Upcoming Events
We are excited to participate with the Therapeutic Assessment Institute for their biannual conference. This will be three days of news, training, and development from the leading voices and community members of the Therapeutic Assessment community. Dr. Grossman will be leading a pre-conference workshop (described below) and will participate in a scientific session on multimethod assessment as a guide to working with a client’s shame.
The Millon Inventories as Alliance and Therapeutic Dialogue Builders: Using the MCMI-IV and MACI-II in Therapeutic Assessment [Live Workshop]
June 12, 2025 from 1:30 - 5 pm
Presenter: Dr. Seth Grossman, Psy.D.
Description: The attuned, therapeutically oriented assessor recognizes that the greatest growth potential occurs when a person feels connected to another (in this case, the assessor) and feels heard and understood. Part of that undertaking happens when the assessor and client figure out how the person is currently functioning (e.g., diagnosis, life circumstances), but the larger part comes from discovering how it is the person got to the present moment. Most assessors familiar with the MCMI-IV and other Millon instruments are aware of how these tools inform diagnostics; not as many have a grasp on how to apply the underlying theory to help illuminate the person?s life story in pursuit of a more sympathetic personal narrative.
This half-day workshop highlights methods for using theoretical material embedded in the Millon Inventories in building a working alliance and finding effective collaborative dialogue in therapeutic assessment. Through both didactic and hands-on methods, assessors will gain in operational knowledge that will serve to inform extended inquiry, assessment intervention, and feedback.
The Millon instruments, on their own, provide support for Therapeutic Assessment both by identifying central struggles and core motivational conflicts, as well as by highlighting characteristic behaviors, dynamics, phenomenology, and temperament. Struggles and conflicts highlighted by the core evolutionary principles add depth to the person’s explanatory narratives about their life’s journey, while the characteristics reflected in the domains may identify targets for the assessment intervention sessions and ultimate recommendations in feedback.
While the Millon instruments are self-report, they hold something of a unique space in context with other methods and instruments. The theory, which models both observable, conscious phenomena and less conscious, inferred dynamics, may best be employed at a level between more empirically derived self-report measures (e.g., MMPI, PAI), and performance measures (e.g., Rorschach, Wartegg). The Millon measures, then, frequently highlight gaps between the two major traditions and lend depth and explanatory power to these different levels of data. This workshop will demonstrate several examples of the role of the MCMI-IV when used in coordination with other instruments.
Participants will engage in small-group or dyadic exercises, as well as full-group discussion. While there is a portion of the workshop that covers theory in a more didactic manner, the intent of the workshop is to maximize time spent in a more collaborative mode, generative of ideas, insights, and attunement drawn from a combination of the test data and the person’s lived experience.