Since 2004, Dr. Diane Engelman and writer JB Allyn have collaborated on writing projects, including dozens of therapeutic stories. With some clients, Diane uses these stories to communicate the essential details of his or her assessment data. A metaphorical rendering of aspects of the person’s life provides the context for the embedded facts.
We specialize in writing these stories for adults and teens, though we have also written them for children. At professional conferences in the U.S. and abroad, we give joint presentations on the use and impact of therapeutic stories with adults and teens and how to write the stories. Our presentation style is unusual for these conferences in that we often incorporate dialogue into our format.
Our Recent Presentations
July 2022, Geneva, Switzerland | XXIII International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
The Therapeutic Power of the Rorschach and Other Projective Tests
Diane H. Engelman – The Winged Centaur: Rorschach Percept as Story Intervention (with JB Allyn)
March 2022, Chicago, Illinois | Society for Personality Assessment
Reigniting the Flame of Hope: CTA Approaches to Attachment, Shame, Mistrust, and Suicide
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – The Suicidal Stoic: From Failure to Mini-Steps toward Hope (with JB Allyn)
March 2021, Virtual Convention | Society for Personality Assessment
The Indispensable Flame”: Hope as Healing in Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Act the Way you Want To Be”: Leveraging Hope to Build a New Life (with JB Allyn)
March 2019, New Orleans, Louisiana | Society for Personality Assessment
On the Frontier of Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment: Integrating Clinical Data with the Craft and Creativity of Storytelling
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Why and How, Then and Now: Impact of Story During and After a Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment (with JB Allyn)
March 2018, Washington, D.C. | Society for Personality Assessment
Life Stories and Therapeutic Stories: Clinical, Empirical Perspectives
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – From the Firepit to the Computer: Searching for the Right Story (with JB Allyn)
September 2017, Austin, Texas | 2nd International Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Conference
Collaborative & Therapeutic Assessment: Ethical Considerations
Diane H. Engelman – Ethics in Neuropsychological Evaluations: Actions, Consequences, and “Weasel Words” (with JB Allyn)
July 2017, Paris, France | XXII International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Using Psychological Assessment to Help Clients Feel Less Ashamed
Diane H. Engelman – She to He: Releasing Shame through a Neuropsychological Therapeutic Assessment (with JB Allyn)
March 2017, San Francisco, CA | Society for Personality Assessment
Collaborative/Therapeutic Approaches with Transgender Individuals and Their Families
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – She to He: Ongoing Therapeutic Assessment Dialogue with a Transgender Electrician and Family (with JB Allyn)
March 2017, San Francisco, CA | Society for Personality Assessment
Story Works: Client Change in C/TA Through Imagination and Visualization in Stories, Drawings, and Games/Apps
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – “I Love FABCOMS!” Facilitating Change in Real Life by Visualizing Change in Metaphor (with JB Allyn)
March 2015, Brooklyn, NY | Society for Personality Assessment
How Practicing Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Helps Assessors Grow
Diane H. Engelman – Quality of Life in Older Adults: “Old Age Ain’t No Place for Sissies” (with JB Allyn)
March 2015, Brooklyn, NY | Society for Personality Assessment
Assessment’s Neglected Child: Why We Need to use and Teach Quality Writing Skills
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Developing Your Caudate Nucleus: Neurobiology, Effectiveness, and Creativity in Writing for Clients (with JB Allyn)
September 2014, Austin, Texas | Inaugural Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Conference
Workshop – Embracing Therapeutic Assessment and Neuropsychology: Concerns, Challenges, and Commonalities
Diane H. Engelman (Co-leader) – Quality of Life and Ecological Validity: C/TA in the Neuropsychological Assessment of Kevyn, an Older Adult (with JB Allyn)
September 2014, Austin, Texas | Inaugural Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Conference
Using the Crisi Wartegg System in Therapeutic Assessment
Diane H. Engelman – Impulsivity and Living Life by Default: The Man Who Climbed Out of the Cannon’s Mouth (with JB Allyn)
September 2014, Austin, Texas | Inaugural Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Conference
Why Write a Therapeutic Story? How Stories Communicate Assessment Findings with Children, Adolescents, and Adults
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman and JB Allyn – Creating & Using Stories in Adult Therapeutic Assessment: “It’s story-form metaphor!”
March 2014, Arlington, VA | Society for Personality Assessment
Countertransference and Trauma: Therapeutic use of Self with Clients in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Mending Developmental Trauma in Adults Neglected as Children (with JB Allyn)
July 2014, Istanbul, Turkey | XXI International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Using Projective Tests to Help Clients Access Split-Off Emotions
Diane H. Engelman – Impulsivity and Living Life by Default: The Man Who Climbed Out of the Cannon’s Mouth (with JB Allyn)
March 2014, Arlington, VA | Society for Personality Assessment
Countertransference and Trauma: Therapeutic use of Self with Clients in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Mending Developmental Trauma in Adults Neglected as Children (with JB Allyn)
March 2014, Arlington, VA | Society for Personality Assessment
Using the Crisi Wartegg System in Therapeutic Assessment
Diane H. Engelman – Impulsivity and Living Life by Default: The Man Who Climbed Out of the Cannon’s Mouth (with JB Allyn)
May 2013, Austin, Texas | Therapeutic Assessment Institute
Therapeutic Assessment Immersion Course
(Diane H. Engelman – Presenter)
Diane H. Engelman and JB Allyn – Creating Therapeutic Stories for Adults
March 2013, San Diego, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Workshop – Making Meaning from Assessment Findings: Writing Therapeutic Stories for Children, Adolescents, and Adults
Diane H. Engelman and JB Allyn (Co-leaders) – Creating Therapeutic Stories for Adults
March 2013, San Diego, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Alchemy: Integrating Science and Art in Psychological Assessment
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Scientist as Artist, Artist as Scientist: Synthesis of Fact and Truth in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (with JB Allyn)
March 2013, San Diego, California | Society for Personality Assessment
An International Perspective: Assessment’s Role in Uncovering and Coping with Client Trauma
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Rorschach Trauma Index, Timeline, and Therapeutic Story: Bridge into a Young Woman’s World (with JB Allyn)
March 2012, Chicago, Illinois | Society for Personality Assessment
“Getting in Clients’ Shoes”: A Collaborative/Therapeutic Case Discussion
Diane H. Engelman, Co-Chair (with JB Allyn, Alessandro Crisi, Stephen Finn, Constance Fischer, & Noriko Nakamura)
March 2012, Chicago, Illinois | Society for Personality Assessment
Using and Teaching the Written Word in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment: Reports, Letters, and Stories
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
JB Allyn – A Comma or a Period? An Assessment Client’s Perspective on the Impact of the Written Word
July 2011, Tokyo, Japan | XX International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Diane H. Engelman – Rorschach Trauma Index, Timeline, and Therapeutic Story: Bridge into a Young Woman’s World (with JB Allyn)
July 2011, Tokyo, Japan | XX International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Assessment Techniques 1: Baum-Drawing Process, Stein Sentence Completion, Wartegg Drawing Completion, and Story Stem Assessment (Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
March 2011, Boston, Massachusetts | Society for Personality Assessment
Workshop – In Your Client’s Brain: Cognitive Testing in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment
Diane H. Engelman (Co-leader) – Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment, Brain-based Issues, and the DSM (with JB Allyn)
March 2011, Boston, Massachusetts | Society for Personality Assessment
Making a Difference: The Power of Metaphor in Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment
(Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Metaphor and the Brain
JB Allyn – Metaphor in Life, Letters, and Stories
March 2010, San Jose, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Workshop – Case Studies In Collaborative Neuropsychology
Diane H. Engelman (Co-leader) – A Complicated Diagnosis: Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment (with JB Allyn)
March 2010, San Jose, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Choosing the Right Words: Verbal and Written Feedback in Therapeutic Assessment (Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Anticipating the Assessment Results: “I Think I Might be Borderline”
JB Allyn – All Words are not Created Equal: Communicating Effectively in Therapeutic Assessment
July 2009, Oslo, Norway | The 11th European Congress of Psychology
Diane H. Engelman – Casting Light into Darkness: Therapeutic Assessment with an Older Adult to Manage Personality and Brain-based Changes (with JB Allyn)
March 2009, Chicago, Illinois | Society for Personality Assessment
Workshop – Collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment: Now and in the Future
Diane H. Engelman – Research on Collaborative Therapeutic Assessment: Past, Present, and Future (with Judith Armstrong, Ph.D.)
March 2009, Chicago, Illinois | Society for Personality Assessment
Taking the Risk of Transformational Writing: Bridging Technical and Creative in Therapeutic Reports and Stories (JB Allyn, Chair)
JB Allyn – Translation and Collaboration in Writing Therapeutic Letters & Stories
Diane H. Engelman (Discussant) – Left Brain, Right Brain, Whole Brain: Integrating Words and Imagery in Therapeutic Writing
July 2008, Leuven, Belgium | XIX International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Diane H. Engelman – To Dance or To Drown: Rorschach Percept and Face Validity in an Adult Therapeutic Story Intervention (with JB Allyn)
March 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana | Society for Personality Assessment
The Interface of Clinical and Research Methods in Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment (Diane. H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane. H. Engelman – Brain-based Behavior in Neuropsychological Assessment: Collaborative Process and Therapeutic Intervention
(with JB Allyn)
March 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana | Society for Personality Assessment
Telling the Story of a Collaborative Personality Assessment (Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Perspectives on Story: A Letter and Story as Intervention with a Suicidal Adult (with JB Allyn)
March 2007, Arlington, Virginia | Society for Personality Assessment
Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment: What Has Been Learned One Year Later?
Diane H. Engelman – Advantages of Collaboration in a Complicated Adolescent Neuropsychological Assessment (with JB Allyn)
March 2007, Arlington, Virginia | Society for Personality Assessment
Creative Approaches within Therapeutic Assessment (Diane H. Engelman, Chair)
Diane H. Engelman – Collaborative Creativity: Ways an Assessor Works with a Writer to Craft Therapeutic Stories (with JB Allyn)
March 2006, San Diego, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Therapeutic Assessment Case Studies
Diane H. Engelman – Using a Rorschach Percept as the Basis of a Therapeutic Story (with JB Allyn)
March 2006, San Diego, California | Society for Personality Assessment
Collaborative Neuropsychological Assessment as a Therapeutic Intervention
Diane H. Engelman – Using a Neuropsychological Evaluation as the Basis for a Therapeutic Story (with JB Allyn)
July 2005, Barcelona, Spain | XVIII International Congress, Rorschach & Projective Methods
Diane H. Engelman – Use of a Rorschach Percept to Construct a Therapeutic Story (with JB Allyn)
March 2004, Miami, Florida | Society for Personality Assessment
Diane H. Engelman – Collaborative Assessment When the Client and Her Family Are at Odds
October 2004, Monterey, California | California Society for Clinical Social Work
Diane H. Engelman – Attachment Theory: Integrating Research and Clinical Practice – Attachment, Disruption and Repair in Relational Psychotherapy (with Steven A. Frankel, M.D.)
In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Notice of Privacy Practices: By law, I, Diane Engelman, am required to insure that your protected health information is kept private. Click on the link above to read or print the full document.
