Assessments

Psychological assessments are done for a variety of reasons. These may include:

To assess one's Fitness for Duty, or ability to perform a certain job from a psychological perspective
To better determine the nature of a problem a person may be facing, so a more accurate treatment plan can be formatted
 

Career planning assessments, to make more informed career related decisions
Psycho-educational assessments to better understand factors affecting one's ability to learn and perform academically
 

Assessments for specific issues such as trauma, depression, or anxiety
There are a vast array of assessment tools psychologists may utilize, many of them involve written assessments or interviews. After the assessment is complete, people are typically informed about what the assessment revealed, and the information is discussed and debriefed. The information from the assessment is often valuable in treatment planning, and certainly informs the counselling process.
In most cases assessments are confidential, and completed to help better diagnose what a person is suffering from.

In some cases employers may request an employee to attend a psychologist's office for an assessment, such as for a "Fitness for Duty" assessment. In these cases, the assessment report will typically be shared with employer. It is always important to be clear with a psychologist what the nature of any assessment is, and who will be seeing the results. All psychologists are ethically bound to share this information with those who may attend for an assessment.