Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Colin Brietzke.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dr. Brietzke. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I founded Chicagoland Neuropsychology in order to do truly comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. My experience while working in other business or in a hospital environment, was that the time and financial pressures limited the amount of time needed for thorough and in depth evaluations. My private practice allows myself and my employees the time to understand what kinds of challenges a person is experiencing, and then integrate that information with both traditional neuropsychological tests (i.e., tests of attention, memory, language skills, and so on) and cutting edge functional neuroimaging techniques such as quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG.) This is the direction that, as a field, Neuropsychology, is moving but many other clinicians are slow to adopt this more integrative approach.
In the end, I have three motivations for preferring this approach to neuropsychology. First, my patients appreciate not feeling like they are on a conveyor belt. Second, the more comprehensive understanding that comes from this integrative approach often opens up treatment options that would not have been obvious with briefer assessments. The last reason is that I love this work for the simple reason that it combines being able to help people with my continued exploration of the human brain.
Has it been a smooth road?
The early months of figuring out the intricacies of working with insurance companies was a frustration, but other than these early growing pains, my practice continues to steadily grow as more people become aware of the different approach I have to offer. I’ve focused on building a better mousetrap, and I feel like that’s the best way to bring in more business.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We offer two general categories of assessment – these are neuropsychological and psychological assessments. Neuropsychological assessments look more at ‘thinking’ abilities, while psychological evaluations look more at ‘feelings.’ Both of these start off with an interview of an hour or more, talking about what it is that is concerning.
Neuropsychological assessment involves a number of memory tests, puzzles games and so on that are administered one-on-one by the examiner. These puzzles/assessments are designed to directly measure aspects of thinking abilities such as attention, memory, organization and planning (i.e., executive functioning) language abilities and a few others. Neuropsychological testing also looks a bit at emotional functioning (i.e., feelings.) Often times, I will also order a form of brain imaging that looks at how the brain is functioning, as opposed to just looking at its structure and shape as most other imaging looks at. This integration of in-depth interview, traditional neuropsych testing and cutting edge imaging often helps me understand how to help someone in ways that none of these approaches by themselves ever could.
Psychological testing similarly starts off with an extended interview, but looks at emotions using a wide variety of tools that range from questionnaires to more creative storytelling tasks. Neuroimaging is also commonly utilized as part of this assessment as well. Our field’s understanding of the behavioral geography of the brain often means that functional brain imaging has much to add to an understanding of why a person is feeling a certain way – and more importantly, can pinpoint the best way to treat a person.
Contact Info:
- Address: Chicagoland Neuropsychology LLC
101 N. Marion St, Suite 313
Oak Park, IL 60301 - Website: www.ChicagolandNeuropsychology.com
- Phone: 773.931.3439
- Email: DoctorB@ChiNeuro.net
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