Ori Elis, Ph.D
Developmental Neuropsychologist
I came to this work because I know, both professionally and personally, how much it costs to go unseen by the systems meant to help you. So many people spend years being told they're "too much," "not quite right," or "fine, really" by providers who didn't have the framework — or the time — to look closer. So much of traditional assessment treats the person being evaluated as a passive subject: someone to be measured, categorized, and handed a report with little say in what questions get asked or how the answers get used.
I don't work that way. I see assessment as something we build together: you bring your history, your questions, your intuition about what's going on; I bring training, tools, and a framework for making sense of it all. The report that comes out the other side should feel like it was written with you, not about you — a document you recognize yourself in.
I'm especially drawn to working with people whose neurodivergence has been missed, dismissed, or misread — girls and women, AFAB and nonbinary and transgender people, adults and older adolescents who were never given a framework that accurately fit their experience. Autism and other forms of neurodivergence don't always look like the textbook picture, and a lot of good clinicians simply weren't trained to see past that. I want every person who walks through this door to leave not just with a diagnosis if that's what's accurate, but with language that actually describes their experience, and a clearer, more compassionate sense of who they are.
How I Practice
My approach draws from several traditions that, together, shape how I think about assessment and care. I trained extensively in Therapeutic Assessment, a model that treats evaluation itself as a clinical intervention rather than a one-way diagnostic process — the questions we ask, the way we discuss results, even the pacing of feedback are all designed to be therapeutic in their own right, not just informative. I bring that same collaborative spirit into everything from structured interviews to standardized testing, always working to understand not just what someone's results show, but what those results mean in the context of their actual life. I'm also trained in trauma-informed practice, which shapes how I hold space for people's histories — many of the people I see have been misdiagnosed, dismissed, or harmed by previous encounters with the healthcare system, and I try to move through the assessment process in a way that doesn't repeat that harm: transparent about what I'm doing and why, responsive to pacing and safety, and mindful that testing itself can bring up difficult material.
Where my practice differs most from a typical evaluation is in what happens after testing. Rather than a single feedback session that hands over a report and sends someone on their way, I use an assessment-based consultation model — a more extended, comprehensive process built around integration. We spend real time together making sense of the findings: connecting them to your lived experience, answering the questions that actually brought you in, and translating results into language and recommendations you can use. This isn't a formality — it's often where the most meaningful clinical work happens. I also prioritize warm handoffs, meaning I don't just refer you out with a report in hand; I stay engaged in coordinating with your therapist, psychiatrist, school, or workplace as needed, so the assessment functions as the start of a continuous, connected process of support rather than an isolated event.
This extended model tends to be a particularly good fit for neurodivergent clients. Neurodivergent people are often given a diagnosis or a set of test scores without any real space to process what they mean, or how they connect to a lifetime of experiences that may finally start making sense. A rushed, single-session debrief rarely does that work justice. This extended consultation model gives us the time to sit with complexity, revisit questions as they come up, and build a shared understanding — so that by the end, you're not just holding a report, but a fuller, more integrated picture of yourself, and a clear path forward with the people who will continue supporting you.