596 Transcript

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (01:22)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Testing Psychologist Podcast. I have a special interview today. I’m talking with Dr. Erica Fries, and Erica is the founder and developer, of the upcoming Bridges of the Mind Assessment Summit. So if you have been looking for an assessment specific conference that is focused on practical, applied talks that you can actually use in your business.

From day to day in the clinical work that you do. I would highly recommend that you check it out. I’m gonna be doing the keynote there, talking about 10 assessment trends that we need to be paying attention to these days in business and practice. So I’ve got an investment, of course, and hoping this does well and wanting to see folks there. So let me tell you a little bit about Erica and then we’ll jump to the interview. She’s a licensed clinical psychologist and entrepreneur and founder of

Bridges of Mind Psychological Services, which is a neurodiversity affirming practice specializing in comprehensive psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment. Bridges of the Mind has grown from a solo practice into a multi-site organization serving communities across California and Nevada, while also developing robust training programs for the next generation of psychologists. Bridges of the Mind is an APIC member for both its doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs.

And recently completed its APA accreditation site visit for the doctoral internship program, which is a pretty big feat. In addition to her clinical work, Erica is a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alumna, and was recently recognized as a 2026 Sacramento Business Journal, Women Who Mean Business Honoree. Let’s see, what else? Erica is passionate about improving the assessment experience for individuals and families, mentoring, developing clinicians.

And building innovative, sustainable systems that create meaningful change within the field of psychology. So Erica’s great. I’ve you know heard of Erica online for many years and then got to meet her in person last year when she came to Crafted Practice here in Fort Collins. We got to connect even further, and it’s really exciting to see this assessment summit coming together. So

let’s see, on the interview itself, we didn’t explicitly mention the registration link for the event. So I’ll go ahead and give that to you. It’s at bridgesofthemind.comslash events, and you can find the information there and register for the event.

yeah, this is fantastic. I I love that Erica’s filling this niche in our field and the speaker lineup is looking fantastic. So to hear more about this Bridges of the Mind assessment summit.

Let’s get to my interview with Dr. Erica Fries.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:13)
Erica, hey, welcome to the podcast.

Erika (04:16)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:18)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for being here. I’m excited to chat with you about this upcoming event that you’ve got going on. before we dig into all the details though, I want to ask you, I mean, like I’ll like I ask everybody, why do something like this? Like you have you have a lot going on, right? Like you have a big practice and family and all kinds of things. So why add another thing to your list?

Erika (04:43)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I definitely often ask myself that as well. But

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:48)
Ha ha.

Erika (04:48)
when I when I first launched into my group practice, I was really into learning a lot about just like growing a business, growing a group practice. And a lot of the summits and conferences that I went to were very therapy specific. And so I would get all jazz and excited about the business side of it, but was really kind of left with.

I wish that there was more assessment focused type conferences. And I know there’s some out there. I would go to APA and you know learn a little bit about assessments, but it was a lot of research in in why assessments were made or how they’re put together. So I really wanted something to fill that void and to help us understand assessment work in more practical ways. So I really was just visioning it all of the amazing conferences and summits that I’ve been to, but one that was very assessment focused and more practical.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (05:51)
Hmm. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m I’m right with you. as you know, I think we this is like a belief that we share that there’s not enough of these things for for testing folks, you know. So tell me, I mean, when you were conceiving of this idea and trying to put it together, like what were some of the elements that you wanted to make sure to include?

Erika (06:13)
I really wanted it to be across assessment domains. So school psychology,

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (06:20)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (06:21)
clinical psychology. this time around we don’t have forensics, but that is a future one that I also wanted to look into. But really getting assessors together that do clinic work, school work, hospital-based work, and have presenters and speakers present to those different you know, populations of clinicians. So that was definitely

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (06:44)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (06:45)
one thing that I r really wanted to make sure would happen.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (06:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, I feel like we have our separate conferences, you know, like I mean APA is obviously the juggernaut and huge and you know, you try to pick some assessment topics. But I mean, even like AACN and NAN and INS like are kind of neuropsych focused, and that’s kind of a s you know, a small slice of testing folks. we got NASP, you know, for the school folks, but that’s not exactly assessment either.

Yeah, I mean I the I I hope this like fills a gap because yeah, there’s there isn’t really anything that really leans into these different aspects of assessment and you know, pulling everything together. You know, there’s like SPA and that’s like the personality side, you know. So it’s cool to to hear that you’re trying to well, bridge all of these areas in one event.

Erika (07:37)
Yeah, and I think too what I was really hoping for are for clinicians to walk away with practical tools that they can bring back, you know, that next week that they can use with their clients. so that’s something that I also really wanted to focus on when I was choosing the speakers for this one.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (07:54)
Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s w that’s one of my main problems, I think, with a lot of events is it feels very theoretical, you know. And research is great, don’t get me wrong. I mean, research is awesome. and I’m, you know, a practitioner, so I wanna know what I can do on Monday when I come back from the event. Yeah. And hear from folks who are actually doing the work. Yeah. So tell me, you know, I’m always interested in like the the the

feel of an event, so to speak. So, I mean, what kind of experience are you hoping people might have here? You know, like what’s the vibe? What do you, you know, how do you want people to feel when they’re there or when they’re walking away?

Erika (08:35)
I think that was one thing that when I was trying to figure out the flow and the feel of all of this, I was asking those questions to other clinicians. Like what if you went to a summit or a conference, what would you really like to see? What’s missing from ones that you know you really wish were there? And so we got a lot of

Great input. I think, you know, Sacramento in October is beautiful. So for those who

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (09:00)
Mm.

Erika (09:01)
are traveling, it’s not too hot. It’s not too cold. It’s a perfect time of year. So anywhere from just the time of year to the hotel. The hotel is a beautifully situated hotel and it’s right kind of the Doko area. So it’s where the kings play and

Where all the big names in Sacramento come to. And so there’s lots of shops and restaurants in that area. So if you’re staying at the hotel, so that was really important to me as well to have things around the area for people to do. And then just the summit itself, I want it, I want people there, but I don’t want it to be too big and I don’t want it to be too small. So what we’re trying to do is aim for just the right amount of people coming where connecting and networking feels very natural, not

forced that people will come with, you know, their own interests and assessment and be able to do, you know, the networking through the reception or during break times. I also wanted to make sure there’s just some quiet areas for those like myself who are an extroverted introvert where they, you know,

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (10:05)
Hm.

Erika (10:06)
have time to do the networking and connecting, but then also have, you know, some rooms that are more sensory sensitive so they can get that downtime if they need it. and then also like the sponsors, those are things that we really have been intentional about as well, making sure that they align with clinicians or those who are in assessment practices or resources that you know we would give to our clients after an evaluation, those types of sponsors.

So you know everything there was really crafted around intentionality and the flow of understanding of what it’s like to be at these types of you know summits and just making sure that people have those spaces that they need or the networking that they need.

Yeah, so I think yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (10:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

You said that I mean you’re hoping for an event that’s not too big, not too small. Like what could people expect in terms of, you know, ho attendees or you

Erika (11:05)
Okay.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:05)
know, like how how many how many folks are hopefully gonna be hanging out

Erika (11:10)
Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:10)
here?

Erika (11:11)
So I’m hoping it’s for a hundred. that felt like a good amount for not having too many, but also not having too little. so that’s what

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:20)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (11:21)
we’re aiming for right now.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:23)
Yeah, yeah. That feels very manageable. You know, it’s like big enough. Like you said, big enough to

Erika (11:28)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:28)
have a lot of dynamics and, you know, interesting folks and not so not so big that you get lost and

Erika (11:32)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (11:36)
don’t know who you’re talking to. Yeah, yeah. Love that. I love that. So talk us through the format. Like what’s yeah, what what’s it look like? You know, is there like a welcome deal? Is it two days, three days? What what’s the schedule look like?

Erika (11:50)
Yeah, so it’s a two day conference, October eighth and ninth, and we have

yourself as our amazing keynote speaker who will be on day one and then also peter dr peter isquith who is the future plenary for day two. so we are gonna start the day with our keynote and plenary and then we have two focus tracks so that’s been throwing people off a little bit so maybe I can clarify.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (12:17)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Erika (12:19)
so we have track one which is affirming frameworks and communication so those are presenters who are kind of helping you understand and learn more about communicating findings, findings that matter in your assessments and just findings themselves. And then the second track would be like the clinical precision and specialized assessment, so more advanced diagnostic tools and accuracy. So we’ve kind of split them up in these two different tracks over the two days, but people are welcome to mix and match different speakers.

It was just kind of how we were conceptualizing if you want to focus more on neuroaffirming frameworks and assessment, this would be the track with all of those speakers who were aligning more with that. And then if they wanted more just like specialized assessment, I want to learn more about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or or you know those types of specialized assessments, they could do that other track. But they’re welcome

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (13:13)
Mm.

Erika (13:14)
to do both. And then I think another fun thing to highlight, we’re hosting lunch. So lunch is covered.

For both days, and I believe we are doing a reception as well on the first day that is hosted. So that will give attendees a lot more time to network. We are also doing some shop with vendor time, coffee breaks, so lots of breaks, but also you know a lot of good material for the summit as well.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (13:44)
Yeah, yeah, nice. Can you give more examples? You kind of mention a couple briefly, but just like within each track, like what talks might be happening within each of those?

Erika (13:56)
Yes, so for example with track one we have Dr. Amy Miranda who’s doing neurodiversity affirming approach to assessment. And if you haven’t heard her present, she is amazing. She is so passionate about her work and being really affirming.

When writing her assessments and working with kids. And then so that would be track one. And then the second speaker would also be Dr. Miranda, who is conducting the orchestra of neurodivergent brains. So talking a lot more about affirming strategies for executive functioning and working with clients in that area.

And then we also have Dr. Linda Fleming McGee, who’s part of the track one, and she’ll be talking about multi multicultural assessment and the intersection

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (14:45)
Mm.

Erika (14:46)
of race and the assessment process. And that is huge. I think that’s one area

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (14:50)
Yeah.

Erika (14:51)
that we don’t get a lot of training in, specifically in assessment. So I’m really

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (14:54)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (14:55)
excited for her to talk about that. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (14:57)
No, that’s great. Yeah.

Erika (15:00)
And then the last one for that track one is Dr. Miriam Quinn.

My dear dear friend, she’s doing from data points to diagnosis. So she’s really gonna be talking about kind of the writing as writing our assessment reports and really doing it in a way that helps kids and adults understand and see themselves better. So kind of adding on to Dr. Mirinda’s like being really neuroaffirming in her report writing, she’s Miriam Dr. Quinn is really going to start focusing on how those assessment reports really change how our clients think.

and see themselves. So that’s gonna be great.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (15:35)
Love that.

Erika (17:59)
So that’s kind of like how track one works. And then tr track two, we’re gonna start out with Dr. Julie Keene. So she’s gonna be talking about coaching assessors, so ourselves, how not to fall into diagnostic traps and how to stop. So how to not pigeonhole yourself into if I don’t see autism, you know, specifically here in the room,

Then it’s not autism. So I think she’s gonna be really talking about how how we can think you know, as a whole person during our testing sessions. And then Kara Cruz will be talking about differential considerations of trauma, masking, and executive functioning, specifically in high functioning women. so I think that one’s gonna be that’s gonna be a great one.

to attend because that is a huge thing that we see in our clinic specifically for

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (18:52)
Sure.

Erika (18:53)
for young young women. And then we have Dr. Laura Gubner. So she’s gonna be talking about bridging the gaps in care. And this one I I cannot wait to listen to because it’s about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder screening and evaluation.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (19:09)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Erika (19:09)
And it’s something you know, specifically in our clinic and with our training program, we talk a lot about because we do see a lot of clients coming in with that history, but then we don’t have the tools or resources to understand how to further evaluate for it. So I think that’s gonna be a great presentation to attend. And then we have Dr. Alex Roberts again as part of that track too, and he’ll be talking about ethical decision making.

And he does evaluations for accommodations for high stakes exams. So think like GREs, L stats, that type

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (19:42)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (19:43)
of thing. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (19:44)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That’s fantastic. Yeah. I mean, it’s just you go down the list, hopefully other people are having this reaction too. But you know, this is a conference. I’ve gone I’ve done a lot of talks over the years, right? And it’s usually like I do the talk and then just kind of wait to hang out at happy hour with people. but you know, this is one I’m like, I want to go to these sessions as a you know, as a psychologist who’s doing testing.

Like these all sound interesting and cool. And I hope other people are are thinking the same thing. This is kind of a unique experience.

Erika (20:17)
Yeah. And I think, you know, your your talk is gonna be amazing. I’m so excited to hear what you’re going to share with us and then, you know, Dr. Isquit’s presentation as well. And then we have two beautiful, amazing humans that are

They’re kind of celebrities in Sacramento, but John Alameda and Vanessa Beaker, they own Fly Brave in Sacramento here. And I would encourage

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (20:41)
Hm.

Erika (20:41)
anybody to follow them on social media.

And John is a nonverbal autistic adult and Vanessa’s his mom. And she is going to share her story about how he was diagnosed when he was, I think, 18 months. He was really little.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (21:00)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (21:00)
and then you know, Vanessa was in her early 20s, and so she’s going to share her story and her journey about how that assessment felt as a parent and what it looked like for them and how she found strength in, you know, resources and what that’s turned into now. And now they own and operate a beautiful thrift store here. And they have a little coffee shop in the back. And it’s all staffed by individuals with intellectual disabilities, autism, kind of that that whole spectrum. And it is

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (21:35)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (21:36)
their story is just amazing. So I am excited for all of the you know, main presenters as well to to share their stories. So I think that’s something that sets us apart as well.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (21:48)
Yeah, yeah, certainly. I mean, it sounds like a great lineup. and just hearing you talk about it, you know, and I’m I think I share some of this with the event that I do each summer too. But it’s like there’s some pride in like the local, the local vibe, you know, and sort of like showing off your city and, you know, like local celebrities, like you said, you know, folks who are local to the area. is that did that feel important to you in planning this? I mean, I have to think it was probably deliberate to to do it in Sacramento, but you tell me.

Erika (22:18)
Yeah, I mean Sacramento, I just wanted to, since it’s our first one, do it close to home, just to have a safe space that I knew of. I do think it is important to have local representation in, you know, not only our sponsorships, but then also people who are attending. I think

It wasn’t centralized around that. Like it wasn’t part of like the mission of the summit. but I do think there is a piece to it where I am really proud of our city and the clinicians coming out of it and the families that we’ve impacted. And so,

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (22:51)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Erika (22:54)
you know, our if there are clinicians that are coming to this that are more local, they will be getting more resources that are understandably local. But I I also don’t wanna like rule out

the the people who are traveling from the East Coast or we have one person coming from Alaska, which I’m that is just amazing to me.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (23:13)
Right.

Erika (23:14)
so, you know, I don’t want to rule them out just because it might have more of a local feel to it. ’cause I think everybody’s doing such amazing work. And I think it’s also important for me to give a voice to those people to share share what they’re doing and what they’re doing in their clinics and how they’re impacting their clients. So

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (23:34)
Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s fantastic. Yeah. I’m personally excited to to come back. I a lot of people, I think I’ve talked about my running on the podcast a lot, but you know, I did the California International Marathon, which, you know, starts outside Sacramento and finishes right in downtown. And at that time it was the fastest marathon I’d ever run. I think it’s still the second fastest. So but that was a long time ago. So I’m excited to come back and you know, re-relive some of those memories, you know, those good times. so

You mentioned trying to reach a bunch of different, you know, a bunch of different folks, you know, across domains of assessment, but I just saw that y’all are also trying to reach students as well. Can you talk a little bit about that and like where students might fit into this event?

Erika (24:17)
Absolutely. So we are really hoping, because this is part of my mission and even having our, you know, intern and postdoc training programs, is that students are the next generation and training them

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (24:28)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (24:29)
is so important to me as an assessment psychologist. And so we are going to be offering discounts, student discounts for the assessment.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (24:36)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (24:38)
I’ve been trying to reach out to, you know, local local grad schools here and just letting their DCTs know that we do have.

student discounts but students are a very important part of the work that we do so I would love to see students come out and then I think we’re also operat are offering group discounts so if you have a group of three or more there’s a a discount associated with that as well.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (25:06)
Nice, nice. Yeah. Always helpful. Always helpful. I remember that. Still feels like yesterday, you know, like zero money to do anything and any of these discounts are are super helpful. What about CEs? I know that y’all are doing a fair amount of CEs. tell me about that.

Erika (25:22)
Yeah, the CEs. We are we just got approved through APA to offer CEs, and that was while we were promoting this event. So things have looked a little inconsistent,

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (25:31)
Mm.

Erika (25:31)
I could say, in terms of our CEs, but we are qualified for offering CEs and in person, I believe it is 11 credits.

That individual that you can get through APA CEs. We don’t have any other CE accreditation right now. So this is specifically through APA

Then those who are attending in person get access to all of the virtual recordings that we will be doing for the presenters. And so that’s where that added CE is coming in. So if people are seeing, I’m seeing at 11 here and 19 here, that’s where that extra portion of CEs are coming in. Is that after the in-person, we are going to give them access to the virtual presentations and and they can get extra CEs that way.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (26:21)
interesting. Okay. Okay. That’s good to know. Good to know. Cool. Very cool. What have what have we missed? I mean, what else can we highlight from this event? You know, what do you want to make sure people know about it before we start to say goodbye?

Erika (26:38)
I mean, I think we hit everything. The venue is just beautiful. I would encourage anybody who hasn’t come to Sacramento to come. I know it’s not the like highlight destination, but it is it is a really beautiful area with a lot of hiking trails and easy, walkable, amazing restaurants. So the area is fantastic.

I think our speakers are really going to inspire those who do assessment to maybe think of things differently or try things in a different way and they’re gonna come home with that immediate you know just a way to to work in their clinics maybe thinking a little bit differently about how they’re interacting with their clients. So I think those are just the main highlights. and then just

Meeting a lot of assessment psychologists. I think that’s one thing again, you know, when I go to these conferences, the majority of people are therapy only. And I think this one’s super exciting because you get to meet so many different assessment psychologists from different areas. So I think that’s just another huge benefit.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (27:40)
Mm. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. It’s just like that sense of, hey, this person gets me and gets it. Like

Erika (27:46)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (27:47)
doing the same thing makes a big difference. And we have this unique little niche in the work we do. Yeah. So let me I do want to talk about the venue a little bit more. I’m a sucker for like a fancy hotel and I wanna hear tell me anything you want to tell me about this hotel so I can like get excited to to be there.

Erika (28:06)
So it’s beautiful. It’s where the kings stay if they have penthouses there. So there you might see some Kings players walking around. I know it’s not season right now, but they some of them do live there. So a lot of celebrity sightings, which I think is also super fun. there’s a beautiful pool bar upstairs. So there’s like an outdoor pool that overlooks the entire area of the DOCO.

Great food. There’s Echo and Rig, which is an amazing steakhouse that’s connected to the hotel. The rooms are they’re nice rooms. I think I’ve only done a staycation there once. So you know, it’s it’s a beautiful, you know, more of an upscale hotel feel. they

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (28:47)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (28:48)
have I think a wine hour and I don’t know, it’s just it’s it’s a really calming place the hotel itself and then you walk outside and it’s a little bit more fun. So there’s a Mexican restaurant, there’s a barbecue restaurant within walking distance. There’s a really fun champagne bar that my husband and I just love going to. So there’s just a lot of like little fun shops around. There’s urban outfitters.

There’s a tipsy putt that’s right there. And that’s all like you walk out of the hotel and that’s where everything is. So the hotel itself is kind of a nice little oasis, but then it has lots of fun stuff around it as well. And then you can walk to Old Town Sacramento from there. It’s like a five minute walk. And that’s a fun area. It’s all, you know, it’s it’s old town. So it has the wooden

plank walkways and cute little shops and there’s a train that goes through there, the train museum. So it’s a great area.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (29:46)
Nice.

Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, great job. I am definitely excited to be there. Yes. And thank you for the invitation to to do the keynote. Yeah. I’m putting that talk together. You know, I’m gonna be talking about the ten trends that are shaping assessment practice and why we should care about them. So I’m having a great time putting all that together and be excited to share that too.

Yeah.

Erika (30:11)
Yes. Thank you so much, Jeremy. It was the highlight to have you as the keynote and I’m so appreciative of you and your time and I’m just really excited for people to come and hear you and hear all the speakers and and really just enjoy the summit.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (30:27)
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like a fantastic lineup. There’s some great folks in there. And like I said, thank you for like putting something like this together. I think it’s so needed in in our field. And yeah, I hope the folks can can make it out. And thanks for being here to share all this with me.

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