October 2025 | Newsletter Updates
2026 SPA Convention | SPA Ballot | Psychoanalytic Webinar | Grand Rounds | Assessment Throwdown | SPA Grants | Expert Insights | CTA Webinar | Scholarships | JPA Special Issue-CPA | Community Events & News | Job Postings
2026 SPA Convention
Deadlines Vary
We're accepting workshop, general convention programming, and poster proposals for the 2026 SPA Convention in Toronto! This is a great opportunity to showcase your research and other findings with the personality and psychological assessment community. Click on the button below to submit your proposal(s).
- General Convention Programming Deadline: October 6
- Call for Program Reviewers: October 6
- Poster Deadline: November 9
2026 SPA Ballot
Deadline October 9
We're currently accepting ballots for the 2026 SPA Board Leadership. As an active SPA member, you are entitled to one vote. You can learn all about the candidates by clicking here. As a reminder, please do NOT share the ballot link with anyone.
Psychoanalytic Interest Group Presents- When Psychodiagnosticians Wishes Their Patient Had Testing: Hoops, Pitfalls, and End Results
November 4 | 7:00–8:30 pm ET
Webinar will NOT be Recorded
Presenter: Dr. Mary Jo Peebles
Every psychodiagnostician can benefit from referring one of their own psychotherapy patients for testing, gaining insight into the hopes, doubts, and questions that arise in the process. This webinar will explore the challenges and opportunities that emerge when testing is introduced in therapy, highlighting how thoughtful therapist-tester collaboration can transform the psychotherapy experience.
SPA Grand Rounds
The wait is over! Season 2 for Grand Rounds starts next month in September. You now have the option to register for individual sessions or all sessions with one registration. Click on each title below for more information.
- November 5 | Multimethod Assessment of Psychosis: What the Clinician Needs to Know - Dr. Ali Khadivi & Dr. Jim Kleiger
- December 3 | Collaborative Suicide Risk Assessment - Dr. David Jobes
- January 7 | The Early Memories Procedure as an Assessment and Therapy Tool that Fosters Therapeutic Change - Dr. Serena Messina
Assessment Throwdown Live Competition
October 15 | 7:00–9:00 pm ET
The Assessment Throwdown is for doctoral trainees in clinical, counseling, or school psychology to show off their assessment skills and knowledge and receive feedback from assessment experts in a welcoming, nonjudgmental, and fun atmosphere!
SPA Grants
Deadline for all Grants is October 15
| Grants | Award Amount | Supports | Open to |
| Dissertation Grant | Up to $800 | Approved dissertation research in personality and psychological assessment. | Graduate Students |
| Student Research Grant | Up to $500 | All types of research in personality and psychological assessment. | Undergraduate and Graduate Students |
| Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (EISJ) Grant | $500–$10,000 |
Support research that advances equity, inclusion, and social justice, as defined by SPA’s EISJ track and terminology. |
All Levels |
For more information on each grant, please click the button below.
Expert Insights Virtual Conference
October 23–25 | Early Bird Ends at Oct 2 at 11:59 pm ET
Our Fall virtual conference is back! Join us for Expert Insights and hear from some of the top experts in the field. The schedule is now available to help you determine your attendance. Click here to learn more or the button below to register.
C/TA Interest Group Presents- "The Point Where Everything Meets": Integration of the Crisi Wartegg System (CWS) Across the Stages of Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (CTA)
November 12 | 3:00–5:00 pm ET
Presenter: Dr. Jacob A. Palm
The Crisi Wartegg System (CWS) is an empirically validated, performance-based assessment tool that provides rich emotional and interpersonal data through an accessible drawing task, offering insight into personality organization, coping, attachment, and adaptive functioning. This presentation will highlight the unique benefits of using the CWS within adolescent Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (CTA), including its role in case conceptualization, family interventions, and multi-method assessment, while giving participants foundational concepts to apply in their own practice.
Convention Scholarships
Deadline to Submit Applications is November 23
We have opened up our scholarship process for the 2026 SPA Convention. These scholarships are intended to help fund your experience at the annual convention. You may apply to multiple scholarships, however, you may only be awarded ONE scholarship. As a reminder, if you plan to apply for a scholarship please DO NOT register for the convention until decisions have been sent out in December.
JPA Special Issue on the Utility of Clinical Personality Assessment
Deadline for Call for Papers in December 15
Although clinical personality assessment (CPA) plays a central role in practice, little research has examined its real-world usefulness. This special issue will explore an important question: under what conditions does CPA improve client outcomes or help clinicians tailor treatment?
We invite submissions that demonstrate CPA’s utility in practice, examine relevant clinical contexts, or provide reflections to guide future research. Papers may include systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or case studies using empirical data.
Community Events & News
Call for Papers, Proposals, Nominations, etc.
- Call for Manuscript: Dr. Lisa Suzuki is seeking manuscript submissions as a guest edits for the Journal of Intelligence on how culture impacts cognitive assessment. Submissions will be accepted through September 15. For more information, please click here.
- Call for Assessment Special Issue: Assessment is requesting proposals for a special issue dedicated to Artificial Intelligence in Psychological Assessment. For more information, please click here.
Trainings, Workshops, Webinars, etc.
- Training: Wartegg Level 1 Training: A virtual training sequence for the Crisi Wartegg System (CWS) will begin in September 2025! The CWS is an empirically validated and standardized methodology (administration, scoring, interpretation) for the clinical use of the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test (WDCT)—an easy, efficient, and non-overwhelming performance-based personality measure that can be completed in 5-10 minutes and is appropriate across the lifespan. The CWS is recognized as a valid performance-based personality test that can be used for certification in Therapeutic Assessment. The Level 1 workshop focuses on history and statistical foundations, reviews standardized administration procedures, and builds proficiency in the normative scoring system. Following completion of Level 1, clinicians are able to independently administer the test with clients but require consultation for accurate scoring and interpretation. Levels 2 and 3 of the training sequence (focused on interpretation) are further described in the attached flyer. Online registration can be made at: https://sc-cca-com.3dcartstores.com/.
- Training: Rorschach Supplementary Scales Training with Dr. Jason M. Smith. This four half-day workshops on zoom will take place on Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 27, & Dec. 4, 2025. Click here for more information.
- Training: Complete Crisi Wartegg System (CWS) Online Training Sept.–Nov. 2025 with Drs. Emiliano Muzio and Alessandro Crisi. Click here for more information.
Other News
- Joint Letter: APA coordinated a letter that was sigened by many researchers, educators, and acadmics of the United States regarding the continued decline in public trust in scientists. A copy of the letter can be found here: https://unitedsciencealliance.org
- Request to Contact Policymakers: APA has also organized this action alert to allow individuals to contact policymakers to stop proposed policy changes at NIH that would harm the ability to continue to do research: https://www.votervoice.net/APAAdvocacy/Campaigns/121382/Respond