Great recourse for children with ADHD.

Absolutely avoid Mary Ellen Dougherty. We saw her for my sons ASD assessment. Her complete failure to communicate and disregard for our interest made for an experience that was traumatic for both me and my son, as well as useless; we had to repeat the assessment with another provider.She asked I bring him for the intake - I double checked, his previous assessments had background question and his participation wouldnt be appropriate - But she insisted. She laid into question about his problems, and within the first ten minutes, and without having discussed it with me, revealed to him that he was special needs. I declined to answer further questions, instead trying to calm my very agitated son. I emailed her afterwards and she apologized for her error in forgetting to talk to me about when the visit would entail. She didnt address my non-participation. Since there were six month waitlist elsewhere and his services on hold pending diagnosis, we continued with her. However, her failure to address this poisoned the well, so ultimately we had no confidence in her results. It was also traumatic – My son struggled with depression and stress-related incontinences for six months afterward. I’m now anxious and fearful about getting therapy myself.When we finally got results (she rescheduled the meeting and charged us a missed appointment fee) she didnt diagnosis him as autistic as expected because he didnt exhibit certain behaviors, such as routines. How had she determined that, we asked, without talking to us? Wouldnt that information have been gathered in the initial visit, questions I had declined to answer with him present? She replied that they use multiple methods, and ignored request for a more specific answer. I repeated the question over email and she replied: No, diagnoses were not based on intake alone. I reiterated the question - did you assess that in some other way, and she replied, and I quote Your question was, Can you at least give me a straight yes or no answer about whether the diagnosis was impacted by my declining to answer most questions at the initial visit? and the answer to that is no.This condescension and complete disregard for our understanding of the process was repeated over and over. She clearly didn’t care if we knew what the purpose of a visit was, what the diagnostic criteria were, or if we had questions about diagnosis because part of the assessment – the intake – didn’t actually take place. She clearly expected that her say so should be sufficient for us, without her bothering to explain her reasons, opinions, or process, (or billing. Surprise! I got a bill an hour long psychological consult after “a chat” about the results.) Personally, I think when you’re seeing a psychologist; they should care about you feeling included and safe in the process. Instead she treated us like lab rats, subjects for her evaluation, not people who are deeply invested and emotional involved in the process.

After years seeking for answers for my children’s struggles we finally found a place where professionals took us seriously, listened to our concerns and helped us understand our children’s needs better. Dr Whitney Jenkins was extremely professional, understanding and through on the tests, analysis, interpretation of results and delivery of diagnosis. I recommend her to all parents who are interested in learning their children better.