The Ross Center

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had any experiences, good or bad, with this center? In particular, I'm looking for a more intensive intervention for my 10 year old son who has severe anxiety comorbid with high functioning ASD. He currently sees a therapist and we have been working with a psychiatrist as well trying low doses of antidepressants (although none have worked yet), but with school avoidance we need a more focused intervention. He's always had anxiety (so this is not new), but it escalated greatly as his social awareness increased with age. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We have had extensive experience. They have some wonderful therapists. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a waiting list. If you can get in, I think you will be very happy.

[Anonymous]

My DD has been going there for years. I highly recommend them

[Anonymous]

Huge practice. Have had good experiences with medication management. Not sure whether it is possible to give a general yea/nay on the whole practice when there are so many different people.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and for school avoidance, Jonathan Dalton in Rockville specializes in that and is great.

[Anonymous]

We just had a bad experience there. Spent a good deal of time and money getting an eval, thinking that would point us in a more specific direction in terms of both the type of therapy and the names of therapists that could help us. Instead, we just got a rehash of some of what was in the records we provided, with no new insight and no recommendations for specific therapists or type of therapy. So it's back to square one, after $1200 and months of waiting to get in. Given their supposedly excellent reputation, we were beyond disappointed.

[Anonymous]

We also had a terrible experience with them but for an adult not a child. Basically after being their patient for a few yrs, they sent us on our way with a list of providers we needed a car to go see. At the time, we did not own a car.

This was with Drs Salcedo and Hirsch, the Medical and Clinical directors respectively. Had we not been at a crisis when they did this, we would have complained to the medical board.

A really horrible, cold-hearted practice who charge a premium for their services, they are obviously in it for the money.

[Anonymous]

I would contact Dr. David Black who is an expert on Asperger's and HFA.

http://caatonline.com

[Anonymous]

Awful, awful experience with severely anxious DS. Suffering from PTSD, panic attacks, really in bad shape. I explained all of this, then took DS to meet with them and explained it some more. Therapist had an awkward manner with DS, he had a panic attack, went running. Was crying and panicking in the hall, really raising a loud fuss and flailing around. Obv not OK, but that's what we were there to help! Which I told them about!

Therapist said she couldn't help us, left us on the floor in the hallway where DS was calming down and lying, crying in my lap. Had the nerve to send us a bill for $300. I called them and told them about our experience and that if they ever contacted me for the $ again, I would report them.

I would understand if they had told me on the phone that his needs were too great or to just come alone or something. DS has had years of therapy with different therapists. His current therapist had recommended Ross for more specific help on the panic attacks. The anxiety center can't handle anxiety?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Awful, awful experience with severely anxious DS. Suffering from PTSD, panic attacks, really in bad shape. I explained all of this, then took DS to meet with them and explained it some more. Therapist had an awkward manner with DS, he had a panic attack, went running. Was crying and panicking in the hall, really raising a loud fuss and flailing around. Obv not OK, but that's what we were there to help! Which I told them about!

Therapist said she couldn't help us, left us on the floor in the hallway where DS was calming down and lying, crying in my lap. Had the nerve to send us a bill for $300. I called them and told them about our experience and that if they ever contacted me for the $ again, I would report them.

I would understand if they had told me on the phone that his needs were too great or to just come alone or something. DS has had years of therapy with different therapists. His current therapist had recommended Ross for more specific help on the panic attacks. The anxiety center can't handle anxiety?!

Which therapist?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Wow 16:20 that is a terrible experience. I'm also glad that you posted because I think that's exactly how my DS would react. He's prone to panic and if he has no means of escape he'll completely melt down, which sets off as sensory reaction as well. We have a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a private school teacher working with him because he's currently not in school. He managed wonderfully in school with only a 504 for sensory issues until he hit 3rd grade and then the increased social and academic demands just sent him over the edge. His anxiety is THAT bad and we haven't yet found a medication that helps to make him more amenable to the many, many therapies we have tried (i.e. CBT, play therapy, neurofeedback training, etc.). We've tried them all, so I was thinking that maybe a center devoted to intense intervention for severe anxiety might be the next step, but I am so much more discerning now about finding actual value-added services that don't make things worse. He's been in various therapies since he was 5, so we've been doing this a long time. Whatever we take as the next step really needs to be meaningful support.

We run into difficulty in that the combination of HFA (what would have been PDD-NOS in the past) and severe anxiety makes any one type of therapy fall short. He doesn't warm up easily to people and exhibits extreme social anxiety and selective mutism as well. It's difficult for him to be so self-aware of his differences and he exhibits a lot of shame around that. But, the less he's out in the world with other kids, the worse his anxiety gets. I know that feeling when a professional just steps back and holds their hands up with a "Can't help you here" or "Not in my skill set." I've considered Ivymount, but I can't afford 65k a year in any sustainable way and if I tried to pursue a placement in Fairfax County I'd have to put him back in the system that I just took him out of because he had was having panic attacks even walking through the school doors (not to mention the fact that my school's SN support staff was not equipped to deal with the severity of his anxiety). I honestly feel like we're in a no-man's land when it comes to finding a real course of action.