Assessments can be conducted to address specific questions, and to help guide treatment planning or decision-making; identifying and understanding different presentations and problems, diagnosing when needed or helpful, and then formulating a treatment plan is an important sequence of events in providing sound, effective clinical services. Assessments differ in type and purpose. By example, psychoeducational assessments can provide a picture of a student’s cognitive profile to facilitate school planning. Clinical assessments can describe the impact on a person’s functioning of various life events or traumatic experiences, and help to evaluate whether an individual might benefit from psychological treatment.

Parent counselling or academic counselling can follow an assessment of a child’s psychological profile, behavioural issues, or learning difficulties to promote an understanding of the child’s functioning and to develop effective strategies that could enhance their adjustment.

Adults also canoften benefit from psychological assessments for a range of reasons, including helping to recognize previously unidentified learning, attentional or other cognitive problems. Counselling related to the meaning and implications of findings from an assessment can help guide decision-making regarding further treatment, workplace concerns, or academic planning or upgrading.

Sometimes referred to as "the talking cure”, both psychotherapy and counselling involve a dialogue between client and psychologist who work together to discuss and address the problems or concerns at hand, and promote personal or relationship growth and development.

The purpose of psychological treatment can include the specific goal of assisting you in resolving problems that you are experiencing in your daily life within a supportive environment, or the broader goal of achieving understanding and important changes in how you are in the world or relate to others. The overall aim is to help you reduce distress or symptoms, experience rewarding relationships, and help you establish a more productive and satisfying way of being.

Psychotherapy is usually considered to work on deeper problems, troublesome symptoms, and looks to promoting meaningful personal or relationship change; often, a guided exploration of early life experiences can be utilized to facilitate this process.

Counselling tends to be more here-and-now focused, and the therapeutic approach usually involves educational input, information-sharing and guidance, problem-solving and solution-focussed tasks.

Couples counselling often involve both joint and individual sessions to determinethe history of the union, the nature of the couple’s problems, the relationship’s strengths and weaknesses, and to develop a working alliance that will encourage forward movement and help manage the emotions that accompany relationship turmoil. Relationships are often difficult to maintain as needs and desires, stressor and demands change over time. Psychological counselling can help to improve communication and to develop healthy ways of dealing with conflict that will address not only current issues but will set the groundwork for dealing successfully with future issues that naturally will arise and challenge any relationship.A psychological approach values the importance of helping partners understand each other’s feelings, needs and perspectives.

Family therapy or counselling typically involves seeing various members of the family unit, sometimes individually and sometimes in combination with one another, to develop an understanding of the issues, conflicts or stressors, and then to determine how to intervene to ease tension, generate understanding, solve problems, improve communication,re-establish positive feelings,or facilitate decision-making.

Child therapy usually uses play or art since such forms of expression provide a developmentally appropriate medium through which children can explore their inner world and communicate. Experiences within a therapeutic playroom can enable self-expression, provide relief, and promote a feeling of being understood when words cannot "say” what a child needs to express.

Psychotherapy might be offered in an individual, group, couple or family format, depending on the problem and whom it affects. Psychological therapy encompasses a variety of treatment methods intended to assist individuals to "work through” their concerns and problems, and consists of a collaborative relationship wherein clients and psychologist work in an active partnership to achieve certain goals.

In general terms, consultation offers a cost-effective and time-efficient way in which to apply psychological resources and clinical knowledge to problems. When organized as a dynamic interchange between consultant and those seeking consultation, the consulting process can facilitate informative discussions, identify or table important questions or concerns, and generate informed recommendations.

Consultation provides the client, perhaps another health care provider, lawyer, or case manager, with psychological insight, knowledge, principles or recommendations based on information provided to the psychologist about a problem, situation or question.