Our assessments have two components:
Cognitive/Behavioral
Psycho Dynamic
- The Cognitive Behavioral Component
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Identifies the conscious cognitive aspect of problems such as
Underachievement
Self destructive behavior
Procrastination
Perfectionism - Misperceptions and negative thinking associated with these problems are reality tested. Distortions in thinking are systematically corrected
- Specific actions and behaviors are established to address the problems
- The emotional component is assumed to be only a reaction to the problem-never a primary cause
- Identifying the context in which the problem arose: a careful personal history establishes a past and current context
- This dimension has been virtually eliminated by psycho educational and neuropsychological assessments.
- Consequently these types of assessments are done outside the context of a person’s life and consider emotional factors as always secondary.
- Contextual factors themselves do not cause symptoms or problems but emotional reactions to them may
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Contextual factors include :
Life circumstances
Early educational experiences
Trauma
Family dynamics
Peer relationships
Emotional reactions to these and other contextual factors often persist in the form of unresolved emotional conflicts such as:
The “inner experience” of having a superior endowment
The way family, peers and teachers have reacted to giftedness - These can often be summarized as a central dynamic conflict
- A psychodynamic formulation has three functions:
- It describes how the central emotional conflict became detracted from its original context ( i.e.giftedness and it’s development) and was then displaced and expressed as dysfunctional behavior, a cognitive dysfunction or a physical problem.
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It is a method for distinguishing between
Emotional reactions to a problem
Emotional causes or the problem - The formulation focuses the therapeutic process toward resolution of the central conflict about giftedness and a restoration of full gifted potential.
Jerald Grobman, MD Dr.Grobman is a a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, a board certified psychiatrist, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. .For the past 40 years he has been in private practice specializing in the assessment and psychotherapy of gifted adolescents and adults. His website, his publications on 
Madelon Sann is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work. She is a licensed clinical social worker, a certified supervisor of the psychotherapeutic process and a certified group psychoanalyst. She maintains private practices in New York and New Jersey.