Many of y’all know that I have been using TherapyNotes as our practice EHR for over 10 years now. I’ve looked at others and I keep coming back to TherapyNotes because they do it all. If you’re interested in An EHR for your practice, you can get two free months of TherapyNotes by going to the testingpsychologist.com/therapynotes and enter the code “testing”.
This podcast is brought to you in part by PAR.
The NEO Inventories Normative Update is now available with a new normative sample that is more representative of the current US population. Visit parinc.com/neo.
Hey folks, welcome back to The Testing Psychologist. We’re here with another episode, but not just any episode y’all, it is the end of 2024, which means it is [00:01:00] time for another best of episode.
2024 marks eight complete years for the podcast with no signs of slowing down, which is both exciting and unbelievable. I started in January 2017 and had no idea at that time that we would be almost 500 episodes down the road and eight years down the road, tons of guests, a lot of connection with brand new, amazing folks and all kinds of relationships formed over those years.
2024 was a remarkable year for me.
On the testing psychologist side, I had the opportunity to interview several subject matter experts on a wide variety of clinical and business topics. I introduced Á La Carte strategy sessions in addition to my individual consulting packages and groups, which let me connect with and hopefully help practitioners in a new way as folks seem to appreciate a more [00:02:00] bite-sized version of consulting. The second annual Crafted Practice event was a success and really locked in my intent to offer an in-person gathering for testing folks every year as long as I possibly can.
On the clinical side, many of you know if you’ve been listening that my clinical practice went through a big transition this year as we right-sized down from 40+ practitioners and staff to about 15 of us in pursuit of a little more joy and fun in my work. 2024 was also the year that me and my partner formally released Reverb, our AI-powered report-writing platform, and we saw it grow from virtually nothing to a user base of several hundred and getting great feedback with that. Personally, I’m fortunate my kids and wife are healthy and happy [00:03:00] right at the moment, and I’ll take that whenever I can get it.
In short, there’s a lot to be grateful for. I am incredibly grateful for my guests here in 2024. You will hear quite an amazing list of best episodes from this year and no coincidence. I don’t think that none of these are solo episodes. These are all episodes with guests with good reason. I, like I said, I’ve had the great fortune to talk with any number of experts over the years and 2024 was no exception to that.
Thank you all for listening to the podcast and being part of this Testing Psychologist world. For both new folks and long time super fans, super grateful for all of you. I’m excited for all that 2025 might bring for The Testing Psychologist and for all of you out there running practices and doing testing. For now, let’s review the [00:04:00] top five most downloaded episodes of 2024.
Okay, folks, we are back and I am diving right into the best episodes of 2024. These are the top 5, like I said, most downloaded episodes of the year. There were a few surprises on here, I will say, and that’s always fun to go through. I don’t really check the statistics across the course of the year. I come to these end-of-the-year episodes, jump in, and see what was most popular. There’s usually some surprises but there were two that certainly were not surprising for me to see on this list. I’d be curious what you all think, but here we go, without further [00:05:00] ado.
The number 5 most downloaded episode of 2024 was episode 442 titled The Risk and Vulnerability of Business Ownership with Scott Robson. Scott is a consultant and marketing expert. He jumped on the podcast to talk about his approach to marketing and consulting. He does a lot of that with mental health practice owners and other business owners. What is unique about Scott’s approach is that he focuses in on the underlying feelings of risk and vulnerability that go along with running a practice and business ownership in general.
The unique aspect of this podcast is that he was willing to participate in a live coaching session, essentially, where I presented him with a few concerns and he led me through a coaching exercise [00:06:00] to get at some of the vulnerability that may come up in this process. It was indeed pretty vulnerable for me to do that. I didn’t know where it was going to go, but I immediately felt totally secure with Scott leading the way and I think it turned out well. I’ve heard several folks since then mentioned that episode and have connected with Scott and worked with him and got nothing but great feedback from those folks. So, episode 442, The Risk and Vulnerability of Business Ownership with Scott Robson.
The next most downloaded episode is number 447. Gender Affirming Assessment with Dr. Jae Purnell & Dr. Emily Trittschuh. The title says it all, I think. I waited a long time before doing an episode specifically on gender-affirming assessment, and I’m so glad that I did. I found [00:07:00] Jae and Emily on the programming for last year’s AACN conference doing a talk of a similar name and topic. They were willing to come on the show and talk through this content in a way that I thought was very accessible, fresh, and research-informed.
The part that I love about this episode is that Jae and Emily bring a neuropsychological lens to gender-affirming assessment. There is plenty of science to back up their ideas, their strategies, and the discussion. And that, I think set it apart from some of the other conversations and environments that we talk about this topic in.
There’s a ton of good content in this episode. We talk about what is meant by gender affirming assessment and [00:08:00] strategies for performing gender affirming assessment. We get into the issue of which norms to use for gender diverse folks. There was a ton of good content. This is a topic that will continue to be relevant, I think as we develop as clinicians and I hope that you will check it out: episode 447. Gender Affirming Assessment with Dr. Jae Purnell & Dr. Emily Trittschuh.
The 3rd most downloaded episode for The Testing Psychologist in 2024 is episode 461. Decision Making and Clinical Judgment with Dr. David Faust. This was a little bit of a dark horse winner this year, reason being not because the content wasn’t incredibly informative and rich, but because this is a topic that is a little hard to access in my [00:09:00] mind.
This particular podcast was, I think, chock full of great information and a bit dense, I would say, as a result. There’s a lot to sort through with this podcast. I’m just excited that so many folks decided to access it and dig into the content. It mirrored some of the content from Dr. Faust’s recent book, and in that he walks through his approach to clinical judgment, the role in decision-making and how we can employ, how would I phrase it? How we would employ empirical, research-informed techniques to make our clinical judgments and decisions limit bias in the work that we do.
Certainly, check that out. It’s an important topic in the work that we do [00:10:00] because, like many physicians or health care practitioners, our work is rife with the possibility for bias and having some decision-making skills, clinical judgment rooted in research is exceptionally helpful. Episode 461. Decision Making and Clinical Judgment with Dr. David Faust.
Let’s take a break to hear from a featured partner.
Y’all know that I love TherapyNotes, but I am not the only one. They have a 4. 9 out of 5-star rating on trustpilot.com and Google, which makes them the number one rated Electronic Health Record system available for mental health folks today. They make billing, scheduling, note-taking, and telehealth all incredibly easy. They also offer custom forms that you can send through the portal. For all the prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly offering ePrescribe as well. And maybe the most important thing for me is that they [00:11:00] have live telephone support seven days a week so you can actually talk to a real person in a timely manner.
If you’re trying to switch from another EHR, the transition is incredibly easy. They’ll import your demographic data free of charge, so you can get going right away. If you’re curious, or you want to switch, or you need a new EHR, try TherapyNotes for two months, absolutely free. You can go to thetestingpsychologist.com/therapynotes and enter the code “testing.” Again, totally free, no strings attached. Check it out and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes.
Our friends at PAR have released the NEO Inventories Normative Update. The NEO Inventories measure the five major dimensions of personality and the most important facets that define each. Now with an updated normative sample, that’s more representative of the current US population and fewer components for easier purchasing. Visit parinc.com/neo.
[00:12:00] Okay, folks. We are getting to the top two most downloaded episodes of 2024. The 2nd most downloaded episode is episode 466. Neurodiversity Affirming Assessment with Dr. Matt Zakreski. This was no surprise whatsoever and not a coincidence in my mind that we have two episodes in the top five with the word affirming in the title. Neurodiversity Affirming Assessment.Dr. Matt and I talked through several strategies that he employs to make the assessment process more affirming for neurodiverse folks. Matt specializes in working with gifted, 2E, and other neurodiverse individuals.
We start with a definition of neurodiversity affirming and then get into specific [00:13:00] strategies and skills that I think a lot of us as clinicians can implement in our practice without a lot of effort and it all goes toward helping the environment and the process be more accessible and more friendly to a wider wider variety of folks who come through our doors. And this is super important.
The neurodiversity movement has been strong for a number of years and is continuing to gain steam. I think it’s up to us as clinicians, it’s almost an imperative at this point to be looking at things through an affirming lens and have some of those tools in our kit to be able to provide an affirming assessment process. So episode 466. Neurodiversity Affirming Assessment with Dr. Matt Zakreski.
Okay, y’all, thanks for hanging in with me [00:14:00] until this point. We are up to the time where we can talk about the number one most downloaded, most popular Testing Psychologist Podcast episode of 2024. I’m going to give you three seconds to think about which episode this might have been. And here it is. Number 443. A Deep Dive Into Continuous Performance Tests with Dr. Chris Mulchay.
Now this one, I’m laughing because I’m just laughing y’all. The number one most downloaded episode is an episode on continuous performance tests. What one might consider an otherwise dry topic was I thought masterfully brought to life by Chris in this episode.
When we say deep dive into continuous performance tests, it truly was a deep dive. We talked about the history of continuous performance tests, [00:15:00] the evolution of the CPT roots in the past, and where our current measures have come from. We get into the research supporting several of the most popular CPTs. Chris is a perfect individual to talk about these things. He has been researching and writing about CPTs for years now at this point and provides, like I said a nice, rounded clinically-informed and research-informed perspective on a pretty fraught topic. I think a lot of us wrestle with whether CPTs are “worth it” and if we need to have them in our practice, and if so, which one do we pick and any number of other questions and this episode, I think did a great job of tackling those questions and giving some specifically useful information if you are [00:16:00] considering the status of CPTs in your practice.
Chris is a return guest, a friend, and a co-moderator of The Testing Psychologist Facebook Community. He does it all. I was, again, very grateful to have him here on episode 443, the most downloaded episode of 2024, A Deep Dive Into Continuous Performance Tests.
So that’s it folks. That’s it. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening for another year. Like I said, I know we have some new listeners, we have some old listeners, and I am just happy to be here with all of you and consider it a real honor to be able to spend time with you in this way a few times a month. If you have anything that you want to see in terms of Testing Psychologist podcast content in 2025, feel free to send me a message or post in the Facebook group. I do look at all of those and consider these topics pretty deeply as [00:17:00] I am planning my content for the next year.
Of course, if you want any support in your assessment business, you’re welcome to reach out. You can go to thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting, get info on all the different ways that we could work together and we’ll connect and figure out if it makes sense to do so. In the meantime, I hope all of you get to enjoy some time off over the holidays. Maybe do a little planning for next year. Maybe not. Maybe you just rest. It’s okay too. I look forward to seeing you and talking with you in 2025.
All right, y’all. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode will be listed in the show notes, so make sure to check those out.
If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes or [00:18:00] Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
If you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting. If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call and we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you. Thanks so much.
[00:19:00] The information contained in this podcast and on The Testing Psychologist website are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on the website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please note that no doctor-patient relationship is formed here, and similarly, no supervisory or consultative relationship is formed between the host or guests of this podcast and listeners of this podcast. If you need the qualified advice of any mental health practitioner or medical provider, please seek one in your area. Similarly, if you need supervision on clinical matters, please find a supervisor with expertise that fits your needs.