Personal Injury Evaluations
I provide assessment and ongoing counseling for clients that are involved in a personal injury lawsuit. Psychological trauma can result from almost any physical injury, especially if the injury occurs within a life-threatening event. Injuries that are physically disfiguring or those which disable primary adaptive functions are more likely to result in psychological trauma. Additionally, psychological trauma can occur in the absence of any significant physical injury, either as the result of witnessing trauma in others, or following personal escape from serious injury following a traumatic event. Psychological trauma may result in a post traumatic stress response (the most commonly expected diagnosis), but it can also cause depression, simple phobias, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety, or dissociation and psychosis. Psychologists also evaluate the functional impact of head injury, such as loss of specific memory functions, cognitive impairment, loss of learning ability, disturbed spatial ability, or amnesia. The evaluation of possible malingering is also considered in psychological evaluations in personal injury cases.