Karen L.
Four years ago my son was hospitalized three times for anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts. The psychiatrists prescribed drugs, and when those didn’t work they kept prescribing more drugs. His condition continued to get worse, and the doctors did not seem to be listening to us. After six months of hanging onto life by a thread, one of the psychiatrists told us that no drugs would work for him and they didn’t have anything else to offer. This was devastating to me, because I thought with all drugs there are on the market there should be a drug that would fix whatever was going on with my son. The psychiatrist recommended I contact Dr. Beurkens as a last resort to try to help him.
Dr. Beurkens changed everything. Unlike the numerous doctors we had seen, she wanted all the medical, school, and therapy reports I had from to birth to the present time. During our initial visit it was evident she had actually read all the documents and LISTENED to us. She quickly came up with a plan to help my son improve, and made it clear that we going to be working together to solve the problems. If something wasn’t working we would create a new plan.
We began giving my son nutritional supplements, changed his diet, and started LENS neurofeedback treatment. Almost immediately we started to see some improvements in mood and function. Slowly my son was weaned off all but one of his medications (he was on 4 when we began), and he continues to benefit from that at a very low dose. Dr. Beurkens was flexible to accommodate my work schedule and the sometimes urgent issues that came up with my son.
Since he was not able to attend traditional school, he met with a mentor at her office to assist with his online schooling and to be sure he was in a safe environment while I was at work. She had regular contact with his online school, counselor, and physician. Within the first few months I watched my son start functioning as a healthy person again. He began smiling, sleeping better, eating more, engaging in activities, and his sense of humor was returning. Dr. Beurkens and his mentor built an awesome relationship with him, and that made a huge difference.
Almost three years later my son is a happy teenager with a great sense of humor. He has returned to his high school and is dual enrolled in high school and college courses. He has the energy he needs to do everything he wants to do, and even has a part time job. Recently he was accepted to multiple colleges and plans to attend one of them full-time in the fall. I am forever grateful for the care he and our family have received at Horizons.