The realm of psychopathology assessment is fascinating to most clinicians.

For this course, Dr. Jeremy Sharp sits down with the developers of the SPECTRA Indices of Psychopathology, Dr. Mark Blais and Dr. Justin Sinclair, to talk about their work to develop this measure and the assessment of psychopathology in general. They also review several case examples to bring it all to life!

Other cool things mentioned:

• The p factor (it’s okay if you don’t know what that is)
• Why a hierarchical model of psychopathology makes sense for clinicians and clients
• Nuts and bolts of the SPECTRA
• Clinical use cases for the SPECTRA

This interview was published in 10/2020

Format: Asynchronous, distance learning. Non-interactive. Recorded audio with transcript.

Want to hear the interview? Listen for free using the audio player below.
Interview with Justin Sinclair and Mark Blais

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ABOUT DR. MARK BLAIS

Dr. Mark Blais is the Director of the Psychological Evaluation and Research Laboratory (the PEaRL) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. His primary clinical and research interests are in psychological assessment, psychometrics, and scale development – and he has published widely in these areas (over 150 journal publications and book chapters, and several edited books).

https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/research/psychological-evaluation-and-research-lab

ABOUT DR. JUSTIN SINCLAIR

Dr. Justin Sinclair is also a clinical psychologist specializing in psychological assessment, psychometrics, suicide and violence risk assessment, and scale development – with over 70 peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters, and 6 books. He was fortunate to complete his internship and post-doctoral fellowship under Dr. Blais’ mentorship and served on the faculty of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School for roughly a decade before going out into private practice in 2016. In private practice, he focuses on a range of clinical activities including conducting more traditional clinical assessments (in outpatient and inpatient contexts), screening evaluations of prospective clergy and those entering religious communities, fertility medicine evaluations, clinical trials consultation, and psychotherapy.

www.DrJustinSinclair.com

ABOUT DR. JEREMY SHARP

Dr. Sharp is a licensed psychologist and Clinical Director at the Colorado Center for Assessment & Counseling, a private practice that he founded in 2009 and has grown to over 20 clinicians. He earned his undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina before getting his Master’s and PhD in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. These days, he specializes in psychological and neuropsychological evaluation with kids and adolescents.

As the host of the Testing Psychologist Podcast, Dr. Sharp provides private practice consulting for psychologists and other mental health professionals who want to start or grow psychological testing services in their practices. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife (also a therapist) and two young kids.

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