Shay McManus, Psy.D. — Licensed Clinical Psychologist

What inspired you to become a clinical psychologist, and what do you enjoy most about your role?

I’ve always been a big people watcher, and I think that’s been the biggest influence on me. I want to understand why people make certain decisions, what they find important, and how they got to where they were. I’ve found that every person is so different and needs different things. I think that’s why I like doing testing; every assessment is like a life-download, where we pull at the various threads and then try to weave them back together. 

What has your professional journey looked like leading up to your current role?

I started my career working in community mental health, which requires you to be able to work with a very diverse set of clients. I learned to be flexible in my approach and to value a holistic attitude toward mental health. Since then, I’ve worked in private practice, integrated care, and pediatric care. I really found myself digging deeper into doing assessments because I appreciated that it could be data-driven and humanistic at the same time. It allows me to take the client’s individual profile and connect it to what the research is telling us about how they can best be supported.  

Are there particular communities or populations you have specialized experience working with?

I really enjoy working with clients who have been in and out of therapy or psychiatry and have struggled to find answers. This often includes folks with histories of trauma, substance abuse, late or undiagnosed Autism or ADHD. I find that these clients really benefit from the way that assessment allows you to step back and look at the whole picture, including family history, child development, social influences, medical factors, learning and executive functioning struggles. While we may not be able to answer every question for the client, the testing process allows us to take that holistic look and dig deeper than other interventions.   

What do you enjoy most about the testing process?

I really enjoy gathering all of the pieces of information from a client’s own story (the data we collect, the behavioral observations, everything that seems so scattered or disorganized at first) and being able to stitch it into a coherent narrative that helps someone understand themselves better. I like to work with clients to help them understand both the barriers they’ve faced and the strategies they’ve used to overcome them. Adults find it helpful to see when and why some of those strategies broke down, and how to reset so they can be successful. When working with kids and teens, I like to find ways to help set themselves up for success by teaching them how their brains work, and how they can create an environment and lifestyle that works with their brain. I really enjoy being able to do the feedback and helping clients understand all the pieces of their own puzzle.   

How do you approach making the assessment experience comfortable and approachable for clients?

I always tell clients before we start working that some of the tests may be frustrating and that is by design. We want to push them to see what they can do, and without seeing those struggles, we can’t help you learn ways to overcome them. I also try to reinforce that some of them might feel silly. It’s okay to laugh about that and to laugh at yourself as you do it. I don’t want any client to feel like they have to be perfect, know all the answers, or be on their best behavior when they come in. They’re here doing this testing for a reason. We’re all human and we all have our foibles that make us who we are.   

How do you explain complex test results in a way that feels meaningful and useful to clients?

I do my best to relate all the assessments that we do to something in the real world. I try to find examples of everyday things in life that may not look like the tests that we do during the assessment, but require the same skills. Things like “remembering a grocery list or why you walked into a room,” “keeping track of those 30 tabs you have open on your computer,” “trying to keep your focus in a boring meeting,” or “inhibiting the impulse to ‘add to cart’” are all tasks that activate different regions and functions of our brain. My ultimate goal is that a client recognizes themselves in the data, and that they understand how that all feeds into the diagnosis and specific recommendations. At the end of the day, even more than getting a specific diagnosis, I think it’s most important that a client leaves with a better understanding of themselves and a plan of action.  

What’s a fun or surprising fact about you that your coworkers might not know?

I think a few people know I’m a gardener. What they may not know is that I have cultivated a little “Goth Garden” where I grow all my purple and black plants. I have a few black/purple tomato varieties, black basil, purple peppers, deep red/purple sunflowers, and black pumpkins. It’s dorky but I love my little offbeat produce.  

 If you weren’t a clinical psychologist, what career do you think you’d have?

My secret dream job is to be a Science Writer/Science Communicator. I really just wanted to be Carl Sagan growing up. I love learning new things and want to share them with anyone that will listen. Science and science literacy means a lot to me. Being able to explain big concepts to people in plain language is a skill that I continuously try to develop.