Clinical Neuropsychology Service
Faculty –
Psychodiagnostic Testing Service
The MMHC Clinical Neuropsychology Service evaluates approximately 100
patients per year at MMHC, most of whom are referred by the MMHC Continuing
Care program. Many other referrals come from Boston area colleges and
universities, where we are known as experts in adult learning and attention
deficit disorders. The evaluations are performed by the clinical post-doctoral
trainees in neuropsychology while under supervision.
Now under the direction of Dr. Bill Stone, the neuropsychology fellowship
was initiated by Dr. Seidman as a small neuropsychology training program
in 1986 at MMHC for advanced psychology trainees, which involved part-time
supervised experience. This has evolved over the past 15 years into a
major, collaborative post-doctoral training program with the Beth Israel-Deaconess
Medical Center (BIDMC) beginning in 1993. This program entails rotations
at both MMHC and BIDMC, an extensive series of seminars, and opportunities
for research. Until 1994, virtually all trainees were MMHC post-interns
who stayed on for advanced neuropsychology training. When the HMS Department
of Psychiatry consolidated into one department, we opened up our training
program to all HMS Psychology Department programs. The fellows provide
all neuropsychological services to MMHC clients.
Conceptually the program has a broad view, integrating personality assessment
(objective and psychodynamic-psychodiagnostic) with neuropsychological
assessment. The Director (Dr. Stone) and his co-directors at the BIDMC
(Cheryl Weinstein Ph.D. and Margaret O’Connor Ph.D.) were steeped
in the Boston Process Approach developed by Dr. Edith Kaplan and Dr. Harold
Goodglass. This hypothesis testing, flexible approach meshes well with
the psychodynamically oriented testing of personality, long a source of
expertise at MMHC. Likewise, program staff strongly emphasize the practical
applications to treatment and encourage post-doctoral trainees to integrate
psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic techniques in their work with
patients who have neuropsychological disorders. Integration with the BIDMC
has also allowed fellows to rotate through a behavioral neurology unit,
beginning in 1999, thus broadening the training still further. Faculty
members are listed below.
Faculty – Supervisors in MMHC-BIDMC
Clinical Neuropsychology Post-Doctoral Training Program
Director
Bill Stone, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry;
Director, Neuropsychology Laboratory and Neuropsychology service at MMHC
Co-Directors
Margaret O’Connor, Ph.D., ABPP
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School Department of Neurology
Director, Neuropsychology Service at BIDMC Behavioral Neurology Unit
Cheryl S. Weinstein, Ph.D., ABPP
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry
Director, Neuropsychology Service at BIDMC Deaconess Psychiatry
Other Supervisors at MMHC
Brina Caplan, Ph.D., Ed.D.
Instructor in Psychology
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at MMHC
Head of Neuropsychology at the HMS Commonwealth Research and Evaluation
Unit
Mark S. Greenberg, Ph.D.
Clinical Instructor in Psychology
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at MMHC
Private Practice
John Miner, Psy.D.
Clinical Instructor in Psychology
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at MMHC
Private Practice
Other Supervisors at BIDMC
Winifred H. Sachs, Ed.D.
Clinical Instructor in Psychology
Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at BIDMC
Private Practice
Psychodiagnostic Testing Service
The Psychology Department provides the psychodiagnostic testing services
to the Partial Hospital, Continuing Care outpatient service, and Southard
Clinic. The testing service is under the administration of one of the Psychology
Fellows (this year, Margaret Guyer, Ph.D.).
Both neuropsychological and psychological testing are available.
Neuropsychological Testing
Neuropsychological testing, which is performed by the neuropsychology
post-doctoral fellows, is a sophisticated and advanced form of cognitive
testing, dividing spheres of functioning more narrowly than the cognitive
screens used in more general psychological testing. Neuropsychological
tests are used to assess such areas of higher cortical functioning as
reasoning, abstraction, attention (sustained and selection), executive
and self-control functions (decision-making), organizational skills, language,
and learning and memory. Neuropsychological testing can identify signs
of brain damage or deterioration, and it may localize those deficits.
Overall, the neuropsychological evaluation provides a description of the
patient’s capacities and disabilities as well as their impact on
overall functioning. This description helps determine what type of therapy
and/or remediation might be most appropriate or useful to the patient.
Examples of patients who often benefit from neuropsychological testing
include: patients for whom the differential diagnosis of depression or
dementia is unclear; patients with disorders such as schizophrenia whose
psychiatric illnesses may have caused brain impairment or neuropsychological
dysfunction; patients with neurological diseases, such as temporal lobe
epilepsy; patients with neurological damage such as head trauma; patients
with histories of hyperactivity, attention deficits, learning disability
or academic difficulty as children who continue as adults to be distractible,
disorganized, impulsive, or emotionally unstable or who continue to have
academic or vocational difficulties; and patients with systemic medical
disorders such as AIDS, lupus, or diabetes.
Psychological Testing
Psychological testing, performed by psychology interns and fellows, is
more general and broad-based than neuropsychological testing. At MMHC,
psychological battery testing includes cognitive and projective testing.
Often personality profiling is included, with learning disability testing
being done occasionally. Suicide risk assessment (comprised of an assessment
of multiple indicators associated with risk) is also available if clinically
indicated.