Cathy Hammond, PhD practices clinical psychology from Suite 200 at 3703 Camino del Rio South in San Diego, providing psychotherapeutic evaluation and treatment under a caseload that includes forensic and occupational assessment work. She earned her doctoral degree from the College of New Jersey and holds Qualified Medical Evaluator and Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund credentials — designations that authorize her to conduct independent psychological evaluations in California workers' compensation cases. The 92116-area office handles somatization disorder and related conditions where psychological distress manifests as physical symptoms, a clinical specialty that intersects with the optometric evaluations at Heights Optometry in University Heights, where stress-related vision complaints — convergence insufficiency, digital eye strain, and tension-driven focal-length disruption — require differential diagnosis between organic and psychosomatic etiology. Dr. Hammond's QME credential means she evaluates injured workers referred through the Division of Workers' Compensation, producing reports that California labor code requires to address permanent impairment ratings, apportionment, and future medical treatment needs. Pain-management cases that begin with her psychological assessment extend into the acupuncture and herbal medicine protocols at Roots of Health Acupuncture on 30th Street, where Dr. Armida Coughlin's orthopedic needle therapy addresses the musculoskeletal components of the same chronic-pain presentations Hammond evaluates from the psychological side. The SIBTF evaluator credential adds a second layer of forensic specialization, covering cases where a worker's pre-existing disability combines with a new industrial injury to produce a level of impairment greater than either condition alone — a complex apportionment analysis that requires both clinical assessment skill and working knowledge of California's disability-rating schedules.