A Focused, Neuroaffirming Autism & ADHD Evaluation — Straight to the Point
Focused Diagnostic Interview · College Park, MD & Telehealth
The Focused Diagnostic Interview is Side Quest Psychotherapy’s most streamlined evaluation pathway. You’re not here because you need convincing. You’ve done the reading, you recognize yourself, and you want a clinician to evaluate that directly.
This neuroaffirming evaluation uses structured diagnostic interviews and a carefully selected set of validated measures to produce a formal diagnostic summary with DSM-5-TR and ICD-10 codes—suitable for medication access, self-advocacy, and many accommodation requests.
Conducted by Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, a licensed clinician with advanced training in neurodevelopmental assessment, including MIGDAS-2 and DIVA-5 diagnostic interview protocols. Available in-person in College Park, MD and virtually throughout Maryland, Virginia, and Florida.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Is the Focused Diagnostic Interview Right for You?
This evaluation is designed for people who want clinical confirmation and formal documentation — without the scope of a full battery.
You've done the research. You recognize yourself in the descriptions. You don't need an extensive battery to tell you what you already strongly suspect — you need a clinician to evaluate it directly and put it in writing.
The Focused Diagnostic Interview produces a brief diagnostic summary with DSM-5-TR and ICD-10 codes formatted for clinical use. It's designed for situations where formal documentation matters but a 20–30 page report isn't what you need — or what your budget allows.
The Focused Diagnostic Interview produces written documentation that can support medication conversations with your prescribing provider. It is typically more in-depth than a standard psychiatric medication evaluation — including a structured diagnostic interview and targeted assessment of developmental history and functional patterns rather than a brief symptom check alone.
Many earlier evaluations didn't account for masking, camouflaging, burnout, or the ways autism and ADHD present in adults — particularly those with more internalized or less stereotypical traits. If a prior evaluation didn't feel accurate or affirming, the Focused Diagnostic Interview is often a good fit for a fresh, in-depth assessment without repeating an unnecessarily exhaustive process. Where available, prior evaluation records are reviewed and integrated into the clinical picture.
The Focused Diagnostic Interview is priced at $300/hour, typically 2–3 hours per track. If you need formal diagnostic documentation but the Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment isn't the right fit financially, this pathway still produces clinically sound findings with formal diagnostic codes.
The free consultation exists exactly for this. We'll talk through what you're looking for, what documentation you need, and which evaluation is most likely to get you there. No commitment required.
THE SIDE QUEST APPROACH
What Makes This Evaluation Different
This evaluation meets the diagnostic standards required for formal clinical documentation — including DSM-5-TR and ICD-10 criteria, structured clinical interviews, and validated rating scales with established psychometric properties. The neuroaffirming framework shapes how findings are interpreted and communicated, not whether they meet diagnostic threshold.
A note on scope
The Focused Diagnostic Interview does not include a full assessment battery. There is no sensory workup, no interoceptive profiling, and no comprehensive executive functioning assessment. The evaluation is built around the diagnostic interview and a targeted set of validated measures selected for your presentation.
If your clinical picture is complex — multiple overlapping conditions, a history of trauma or eating disorders, or a need for detailed documentation across multiple domains — the Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment may be the better fit. We can discuss this during your free consultation.
Many adults seeking evaluation have spent years developing strategies that conceal or compensate for neurodivergent traits — strategies that can effectively mask a presentation in standard clinical contexts. This assessment intentionally evaluates masking, camouflaging, and adaptive coping so that diagnostic conclusions reflect how your brain actually functions, not just how well you've learned to perform.
Some assessments rely heavily on abstract tasks administered under controlled conditions. This evaluation focuses on how attention regulation, executive functioning, sensory processing, and social communication actually show up in daily life — at work, in relationships, under stress, and across the environments where your neurodivergence has the most impact.
This evaluation is conducted by Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, who holds specialty training in neurodevelopmental assessment — including advanced certification in MIGDAS-2 and DIVA-5 protocols — and brings lived experience as an AuDHD clinician with a PDA profile.
Many clients find that working with a clinician who has strong pattern-recognition abilities and personal familiarity with neurodivergent experience supports the identification of patterns that are sometimes missed in more traditional evaluations — particularly subtle masking, demand sensitivity, autistic burnout cycles, and the complex interaction of multiple neurodivergent traits across contexts.
The diagnostic summary is written to be meaningful for both you and the systems that require documentation. It includes DSM-5-TR diagnostic codes and ICD-10 codes formatted for clinical use, a summary of assessment findings and clinical interpretation, and diagnostic conclusions with explicit explanation of how criteria are — or are not — met based on the clinical interview and assessment data.
Not sure if this is what you need? That’s what consultation is for.
It’s a 15-minute conversation — no paperwork, no commitment, no pressure to book anything after.
THE ASSESSMENT BATTERY
What's Included in the Evaluation
The Focused Diagnostic Interview draws from a targeted set of validated measures selected to support diagnostic conclusions in a single session. The battery is intentionally lean — focused on the interview and the measures most directly relevant to autism and ADHD identification in adults who mask.
The specific measures used are selected based on your presentation and the questions you bring. Both autism and ADHD tracks are available separately or together.
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.
A complimentary body-doubling session is available to support you through the paperwork. When clinically appropriate, Jenna may streamline your battery to keep the process manageable while maintaining diagnostic integrity.
Autism
ADHD
Diagnostic Interview
DIVA-5
Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults, 5th Edition. A structured clinical interview with established validity for ADHD diagnosis in adults. Systematically explores how ADHD symptoms have presented across childhood and adulthood, with explicit attention to compensatory strategies that may have masked the presentation over time.
ADHD Symptom Measure
ASRS v1.1
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale. Developed in collaboration with the WHO, this validated screening tool assesses ADHD symptoms in adulthood — including inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity as they present in adult daily life.
Executive Functioning
BDEFS
Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale. Measures real-world executive functioning challenges across five domains: self-management to time, self-organization and problem-solving, self-restraint, self-motivation, and self-regulation of emotion. Focused on functional impact rather than controlled-environment performance.
Masking & Camouflaging
AAMM
Adult ADHD and Masking Measure. Assesses the strategies adults use to conceal ADHD symptoms — including overcompensation, effortful compliance, and performance-based coping — and the functional costs of those strategies over time.
GOING DEEPER
Want to Explore Beyond Autism & ADHD?
The Focused Diagnostic Interview focuses exclusively on the identification of autism and/or ADHD. If your clinical picture includes other areas worth exploring, additional validated screeners are available as clinically indicated add-ons at $300/hour — bookable alongside this evaluation.
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.
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.
Brief diagnostic summary
A focused written report integrating DSM-5-TR and ICD-10 diagnostic criteria with your clinical interview findings, measure results, developmental history, functional context, and prior evaluation records where available. Includes diagnostic conclusions and concrete recommendations for accommodations, supports, and next steps.
Written in clinical and neuroaffirming language — not deficit-framed.
Lifetime Access to the Side Quest Resource Library
Every diagnosed client receives access to a living, curated Google Drive library built specifically for neurodivergent adults. It’s not a static handout — it’s an actively maintained collection that grows as the field does, and yours to keep, permanently.
Inside you’ll find resources spanning self-advocacy, accommodations, identity, mental health, and community.
Optional 30-minute feedback session
A dedicated session with Jenna to walk through your findings and what they mean before you receive your summary. 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’s optional, but it’s there if you want it.
THE PROCESS
How It Works
The Focused Diagnostic Interview follows the same five-step process as all evaluations at Side Quest Psychotherapy — from free consultation through to your documentation. 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.
Fees & Cost
A neuroaffirming evaluation is a significant investment in understanding yourself — and we’ve built our payment process to make it as accessible as possible without compromising the quality of your assessment. When you’re ready to book, a nonrefundable $200 deposit reserves your evaluation dates and goes directly toward your total fee. From there, you choose how to handle the rest: pay in full across your two appointments or spread the balance over 3 or 6 months.
Ready to Get Answers?
Jenna Stone, LCSW-C, offers focused neuroaffirming autism and ADHD evaluations in person in College Park, Maryland and via telehealth in Maryland, Virginia, and Florida. If you’ve been waiting for an evaluation that takes your full history seriously, this is it.