Dr. Brett Andersen

Hi, I'm Dr. Brett Andersen

And I'm a licensed psychologist in Scottsdale, Arizona that specializes in diagnostic assessment.  I have  extensive experience in child, adolescent, and adult psychological, psychoeducational, and neuropsychological evaluations.I absolutely love taking individuals through the evaluation process.  Most people initially come in worried, but my job is to put people at ease as I want to obtain their best results.  I view the evaluation as a constructive experience.  That is, I want you (or your child) to feel better about yourself (or themselves) after the evaluation.  Although I frequently diagnose individuals with some type of educational, developmental, or psychological condition(s), approximately 25% of my clients do not actually have a diagnose.  I am extremely cautious about overidentifying my clients (technically called a Type I error) as well as under identifying my clients (called a Type II error).  Rather, my job is to provide an accurate diagnosis.  And I do this through collecting and synthesizing a ton of data (interviews, observations, standardized test results, rating scales, previous evaluation results if present, etc.) and utilizing everything I know about DSM-5-TR and IDEA conditions, psychometric properties/statistics, and my clinical experience all in the context of the unique individual I am evaluating.  

Credentials

I am a state (AZ) and nationally certified school psychologist (NCSP).  In addition, I actively maintain my diplomate credential in school neuropsychology by the American Board of School Neuropsychology (ABSNP).  As of November 2021, I am only one of two licensed psychologist in the Phoenix area with the ABSNP credential.  

And, as of November 2021, I am the only licensed psychologist in the entire state of Arizona with the ABSNP and NCSP credentials.  

Background

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Western Illinois University (WIU) with a bachelor's degree in psychology and then a specialist degree in school psychology (SSP).  I became a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) in 2010.  I worked as a school psychologist in St. Louis, MO for three years serving students in all grades (preschool through 12th grade).  There, I also completed a year long post-graduate certification program in school neuropsychology.  My interests in pursuing higher education (and warmer weather) continued and I subsequently moved to Phoenix, AZ and obtained a doctorate of psychology (PsyD) in school psychology from Argosy University.  I then worked as a school psychologist in a "west valley" and then an "east valley" school district.  While working as a school psychologist I also worked as a psychometrician for a local neuropsychology clinic.  Afterwards, I completed a two-year post-doctoral residency in clinical neuropsychology at a local private practice.  I then worked full-time as a staff psychologist conducting clinical neuropsychological evaluations before opening up my own practice in April 2019.  I continued working for a local school district while running my practice until transitioning full-time to my practice in June 2022.    I have worked with numerous individuals ranging from 3-years-old to over 90-years-olds with various psychological, neuropsychological, educational, and social emotional conditions (e.g., learning disabilities, ADHD, autism/ASD, depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, and various medical conditions including TBI, epilepsy, and chronic illnesses).