title: How psychological assessment taught me compassion and firmness.
abstract: In this article, I reflect on 2 specific assessment experiences and how they helped me grow as a person and as a psychologist. I believe that practicing assessment creates opportunities for personal growth in assessors because (a) to truly understand difficult clients, we must find personal versions of their psychological dilemmas in ourselves, which we might otherwise never be called on to face, and (b) to be effective as assessors, we must say difficult things to clients in plain nonjudgmental language, which forces us to develop courage and wisdom.
authors.affiliation: Center for Therapeutic Assessment, Austin, Texas, USA. sefinn@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Stephen E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Finn
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013781:Texas