Kathy Abbott, PC

I have been a client/​patient with Dr. Abbot for nearly 10 years, and have had consistently positive experiences with her.
I initially went to Dr. Abbott because she offers EMDR, which I wanted to try, after a great deal of good quality but minimally helpful therapy with other providers over a number of years, because I was having trouble achieving improvements in my PTSD. Dr. Abbot was calm, quiet, reassuring, and explained how EMDR worked and what we would do. The EMDR sessions made a dent in my PTSD that no talk therapy had made.
We have done one-​on-​one talk therapy, where she has helped me with depression, anxiety, and the PTSD.
I resisted doing neurofeedback for a couple of years because it was not covered by insurance, but it was clear after a while that we had reached the limits of what better-​known approaches could achieve. We did twice-​weekly neurofeedback for several months and it broke the impasse that had been holding me back from better managing my anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Dr. Abbott provided readings and articles and titles to explore for more information about neurofeedback, its efficacy, the studies that demonstrated that the brain could be trained out of certain patterns, back *into* those patterns, and then back *out* of the patterns again. Although we were unable to find a protocol that fully addressed my migraines, the fact that my ability to perceive the world in more than black-​and-​white terms has improved so tremendously following neurofeedback has changed how I am able to interact with others including my children.
After my own improvements with neurofeedback, I took my daughter, age 7 at the time, to have work with neurofeedback on her anxiety. After a few months, my daughter returned to the happier, more carefree, less worried child she had been before a very tense kindergarten year.
My son, who has high-​functioning autism, also did neurofeedback with Dr. Abbott to help with his autism, ADHD, and perfectionism. He needed to have twice-​weekly sessions for over a year, but his ability to get started on a task, to persevere on a task, and his tolerance for frustration have all improved dramatically not only over the time he was receiving neurofeedback, but also since that time. We tried medicating him, and it was not sufficient to help him, but with the combination, the rate at which he improved in neurofeedback when he had the extra focus of the medications was dramatic; for us it was the combination of the two. He finished neurofeedback (for now) with a QEEG that looks much cleaner and less anxious and has become nearly independent on his homework most of the time.
I continue to go back for «tune-​up» appointments as I have flare-​ups. I suspect I will be a client/​patient with Dr. Abbott until one of us is no longer in the area; she has changed my life.

After initial assessment with EEG feedback, Dr. Abbott recommended neurofeedback therapy at $ 90 a pop, twice a week for up to six months, which would not be covered by insurance. I scheduled a follow-​up at which I asked lots of questions about the benefits: Are there randomized, double-​blind trials of this treatment? (No.) How do you know patients are getting better? (Subjective feedback.) Could other, less costly methods provide similar benefits? At this point, Dr. Abbott appeared annoyed and began escorting me to the door. When I offered to pay for the initial assessment, she said it would be $ 500. She had NEVER mentioned any fee for the assessment at any time. When I stared at her, unable to even respond, she practically shoved me out the door. She said, verbatim, «Get out of here,» and muttered something about the $ 13,000 she paid for the equipment. I really can’t assess the effectiveness of neurofeedback as a treatment modality, but I do not recommend this practitioner.