Know what drives you. Know what drains you. Know where you thrive.
The Birkman Method™ is where every Joan Lockwood client begins.
The Birkman is a professionally administered assessment used by more than 10,000 companies worldwide. Unlike a personality quiz, the Birkman measures how someone is wired across three layers, giving clients the self-knowledge to make better decisions about school, career, and life.
Most personality assessments measure what you do. The Birkman measures why you do what you do.
Two people can look identical on paper and be driven by opposite things underneath. One is detail-oriented because they need precision and another is detail-oriented because they need approval.
Those two people will thrive in very different environments and struggle under very different kinds of pressure and make very different career decisions. Surface behavior won't tell you that. The Birkman will.
Joan is a certified Birkman consultant and has used the assessment with students and young adults to help them choose schools, majors, and career paths that fit how they actually work.
Behavior is only half the story.
That's the difference between an assessment that describes you and one that shapes what comes next.
How the Birkman is different
What the Birkman measures.
The Birkman looks at four dimensions of personality, not one.
Interests
What you're drawn to and what gives you energy. The activities and subjects you'd happily spend hours on, whether or not they pay. Interests point toward majors, careers, and environments where the work itself fuels you.
Usual Behaviors
How you show up when things are going well. How you communicate, make decisions, and engage with the people around you.
Underlying Needs
The unseen drivers that shape your behavior. What you require from your environment, relationships, and work to stay motivated and effective.
Stress Responses
What happens when your needs aren't being met. The patterns that emerge under pressure and are most likely to derail a career, a friendship, or a college experience if they aren't understood.
Most assessments stop at the first dimension. The Birkman adds the three that explain behavior, and uses a spectrum of traits rather than fixed categories. The result is a picture specific enough to act on.
What's included
A guided process from start to finish.
The Assessment
An online questionnaire that takes about 40 minutes. There are no right or wrong answers.
A One-on-One Session with Joan
Joan walks you through your results and connects the insights to real decisions: choosing a college major, preparing for a job search, navigating a career transition, or understanding family dynamics.
A 30-Page Personalized Report
A detailed report covering interests, usual behaviors, underlying needs, stress responses, and the environments where you're most likely to thrive.
Action Items and Next Steps
A career exploration report and personalized guidance on the paths and majors your results point toward.
What you walk away with
More than a personality test.
An understanding of how you naturally work and communicate and make decisions. Insight into what motivates you and what drains you. A clearer picture of the environments where you do your best work and the ones that wear you down. Recognition of how you respond under pressure and what you need when you are.
It's the kind of self-knowledge that names parts of yourself you've felt but never had words for. And it becomes the reference point for every decision that comes next.
Where this leads
The starting point for everything else.
The Birkman is also the foundation of Joan's Career Starter Toolkit, which pairs the assessment with resume and cover letter support and coaching sessions to help students and young adults move from self-knowledge into action.
Who it's for
The foundation everything else builds on.
Every client Joan works with begins with the Birkman. A high school student exploring colleges. A college student choosing a major. A young adult figuring out their next move. A family trying to better understand one another.
The Birkman is the foundation on which everything else builds.
Frequently asked questions
Questions people often ask.
How is the Birkman different from MBTI, DISC, or other personality tests?
Most personality assessments measure what's visible: behaviors, traits, and observable preferences. The Birkman measures three dimensions instead of one. It captures usual behaviors and adds the underlying needs that drive them and the stress responses that emerge when those needs aren't met. It also uses a spectrum of traits rather than fixed categories, so the picture is specific to the person rather than to a type.
How long does the assessment take?
The online questionnaire takes about 40 minutes. Results are delivered in a 30-page personalized report, which Joan walks you through in a one-on-one session.
Is the Birkman only for adults in the workplace?
No. Joan uses it with high school students, college students, young adults, and families. The insights are just as valuable for choosing a college major as they are for navigating a career transition.
Can families take the Birkman together?
Yes. Joan works with families who want to better understand each other's communication styles and needs. It's especially helpful during high-stress transitions like college planning or early career decisions.
Do I need to be a current client of Joan's to take the Birkman?
No. The Birkman is available as a standalone service. It's also the starting point for all of Joan's coaching work, so if you go on to work together in other areas, you'll already have this foundation in place.
Is the Birkman scientifically validated?
Yes. The Birkman Method was developed by Dr. Roger Birkman in the 1950s and has been refined and validated over decades of research. It's used by more than 10,000 organizations worldwide.
Ready to Make Better Decisions?
The Birkman is the foundation for choosing schools, majors, and careers that fit how you're built.