The end product of a psychological evaluation is a written report. For most clients, it's a 15- to 35-page document that lands in their hands at the feedback session and then sits on a desk or in a drawer afterward, used a few times, referenced once or twice a year, occasionally pulled out for an accommodation request or a therapist intake.
That's a shame, because the report is designed to do more than that. This post walks through each section of an Encore evaluation report, what it's meant to do, and how clients actually use it.
Why we write reports the way we do
Most psychological reports follow a similar structural arc; there are conventions in the field, but practices vary widely in how much weight they put on each section. At Encore, the recommendations section is usually the longest part of the report. That's deliberate.
A diagnosis is just words. It doesn't change anything on its own. What does change things is what you do with the information, at school, at work, in therapy, with your family, with your own self-understanding. The recommendations section is where the report turns into a roadmap. Everything else in the report is there to support that section.
The sections, one by one
1. Reason for the evaluation
A short paragraph stating the question that brought you in. Things like: "to clarify whether attention and organization difficulties at work are consistent with adult ADHD," or "to evaluate for autism following a recent family member's diagnosis."
How to use it: This section sets the scope. Anyone reading the report later, a therapist, a school team, an accommodation reviewer, needs to know what question was on the table. If you ever wonder whether the report applies to a new situation, this section is the first thing to check.
2. Background and history
The longest narrative section. Covers your developmental history (or your child's), educational history, medical and mental-health history, work history if relevant, family history, and the specific patterns that brought you in.
This section is built from the intake conversation, from any prior records you brought, and from collateral input (a partner, a parent, a teacher) where relevant.
How to use it: Most readers skim this section. The one situation where it gets read carefully is when another clinician picks the report up later, a new therapist, a specialist, a neurologist, and needs to ground their work in your history without making you tell the whole story again.
3. Behavioral observations
A short clinical paragraph describing what you (or your child) were like during the evaluation. Mood, engagement, attention during the session, any patterns that bear on the diagnostic question.
How to use it: Mostly internal; it's how the report tells the reader "here's what the testing context was like." It can be useful when there's a discrepancy between your test scores and your real-life functioning; observations help explain it.
4. Test results
The technical heart of the report. Lists the measures administered, the scores or scaled equivalents, and a short interpretive paragraph for each one. Encore reports lay this out clearly with score tables, so a school team, an accommodation reviewer, or another clinician can find the relevant numbers quickly.
How to use it: This is the section that matters for accommodations. Exam boards (LSAT, MCAT, GRE, bar) and university disability offices look here for specific scores on specific measures, in specific norm groups, dated within their required window. The report is built to make those scores easy to find.
5. Clinical impressions
A few paragraphs of synthesis, how the pieces of the evaluation fit together. This is where the report stops describing parts and starts describing the whole picture.
How to use it: This is the section to read carefully when you want to understand what the report is actually saying about you. The scores in the previous section are the parts; this section is how we read the parts together.
6. Diagnostic conclusions
When a diagnosis is warranted, this section names it. We use DSM-5-TR terminology, include specifiers (presentation type, severity), and note any rule-outs we considered.
When a diagnosis isn't warranted, or when the picture is sub-clinical, or when the right framing isn't a diagnosis at all; this section says so. Not every evaluation ends in a diagnosis, and the report should be honest about that either way.
How to use it: A diagnosis on its own is documentation, for insurance, for school accommodations, for ADA workplace accommodations. It's how the system recognizes the question you've been carrying.
7. Recommendations (the longest section)
The recommendations section is where the report becomes useful. At Encore, this section is built specifically for the person we evaluated. It's not a template list.
Recommendations typically cover several of:
- School accommodations, in language the school can lift directly into a 504 plan or IEP
- Workplace accommodations, ADA-framed and specific to the job, not generic
- Standardized-exam accommodations, in the format the exam board requires (NCBE, LSAC, AAMC, ETS, College Board, ACT)
- Therapy referrals, what kind, why, and what to look for in a therapist
- Referral to a prescribing provider, when relevant (we coordinate; we don't prescribe)
- Self-management strategies, built around your strengths, not just your challenges
- Family-side strategies, language for partners or parents to understand what was found
- Follow-up evaluation timing, when an update would be useful and why
How to use it: Read this section twice. The first time, just to absorb it. The second time, with a notepad, picking out which items are immediate and which are longer-term. Bring the report to the next conversation with your therapist, the school team, HR, or whoever is on the other side of one of the recommendations.
8. Cover letter and accommodation summary (when applicable)
For evaluations that will be used for accommodations, we sometimes include a separate one- or two-page summary document, a clean accommodation letter, structured the way the receiving party expects.
How to use it: This is the document you'll attach to the accommodation application. The full report goes with it as the supporting evidence; the summary is what the reviewer reads first.
What clients usually do with the report
Looking across the clients we work with, here's how reports tend to get used in real life:
- Within the first month: at least one conversation with a therapist, a doctor, or a school team. The recommendations section gets opened a lot.
- Within the first year: any accommodation requests get filed. Some clients use the report as the basis for several applications (school, work, exams).
- At the 2 to 3 year mark: clients come back for an updated evaluation if the original is being used for accommodation purposes that require currency.
- In family conversations: parts of the report, usually the clinical impressions and the recommendations, get shared with partners, parents, or older kids. The full report doesn't need to be shared, but the framing usually helps.
- Personally: the report becomes a reference document for self-understanding. Many clients tell us they re-read the clinical impressions section a few times a year.
A note on what reports don't do
A report is documentation. It's not therapy, and it's not a substitute for one. The most common pattern is: a report, then the next step (therapy, accommodations, school IEP), then the recommendations get implemented in those settings.
If the next step isn't clear after the feedback session, that's worth saying out loud. We'd rather hear that than have you leave with an unclear path.
Where to start
If you're scheduled for an evaluation, this gives you a sense of what you'll receive at the end. If you're considering one, it might help to know what you're paying for, not just the testing day, but the document and the roadmap it contains.
