Ellen was certified as an I.M. Provider in April
of 2005.
Her educational background includes:
B.S. in Nursing from Catholic University of America
B.S. in Biology from Mount St. Mary’s University.
Her professional experience (prior to having children) was 4 years of full-time
work as an R.N. in hospitals in DC, Maryland
and Virginia
in medical-surgical and critical care specialties.
Ellen and her husband are parents of 7 children
and 4 of them have special needs including learning disability, ADHD and
Tourette syndrome. They live in Montgomery Village,
MD.
Ellen has worked with dozens of clients since becoming certified.
Her
clients have ranged in age from 7 to 82 years old.
Let Me Share With You How IM Has Affected My Kids:
It all began with my 8
year old son.
He was diagnosed with ADHD in fall of 2004 (2nd grade), and completed a
trial of medication without significant improvement, so my husband and I chose
to take him off the medication. We were not interested in trying other
medications so I began to research IM after seeing improvements in my father
who was doing IM for his Parkinson’s disease. After reviewing the
IM research and case studies I decided to become certified in IM. My 8
year old finished a 15-session program with me as his trainer. We saw
significant improvement in his reading skills: he began to enjoy reading
whereas it had been a source of discouragement and frustration. His
teacher reported that he was able to get back on task with minimal cues and
caught up quickly to his classmates in all subject areas. Medications
weren’t necessary at that point in time and we consider IM a total success for
him. As a parent, his new found affection for reading means the world to
me and is worth all that I’ve invested in learning IM.
My 10 year old daughter has a learning disability that had severely
affected her reading. She had been below grade level in reading every
year despite weekly resource help and accommodations provided by her I.E.P.
(Individual Education Plan), summer school and all our best efforts to help
her. She completed the 12 session “Academic Plan” and immediately I saw
that she was able to begin applying her attack skills to difficult words while
reading. Her Resource teacher reflected about her progress: “Her
reading really improved and is much more fluent. I was very excited when I read
with her. It seems her work with you… really increased her skills.” She
too is now a willing reader and has remained “on-grade” level for reading on
her report card.
One of my 15 year old sons had Tourette syndrome and ADHD. He had
an I.E.P. since kindergarten to help him overcome those issues and the negative
impact on his academics. One full semester after completing IM, he no
longer qualified for either Special Education or an I.E.P.! He started
getting A’s and B’s in Honor’s classes (up from B’s and C’s). He has been
able to listen more attentively in class and has started taking better
notes. During tests, he says that he can spend more time on each problem
and that reading is easier now. I’ve seen an improvement in his
handwriting and a decrease in his Tourette symptoms (tics).
My 16 year old son had the same two diagnoses as his younger brother and
had a ‘504 Plan’ for accommodations to assist him in school since he was very
young. He completed the 15 session Treatment Plan after Freshman year in High School and even though his 504
Plan accommodations were discontinued, he got straight A’s in his Honors
classes the next quarter. Writing has always been difficult for him and I
was very impressed by the improvement I saw. He also noticed that he
didn’t over-react or get angry as often and says that it seemed to be easier to
interact with others socially. (He recently graduated and was ranked 11th out of his class of almost 400.) Both boys were able to sit down and
complete their high school homework with little difficulty amidst the
constant noise and activity of our busy household. They decreased the amount of Ritalin they take for their ADHD, but they continue to get
outstanding grades, and feel that the IM Training has significantly helped
them.