A Complete, Neuroaffirming Autism & ADHD Evaluation — Including a Full Sensory Workup
Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment · College Park, MD & Telehealth
The Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment is Side Quest Psychotherapy’s most thorough evaluation pathway. It uses an extensive battery of standardized measures to build a detailed, multi-domain picture of your neurotype — how you process sensory input, manage executive functioning, experience demand, mask, and burn out. Conducted by Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, an AuDHD clinician in College Park, Maryland.
This evaluation focuses exclusively on the identification of autism and/or ADHD. It produces a comprehensive written report suitable for medication access, accommodation documentation, and treatment planning.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Is the Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment Right for You?
This evaluation is designed for people who want — or need — the full picture. Here are the most common reasons people choose the Comprehensive Assessment over the Focused Diagnostic Interview.
You're in eating disorder recovery
Sensory processing, interoception, and nervous system regulation can significantly shape how neurodivergent people experience hunger, fullness, and food. A comprehensive evaluation can clarify how autism or ADHD may be influencing recovery.
You have ARFID or feeding differences
ARFID and feeding differences frequently overlap with autism and ADHD. Sensory processing, attention patterns, and interoceptive signals can all influence how food is experienced and tolerated
You're navigating OCD
Autism, ADHD, and OCD commonly co-occur and can interact in ways that shape how anxiety and compulsions present. A comprehensive evaluation helps clarify how these patterns overlap and how treatment approaches may need to be adapted.
You're dealing with trauma or chronic stress
Many neurodivergent adults have long histories of masking, misunderstanding, or environments that required constant adaptation. A comprehensive evaluation helps differentiate trauma responses from underlying neurodivergent patterns — and understand how they may interact.
You're a late-identified adult who wants the full picture
Many adults have spent years masking or compensating in ways that hide their neurodivergence. A comprehensive evaluation helps map how your brain actually works and make sense of patterns that may have been overlooked.
You're pursuing medication or medication changes
Prescribing providers often request clear diagnostic documentation before initiating ADHD medication, and the comprehensive report provides structured clinical findings that support those conversations while contextualizing how attention, executive functioning, sensory processing, and nervous system regulation show up in daily life. For autistic and AuDHD clients, medication decisions are often more nuanced than in straightforward ADHD presentations, as factors like sensory processing differences, interoception, demand sensitivity, and sleep patterns can influence how someone responds to stimulants or non-stimulants. Clear diagnostic context also helps differentiate autistic burnout from conditions such as major depression—patterns that may appear similar but arise from different mechanisms—allowing prescribers to make medication decisions within the correct neurological context rather than treating burnout as a primary mood disorder.
You need clinical documentation for accommodations or disability
Workplace accommodations, university disability services, and disability applications often require formal diagnostic documentation. The comprehensive report is designed to meet those standards and translate findings into practical recommendations.
Your child was recently diagnosed, and you’re starting to notice many of the same traits in yourself
Many adults begin exploring their own neurodivergence after a child receives an autism or ADHD diagnosis. This evaluation can help you understand whether those same patterns may apply to you.
THE SIDE QUEST APPROACH
What Makes This Evaluation Different
This evaluation uses a progressive, neurodiversity-informed framework while still meeting established medical and diagnostic standards. It integrates DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria, structured clinical interviews, validated rating scales, and detailed developmental history to develop a comprehensive clinical formulation. Rather than focusing only on whether diagnostic criteria are met, the process also examines how attention patterns, sensory processing, nervous system regulation, and life experiences interact across everyday environments. Several aspects of the evaluation differ from more traditional assessment models.
A full sensory and interoceptive profile
Sensory processing is often treated as a brief screening question in traditional assessments. In this evaluation, it is examined in depth. Dedicated measures assess sensory processing patterns, interoceptive awareness, and alexithymia — the internal systems that shape how autistic and ADHD individuals experience their bodies, environments, and emotions. For clients navigating eating disorders, ARFID, or OCD, this information often becomes some of the most clinically meaningful data in the entire evaluation.
Masking and compensatory strategies are explicitly evaluated
Many adults seeking autism or ADHD evaluation have spent years developing strategies that conceal or compensate for neurodivergent traits. This assessment intentionally examines masking, camouflaging, and adaptive coping strategies so diagnostic conclusions are not based solely on surface presentation.
Designed for adults with complex presentations
Many people pursuing evaluation have layered clinical histories that include trauma, OCD, eating disorders, chronic stress, or years of burnout from sustained masking. Rather than trying to simplify these experiences into a single explanation, the evaluation focuses on understanding how multiple neurological, psychological, and environmental factors interact.
Real-world functioning, not just test performance
Some psychological assessments rely heavily on abstract cognitive tasks administered in controlled settings. This evaluation focuses on how attention regulation, executive functioning, sensory processing, and social communication actually show up in daily life — at work, in relationships, and under stress.
Conducted by an AuDHD Clinician
The evaluation is conducted by Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, who is AuDHD and has a PDA profile. Many clients find that working with a clinician who also has lived experience of neurodivergence—and strong pattern-recognition abilities—can support the identification of patterns that are sometimes overlooked in more traditional evaluations, particularly subtle masking, demand sensitivity, autistic burnout cycles, and the complex interaction of multiple neurodivergent traits across contexts. Many clients describe the evaluation process as unexpectedly de-shaming; working with a clinician who is open about their own neurodivergence can make it easier to talk about experiences that may have previously been misunderstood, minimized, pathologized, or treated as something “weird” or wrong.
A report designed to be useful
This report is written to be meaningful for both you and the systems that may require documentation. Findings are explained clearly and paired with practical recommendations related to therapy, accommodations, sensory supports, and everyday functioning. The report uses neurodivergent-affirming language while also applying the medical diagnostic framework required for formal evaluation. DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria and ICD-10 diagnostic codes are addressed directly, with clear explanation of how criteria are met — or not met — based on the clinical interview, developmental history, and assessment data. Each report is written individually and with care, integrating the full picture of your experiences and evaluation findings into a document designed to help you understand how your brain works and what supports may be helpful moving forward.
Ready to get started? The free consultation is the place to start.
No pressure, no commitment — just a conversation to figure out whether this evaluation is the right fit for what you’re looking for.
THE ASSESSMENT BATTERY
What's Included in the Evaluation
The Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment draws from a curated set of validated measures across multiple clinical domains. These tools are selected to capture aspects of neurodivergent experience that are often missed in standard evaluations — particularly for adults who mask, were identified later in life, or present with multiple overlapping traits.
The specific measures used in your evaluation are selected based on our initial consultation and the questions you hope to answer, allowing the assessment battery to be tailored to your goals and clinical presentation.
If you choose, the evaluation can also include collateral input from someone who knows you well — such as a partner, parent, close friend, or family member. Collateral participants may attend part of the assessment interview, participate in a brief phone call, and/or complete questionnaires to provide additional perspective on developmental history and day-to-day functioning.
Whenever possible, the assessment prioritizes neuroaffirming tools. When standardized measures developed within deficit-based frameworks are used, results are interpreted within a neurodiversity-informed context.
The measures listed below represent those most commonly used in the assessment process, though the final battery may vary depending on your goals, clinical presentation, and whether collateral information is included.
Our Commitment to Accessibility
We recognize that intake paperwork and assessment forms can be a significant barrier for many neurodivergent people. Demand avoidance, executive functioning differences, and burnout can all make forms difficult to start or complete. As part of our commitment to accessibility, Jenna may reduce the number of measures used when clinically appropriate so the process remains manageable while still providing meaningful diagnostic information. If additional support would be helpful, Jenna also offers a complimentary body-doubling session so you don’t have to navigate the paperwork alone. Just let us know when you reach out, and we can arrange a time to work through it together.
GOING DEEPER
Want to Explore Beyond Autism & ADHD?
The Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment focuses exclusively on the identification of autism and/or ADHD. If your clinical picture includes other areas you’d like to explore, additional screeners are available as clinically indicated add-ons at $300/hour — bookable alongside this evaluation. This is worth discussing during your free consultation so the full scope of your evaluation can be planned from the start.
Add-on screeners are available for trauma, PTSD, and dissociation — particularly relevant given the high rates of trauma in autistic and ADHD adults navigating systems that weren’t built for them. Anxiety and OCD screeners can help differentiate autistic anxiety, generalized anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive presentations from autistic rigidity, demand sensitivity, and repetitive behaviors. Mood disorder screeners capture depression, mood instability, and premenstrual mood disorders including PMDD, which co-occur with autism and ADHD at significantly elevated rates and are frequently misdiagnosed or attributed solely to psychiatric causes without recognition of the underlying neurotype.
Other presentations — including ARFID, eating disorders, and chronic illness — can also be explored as add-ons.
WHAT YOU RECEIVE
Your Report & Feedback Session
Approximately two weeks after your evaluation session, you’ll receive your written report — either at the close of your optional feedback session, or directly if you opt out.
Comprehensive diagnostic report (20–30 pages)
A detailed written report integrating DSM-5-TR and ICD-10 diagnostic criteria with your clinical interview findings, measure results, developmental history, and functional context. Includes diagnostic conclusions, domain-specific findings, and concrete recommendations for accommodations, supports, and next steps. Written in clinical and neuroaffirming language — not deficit-framed.
Optional 30-minute feedback session
A dedicated session with Jenna to walk through your findings and recommendations before you receive your report. This is your space to ask questions, process what came up, and leave with clarity — not just documentation. Many people find this session the most meaningful part of the evaluation. It is optional, but it’s there if you want it.
THE PROCESS
How It Works
The Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment follows the same five-step process as all evaluations at Side Quest Psychotherapy — from free consultation through to your report. The full process is outlined on the evaluations landing page, including information about body doubling support for intake paperwork, in-person and telehealth options, and what to expect at each stage.
Ready to Get the Full Picture?
Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, offers comprehensive neuroaffirming autism and ADHD evaluations in person in College Park, Maryland and via telehealth for clients in Maryland, Virginia, and Florida. The free consultation is the place to start.