services. Psychological evaluations are conducted to assess for the possible presence of a psychological disorder which may be influencing an individual’s personal, professional, academic, or social performance and functioning. Our evaluations feature extensive psychological testing and culminate in a thorough evaluation report including diagnoses and recommendations. Some common functional domains or types of assessment services we provide include:

Cognitive functioning: assessments provides information with a particular emphasis on factors related to various aspects of intelligence.

Academic challenges and learning disability: consists of evaluating your educational history, understanding current and past performance in academic or educational environments, and conducting testing related to cognitive abilities and achievement. The tests conducted will be selected based on your specific concerns, and are interpreted within the context of the individual client, and their history. Commonly assessed areas including academic skills of reading, math, and written expression. Your clinician may also recommend additional testing to rule out other possible problems that may be contributing to difficulties in the academic or educational environment.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and executive dysfunction: assessments evaluate attentional processes and higher order executive skills, and the influence they have on academic, professional, and/or daily functioning. Assessment of cognitive ability, and academic skills may also be a part of these evaluations, as well as other areas which may impact these skills. Your clinician may also seek information from other individuals (e.g., teachers, caregivers, significant others) regarding educational, attentional, and other difficulties.

Social challenges and Autism Spectrum Disorder: assessments focus particularly on social skills deficits with an emphasis on determining whether if a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) best accounts for these difficulties. Additionally, given that multiple factors can lead to social skills deficits, your clinician will collect a detailed history, assess for other various factors, and provide specific testing recommendations.

Child Behavioral/Emotional assessments are conducted with children experiencing complex behavioral and emotional symptoms. These evaluations often occur for children who have experienced trauma, abuse, or neglect.  While the focus is often on emotional regulation, the assessment will also cover other domains. This may include intelligence, academic skills, memory and learning, executive skills, attention and focus, and social skills.

Neuropsychological assessments often occur when the client has experienced some type of event which may have impacted brain health/development, and resulted in subsequent challenges. This may include traumatic brain injuries and concussions, cerebral vascular events/strokes, seizures, genetic differences, prenatal substance exposure, cancer treatment, or other medical conditions. These assessments focus on a broad array of abilities, including cognition, memory, language, learning, spatial processing, executive skills, and other behaviors influenced by brain functioning. The overall goal is to develop a full understanding of the client’s general profile, as well understand any impact that their medical history may have on their current functioning. These assessments are not substitutes for neurological exams, and do not include brain imaging. For those evaluations, please contact your neurologist.

Personality assessment consists of evaluating general psychological and emotional functioning, as well as identifying personality characteristics that are likely to influence long-standing behavioral patterns. The clinician will work to develop an overall understanding of your personality, the factors which may have influenced your personality, and provide recommendations to best address any challenges that the client may be experiencing.

Vocational Assessment are evaluations which examine how various aspects of an individual’s work personality match with various occupations and work environments. These evaluations are offered on a case-by-case basis, and are not as consistently available as other psychological evaluations. If you are interested, please contact to PSC to determine the availability of these assessments.

Older Adult Assessment/Dementia evaluations are not directly offered through the PSC, and we refer those cases to the Aging Clinic of the Rockies, which is also located on the CSU campus.

Substance use services are provided through the MARS Clinic

GETTING STARTED

To establish services, please call ahead to be added to our waitlists with one of our staff. Our phone number is (970) 491-5212. Messages left at this number are confidential and will be returned by a member of the Psychological Services Center (PSC) administrative staff. After providing contact information and reasons for your call, you will be contacted by one of our assistant directors who will conduct a very basic screening and risk assessment to help us best assign you to a clinician.

Please note that due to lack of service providers in the community, assessment and therapy services typically have varying waitlists. Broadly, assessment waitlist range from 6 to 12 months, while therapy waitlist may range from 1-5 months depending on clinicians’ caseload. If we do not have a staff member available within your time frame, we will work to provide community referrals for the service that you need. Once you are assigned to a clinician, they will contact you directly to schedule your initial intake appointment.

THE INITIAL APPOINTMENT

After the initial intake appointment is scheduled, your clinician will send you background paperwork through our medical records system. If you would rather fill out paperwork in person, please arrive 15 minutes early for your first appointment. The focus of the initial intake appointment is to help your clinician understand your presenting concerns, set goals for treatment, and provide recommendations where appropriate. If it is determined that an alternative agency would better meet your needs, your clinician will assist you in seeking out the most appropriate services.

The fees for service at the PSC are derived from a sliding scale based on income and household size. All fees should be established prior to your first appointment. Additionally, we are in-network with Medicaid, and accept some Medicaid RAE’s. If you have Medicaid, please let our administrative staff know what your Medicaid number is, and we can look into their system to determine if we accept your specific RAE. For other insurances, fees will be determined using our sliding scale. For other insurances, after payment, documentation can be provided to you that you can submit to your insurance for possible reimbursement. Please note that we do not know what other insurance companies may reimburse for services.

For individual, family, and couples therapy services, fees are charged at the time of the session. Individual therapy sessions are typically 50-minutes in length, while couples and family therapy sessions can be up to 75-90 minutes, depending on your individual needs. The sliding scale for therapy services ranges from $70 – $15 per session.

For assessment services, full payment occurs at the initial testing appointment. However, given the higher cost of assessments, payment can be broken up into monthly payments spread out over 6 months. The sliding scale for assessment services ranges from $1800 – $350 for a full evaluation.

If you are on a Medicaid program that we are able to accept, you will not be directly billed for services.

The PSC does not provide after-hours or emergency coverage. If you have an emergency, need after-hours care, or immediate care please call 911, Poudre Valley Hospital, or Colorado Crisis Services. Other contacts for a mental health crisis include:

• MountainCrest: 970-207-4800
• SummitStone: 970-494-4200
• Colorado Crisis Services: 1-844-493-8255

The PSC is located on northeast side of CSU’s campus, in Sage Hall, 700 South Mason Street. When entering Sage Hall, please use the door on the east side of the building, and that will bring you directly into our lobby.

Unfortunately, CSU does not allocate specific parking spots for us, and Parking Services will issue tickets if you do not have a CSU parking pass. The parking next to Sage Hall is monitored Monday through Friday, 8am to 4pm. If you would like to park in this lot, you can use the ParkMobile app. The parking location is CSU lot 325, and the input zone is 2081. This zone has a maximum time per session of 3 hours. There are also some parking spots in the neighborhood north, and east of our office as well, and specifically some without hour limitations near the church on College avenue, two blocks north of our building. Laurel Station on the MAX bus line is also across the street from Sage Hall, and can provide easy access.

The Psychological Services Center

700 South Mason Street

Fort Collins, CO 80523
Telephone: (970) 491-5212
Fax: (970) 491-3380