Dean Doering & Associates: Dana Dean Doering

Oct 9th, 2019

I hired Dana Dean Doering to assist me when my son was in crisis at a program recommended by other consultants. At the time I contacted her, we were in a time crunch for expert recommendations in an exceedingly complex case. Dana jumped into my son's case immediately, helping with necessary and expert information, recommendations, and working with me to provide an alternative to a team of professionals that simply had been unable to grasp my son's specific and critical needs. There are so many valuable things I can say about Dana -- I should add ours is a blended family; my ex-husband and I were at very serious odds about how to proceed with my son's treatment and care. We were 2,500 miles away from home. The stress of this situation for my son was horrendous, and worst of all, utterly unnecessary. Much of it was due to professionals digging into individual positions that were either factually incorrect or based upon less than complete information. Trying to navigate this as a mother (with my own professional expertise in these areas) was inordinately difficult. In a situation where multiple professionals were acting in ways that were at best, less than professional in adhering to individual viewpoints, Dana stood out as the singular voice who focused only on what was best for my son, without ego. She performed work so far beyond the time for which I had paid her, developing expert recommendations for my son that were current, in-depth, expertly researched, and most of all - designed individually for his very critical needs at that time- needs that had been misdiagnosed by other professionals. In doing so, she acted with integrity and grace, never alienating anyone in what became something of a quagmire of expert "weighing in" and disagreement. Dana was able to discuss and help others to see my son's complexities from 3 very critical viewpoints - neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurocognitive. While others had only the expertise and bandwidth to look at him from one of these approaches, this resulted in treatment and approaches that did not work and were, at best, under-informed. Dana's entry into the case finally allowed us, but most importantly my son some very necessary and invaluable expertise, as well as common sense, and compassion. Ours may be a unique situation, but perhaps not. Parents are highly stressed when their children are in crisis. The level of stress all parties were under demonstrated what kind of person Dana Doering is. She is a true and committed professional whose only focus is what is best for your child. She was always available whenever I called, or she let me know immediately when she could speak. She did not adopt the conclusions of other professionals in a complex case, but looked at it fresh with expert eyes, and she made all the difference. Dana stays above the fray and tells it like it is, but does so with genuine concern and compassion. Because of her medical and psychiatric background, she is likely the best educational consultant in the U.S. for complex cases. She was recommended to my as such, after 2 other consultants, working with my ex-husband, were unable to take any issue with my son's program, other than that espoused by its owner. I can honestly say that I believe the recommendations I received to contact Dana were absolutely true, and I do not know what we would have done without her. My son is on the autism spectrum, with co-occuring mental health issues. Dana is the only person in literally 20 years who was able to take all his testing, diagnoses, symptoms, and current challenges, and present a cohesive picture of where he had been, why, and what he really needed. To say this was a lifesaver is an understatement. She also went out of her way to speak with other people who had worked with my son in the past in order to get the most complete picture possible. I am grateful beyond words to have found Dana when I did. I recommend her in the highest possible way and without any reservation. You and your child will be in the best possible hands.
Sep 8th, 2020

This is a most positive and appreciative review. We have worked with Dana Doering through many difficult transitions. Having a child with special learning needs and a psychiatric treatment journey to navigate, we would have made many less than optimal choices if we had not had Dana’s guidance. Her relevant, up to date information, her understanding of the teachers, therapists, leadership, repeatedly helped us to make the right decisions more than once; in fact we have worked with her across a 12 year time span. The most recent crisis we needed to have her guidance on was in 2019—and she was even more informed and more current on the often changing psychiatric research. Knowing that Dana is a leading consultant with IECA, and a leader in many other professional organizations, it is a comfort to us as parents to know that she is completely objective and not beholden to any school or program—she does not receive any compensation and indeed worked for US—which as divorcing parents helped us to be confident at a difficult time. We contacted IECA and learned of the high ethical standards, and were assured that she was a member in good standing. We are also assured of this by many of her colleagues whom we contacted, and by the professionals in the programs we have worked with over this past decade. Dana is a most creative and innovative thinker. She looks at complex situations with a fresh eye.Through our divorce, needing to reparent together, choosing teen and young adult schools and treatment—we are more accurate and educated as parents, and have seen our son become a healthier and achievement oriented young adult.
Dec 26th, 2019

Dana Dean Doering is a wealth of knowledge and support and we could not be more grateful to her for the guidance and insights she offered while we were making the challenging decisions of whether or not our boys needed additional support outside of our state, and what programs could best provide the unique supports each one of our boys needed. Dana is very well versed and knowledgeable about the different options throughout the United States and which programs are the best fit for specific challenges a child is having. We fully trusted Dana, and the options she presented were very much in line with our needs, and we could not be happier with the outcome and the experiences our boys had at the respective programs they were at. We recommend Dana, and will continue to do so, to any families who are in the very challenging and stressful position of figuring out the best next step for their son or daughter who is struggling after exhausting all of their local therapeutic options. Dana gave us hope, insight, understanding, experience and a depth of knowledge that was most helpful to us during this very difficult time. We would not be where we are today without her help – she truly cares about these kids and the families she serves.
Jun 20th, 2019

We contracted with Dana Dean Doering as an Educational Consultant to assist us with finding support for our daughter and family in the areas of education, mental health therapy, and substance abuse counseling in anticipation of her returning home from treatment. Clear expectations and needs were defined, along with a timeline for progress. We contracted with them for services and paid $7,750 to include a full year of follow-up support. After the first 10 days of no communication, I emailed Dana to ask for status. Their response had us confused with another potential client and made clear that they had done nothing toward our contracted goals -because they thought I was someone else. After we spoke and cleared that up, we again clarified our expectations and needs. Dana assured me by email and by phone that they could provide the services, as expected, according to our timeframe. Another week went by and we heard nothing. When I emailed to ask for progress, she scheduled a call, upon which we learned that she'd visited our daughter, without our knowledge or permission, at the residential treatment center out of state. This was highly inappropriate and surprising to us, our daughter, and the treatment team... but we continued to be optimistic about her ability to assist us, and so we tried to move forward. On subsequent calls, and by email, we communicated exactly what we needed, but she failed to provide any information or service except for a sloppy google doc, with irrelevant information, and a continued suggestion that we hire someone else (whom I suspect she receives a kickback from?) for services that were not requested nor needed. Each update consisted of her advising that she left messages and was waiting for calls back from the schools, clinics, and services providers from whom we'd requested information. We asked for Dana to clean up the documentation and focus on the areas of support we'd clearly and consistently asked for, so she had an assistant build an excel file to be more organized. A week later, we learned that she expected us to fill this out (partially because she didn't know how to use excel) with the research and information that we'd hired her to provide. After two months, when the timing of our needs was absolutely critical, we made the phone calls, set up appointments, completed the research and secured every service we needed ourselves in a 5-day period... absolutely without any assistance or useful research or information from Dana Dean Doering. We requested a refund of 10 months service, which she declined, stating her fees are nonrefundable, but she'd be glad to charge us her hourly rate for services provided at a total of $27,125.00. I believe at one time, Dana may have had good information on schools, education resources, therapeutic and counseling services. However currently, her information is limited and dated, it is not thorough or accurate, and her communication is chaotic, unclear, and she confuses clients and details easily. For $7,750 she completely wasted our money and good faith at a time when we most needed a trusted advocate as an Educational Consultant.
Apr 23rd, 2019