Neuro Assessment Center

Neuro Assessment Center provides neuropsychological assessment for adolescents and adults when disordered eating, body-related distress, and cognitive, emotional, or relational factors are interacting in ways that make treatment progress difficult to understand or sustain.

Disordered eating rarely presents in isolation. It frequently co-occurs with anxiety, obsessive and rigid thinking patterns, trauma, mood instability, executive dysfunction, ADHD, autism spectrum presentations, perfectionism, and emotional dysregulation — each of which can significantly affect how someone engages with treatment, integrates what they learn in recovery, and sustains functioning outside a structured program.

When the Picture Is More Complex

Many individuals receiving treatment for disordered eating are motivated, insightful, and working hard within their recovery framework. Progress still stalls. Functioning outside the treatment setting remains fragile. The same cycles repeat despite significant effort and genuine engagement.

Neuropsychological assessment does not replace nutritional counseling, medical management, or the recovery framework that is meaningful to the person. What it can do is clarify what may be making that work harder than it should be — whether the issue involves cognitive rigidity, emotional overcontrol, executive dysfunction, trauma-related patterns, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, an underlying neurodevelopmental condition, or several factors operating at once.

The question is not whether someone is trying hard enough. The question is whether the treatment approach fits the full clinical picture.

What Assessment Can Clarify

Disordered eating affects cognition, emotional regulation, and behavioral flexibility in ways that vary considerably depending on the presentation, severity, duration, and what else is present in the clinical picture. Two individuals with similar eating-related concerns can present very differently — and respond to treatment very differently — because the underlying factors driving the presentation differ.

Assessment can help clarify whether difficulties involving rigidity, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, avoidance, difficulty engaging flexibly with treatment, or follow-through are primarily related to anxiety, trauma, executive dysfunction, obsessive-compulsive patterns, autism spectrum features, mood instability, personality dynamics, or several factors operating at once.

This is especially relevant when someone has been through treatment more than once without sustained progress, when there is disagreement among the treatment team about what is driving the presentation, when self-report and observed functioning do not align, or when the individual understands what they need to do but cannot consistently execute it outside the therapy room.

Medical Awareness and Neuropsychological Interpretation

Nutritional deficiency, restriction, and medical complications can affect cognitive performance, attention, processing speed, and test validity in ways that matter for accurate assessment. Evaluations are conducted with awareness of the individual’s medical status and in coordination with physicians and dieticians when appropriate, so that findings reflect the person’s actual neuropsychological functioning rather than the temporary effects of medical compromise.

Team Coordination and Treatment Fit

Effective treatment for disordered eating typically involves multiple providers — physicians, dieticians, therapists, psychiatrists, and treatment programs working together around a shared clinical picture. When the team is not aligned, or when different providers hold different impressions of what is driving the presentation, treatment can stall or fragment even when each provider is doing good work individually.

Dr. Hai has direct clinical experience working with individuals with disordered eating across outpatient and residential treatment settings, including higher-acuity presentations. That experience informs not only how evaluations are conducted but how findings are translated into practical recommendations — including which treatment approaches and providers may be the most appropriate fit for the specific clinical picture.

Treatment approaches informed by radically open dialectical behavior therapy and intuitive eating principles are among those considered when clinically appropriate, depending on the individual’s presentation, rigidity profile, and relational style.

When clinically appropriate, post-assessment coordination is available to help ensure that recommendations translate into a coherent, well-matched treatment team rather than a list of referrals. [Link to: Post-Assessment Planning]

For Treatment Programs

Neuropsychological evaluation within eating disorder and dual diagnosis treatment settings can support diagnostic clarity, treatment planning, level of care decisions, family communication, utilization documentation, and aftercare feasibility. Reports are designed to be treatment-facing — practical, specific, and directly useful to the clinical team.

For Individuals and Families

If you or someone you care about is in treatment for disordered eating and something still feels unclear — why progress is inconsistent, why certain approaches seem to help in one setting but not another, why functioning remains fragile despite genuine effort — neuropsychological assessment may help provide a clearer picture of what is actually going on and what might support more sustained progress.

The goal is not to add complexity to an already difficult process. The goal is to understand the full picture clearly enough that the next steps can be better targeted, better supported, and more likely to hold.

Evaluations include clinical interview, individualized testing, interpretation of findings, feedback, and a structured written report designed to provide meaningful diagnostic clarification and treatment-facing recommendations.