Psychometrist (Contemporary Studies, BA)

Erika Eckersley, Bethesda

Interviewed and written by Whitney Lockstein, Outreach & Support Peer  

Erika Eckersley graduated from the Bachelor of Arts, Contemporary Studies program with a Minor in Psychology and a Children’s Development Education Option in 2011. She went on to complete her Master’s in Counselling Psychology with Yorkville University and now works as a Psychometrist with Bethesda. Initially, Erika had plans to become a teacher, but her decision to pursue a more psychology-focused graduate degree due to her growing interest in this field, as well as the competitiveness of concurrent education programs at the time, changed her career path. While she still thinks about what it would have been like to be a teacher, she is extremely content with her career as a psychometrist.

Erika describes her path to becoming a psychometrist as unique and untraditional. After completing her master’s degree, she became a registered Psychotherapist but ultimately decided that this was not the right full-time career path for her. She realized that she was more interested in the psychometry aspect of psychology, including measurement and testing. Erika decided to apply for a psychometry job outside of her area of expertise and ended up landing it. The organization that hired her is a teaching organization that likes to train individuals right out of school. During her master’s degree, she completed a few courses on psychological assessment but had no direct experience administering tests. Thus, she experienced a huge learning curve at the beginning of her job. Erika practiced assessments for a couple of months, shadowed her colleagues, and has been working with her current organization for six years.

When Erika was first hired, there were two other experienced psychometrists there who acted as her mentors. She worked with one of them very closely for five years, so she credits them heavily with shaping her into the psychometrist she is now. Her supervising psychologist also played a very big role in influencing how she completes assessments and works with her clients. Mentorship was very important to her career.

Erika’s main role as a psychometrist is to provide testing and assessment services to adult individuals with diverse identities, including disabilities. Psychometrists complete a variety of psychological assessments to determine the diagnoses of their clients, including cognitive disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and dementia. Each client they meet with is unique. According to Erika, a typical day involves meeting with a client, completing cognitive assessments, writing reports and scoring assessments. She also meets with clients’ supports to help them understand how to interpret their client’s report and how to best assist them.

Psychometrists also provide education within the community so that individuals understand the process of being referred to an agency, what the process of an assessment looks like, and the next steps following the assessment. Psychometrists work in a wide range of environments depending on their clients’ needs. Erika’s organization has a wide range of clients that psychometrists will travel to assist since it is especially important to be accommodating when working with this population of clients. Erika provides psychometric services directly in individuals’ homes, group homes, partnering mental health agencies across the region, hospitals, and correctional facilities.

To be a psychometrist, there are core personality traits that are crucial for this career. It is important to be determined when learning how to administer assessments. It is also important to be a fast learner and have good time management as you must learn how to assess very quickly. Excellent report writing skills are an asset, which could be appealing to students who take part in a lot of essays and report writing. It is essential to have an open mind with every single client and to not make biased assumptions about people. Furthermore, psychometrists must be compassionate and caring with their clients and understand that their diagnosis can be hard for them to hear. Erika also encourages a bit of a sense of humour. Assessments are very standardized, and it’s important to keep it that way, so whenever you can joke with a client or make them more comfortable, it is a great skill to have.

Erika loves her position as a psychometrist but realizes that some may find the job repetitive. Psychometrists complete many of the same assessments over and over, however, each client they interact with is unique, which means every interaction is different. Erika’s favourite part about being a psychometrist is meeting with her clients. Some days can be more challenging than others since she may have to reveal a new diagnosis which is met with a negative reaction. With other clients, this new diagnosis can bring them peace and clarity, allowing them to understand better who they are as a person and why their brain functions the way it does, which is an extremely fulfilling process. Even with clients who respond negatively, psychometrists support them through this process and help them understand that it does not change who they are as a person.

Some challenges come with being a psychometrist, especially when clients have a difficult time accepting the news of their diagnosis and are met with tears and sadness. Erika explains that you never really know how someone will take the news, and it can be difficult to anticipate their reaction. Another challenge that Erika faces as a psychometrist is keeping up with the large demand for assessments and lengthy waitlists due to her organization being Ministry funded. With this, she meets a lot of clients who are very desperate for their assessment to be completed and for support. Erika also has many clients whose diagnoses have been missed and has had clients in their 80s who have never been identified as someone with an intellectual disability, which can be difficult.

The qualifications, training and education required to become a psychometrist are somewhat ambiguous. Erika describes her educational path, going from psychotherapy to psychometry, as unique compared to some of her fellow psychometrists. More conventional routes that her colleagues took involved obtaining an undergraduate degree with a psychology major and then obtaining a master’s in psychology. Others have specified into clinical psychology graduate programs, which have also helped them become psychometrists. While not always required, completing a master’s degree in psychology is usually a prerequisite to be hired as a psychometrist.

Since there are few designated psychometry programs, Erika emphasizes the importance of taking psychological assessment and testing courses in your undergraduate and graduate degrees when offered, as this will help prepare you and make you more qualified when applying to be a psychometrist. The more education, training and exposure you get on assessments, the better. There are many different assessments out there, so it is important to decide what assessments you would be interested in, whether vocational, neuropsychological or for individuals with disabilities. It is also important to figure out the area and population you are interested in working with. For example, Erika used to work with children but found that they took longer to assess and realized that working with adults suited her better.

Gaining work and volunteer experience can help you discern your areas of interest and land a career in psychometry. Erika works with individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Beginning at 16, she began to provide one-to-one support to individuals with developmental disabilities, initially with children, then moving into the adult sector. She believes her work with individuals with disabilities played a huge part in getting her current position. Erika explained that there are many different areas of psychometry to explore, such as vocational or neuropsychology, which could cater to other kinds of volunteer experience.

While there is no direct training route to become a psychometrist, Erika encourages people to find a psychologist or agency that will accept a student placement or practicum and allow you to observe how assessments are conducted and provide some training. The more experience you have with completing assessments, the more qualified you’ll be to apply for a psychometrist position.

Another important step to help obtain a job as a psychometrist is registering with the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO), or another respective college depending on the location. This process is extremely rigorous. While it is not always a requirement to be registered with the CPO to work as a psychometrist, registration can help you to understand the ethics behind working in a psychology-based profession and will be required for some agencies. Erika is also registered with the Ontario Association for Mental Health Professionals, which provides liability insurance, extensive trainings, and is overall a great resource to turn to.

There are related occupations to psychometry that require slightly different training, as well as different areas of psychometry. Before Erika was hired by her current organization, she worked as a vocational psychometrist, a career geared toward getting people back to work after accidents. Psychometrists also work in hospital settings and in the field of neuropsychology. Psychometry might be considered an entry-level psychology profession, as you can build your way up to becoming a psychological associate and then a registered psychologist. Psychological associates can do assessments, therapy and can communicate diagnoses, whereas a psychologist or psychological associate must supervise psychometrists to communicate a diagnosis. Thus, there are opportunities for advancement within the field of psychometry. Some like writing their reports, communicating diagnoses and having more independence overall, which may lead them to pursue a higher position than psychometry. However, as a psychometrist, it can be advantageous to have a psychologist to consult with and verify that you’re on the right path.

The future trends for psychometry are somewhat of a grey area. It can be difficult to find information on becoming a psychometrist or training opportunities, as it’s not a well-defined occupation. Psychometry seems to get grouped in with psychology and clinical psychologists when it is truly its own career. Erika hopes that the profession of psychometry will trend upwards and that more people will get into the field, as there is a large need for more psychometrists. She believes that more information and awareness on how to become a psychometrist is needed so that this can become a reality.

If Erika could travel back in time to her student self and give some advice, she wishes she would have gotten more into psychology than she was initially since there are so many different areas to study. Also, this would have helped her become a psychometrist faster and provided her with more experience than she had coming in.