On and Off The Spectrum
How do families react, respond and reorganize after receiving a potentially life altering physical or mental health diagnosis, either for themselves or for someone they love? Dr. Esther Hess and Dr. Ann Kirsch, two experienced and well-known psychotherapists offer strategies, guidance and realistic hope through some of the toughest times that families can face.
Episodes
21 episodes
Where Have All The Male Therapists Gone?
Drs. Hess and Kirsch sit down with Dr. Seth Kurzban, a community mental health social worker. based in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Kurzban approaches this question from his own personal and professional experience and relates the way children are bein...
An Inclusive House of Worship: Our Conversation with Pastor Joshua Hernandez Montoya
Drs. Hess and Kirsch sit down this evening with pastor Joshua Hernandez Montoya who leads God's Pueblo; a bi-lingual, inclusive and all inviting Christian church that offers support to the neuro-divergent community, to those who are gender flui...
Dr. Laura Hernandez: A Pediatrician Who Meets Her Patients Where They're At
Drs. Hess and Kirsch sit down with Dr. Laura Hernandez, a very knowledgeable and thoughtful pediatrician, addressing the complexities of raising today's child. She also addresses her experience as a clinician of color and how her patients ackno...
Think Again Foundation: A Foundation of Hope for Families with Children Recovering from Cancer
Drs. Hess and Kirsch interview Dr. Patty Kerrigan, founder and CEO of Think Again Foundation. An organization that offers families the necessary support services during and following recovery from cancer treatment.
The Relief of a Mid-life Diagnosis of ADHD
In this episode of On and Off the Spectrum, David Richmond joins Drs. Hess and Kirsch from the UK to share his deeply personal journey toward a mid-life diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. For years, David lived with patterns...
Overcoming oral defensiveness: Supporting the neuro-diverse dental patient
Drs. Hess and Kirsch meet with pediatric dentists Bernard Gross and Michael Kleinman who offer tips and strategies to support the special needs child and their parents navigating oral phobias and sensory sensitivities.
Binge Eating Disorder: Discovery and recovery
Drs. Hess and Kirsch sit down with Ilana Zackon with a candid conversation about her own experiences with Binge Eating Disorder. She enlightens the audience to how common eating disorders are ignored or misdiagnosed and how she fought her way b...
Adoption Competency: How to Distinguish Normal Developmental Challenges from Adoption-Trauma Behaviors
Dr. Esther Hess and Dr. Ann Kirsch together discuss the complex issues of how adoption trauma often manifests itself as maladaptive survival strategies, with guidance for differentiating these maladaptive behaviors from age-appropriate developm...
Depression, Medication and Pregnancy: Separating Fear from Fact
The pros and cons of anti-depressant medication during pregnancy are thoughtfully explored as Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie discuss the quandary that women often find themselves in; what to do if you want to get pregnant, think you might be pregnant an...
Healthy Parenting Tips in a Technologically Complex World
Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie discuss a recent article written by Rahm Emmanuel, on the specific strategies that he and his wife used to raise their three children. Offered are tips that minimize technology at the dinner table, stress the importance of...
The Hidden Risks of AI for Vulnerable Minds
Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie together discuss the merits and the dangers of unregulated AI as it relates to excessive exposure and tech addiction within the special needs population. Please note: This episode includes discussion of ...
Fact not Fiction: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Vaccines and Medication
Dr. Esther Hess and Dr. Ann Kirsch conduct an in-depth conversation with noted child psychiatrist Dr. Milena Kaufman, exploring the concerns raised by parents as they navigate current best practice recommendations for caring for their children ...
Beyond First Impressions
Why Diagnoses Don't Define Potential: Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie sit down with inventor and entrepreneur Taylor Cole for an insightful and at times hilarious discussion that refines the saying 'Don't Judge a Book by its Cover'. A candid discussion t...
The Misdiagnosis of ADHD: Alternative Causes and Strategies for Families
A lot of times ADHD masquerades as something else. Drs. Hess and Kirsch discuss among themselves various conditions mimicking ADHD and offer tips and strategies from their own case files to clarify what is really going on in the brains of our c...
When Children are Exposed to Trauma
What Parents Can Do: Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie have a timely discussion between themselves as they review 4 tragic and traumatic world events that occurred within 12 hours of each other towards the end of 2025. Guidance is offered to parents on how...
Music to Soothe the Soul: Autism and Addiction
Drs. Hess and Kirsch sit down with Jessica Kligman, a Music therapist who uses her craft to help regulate and organize children with developmental delays as well as men struggling to overcome their addiction to alcohol. This podcast provides ex...
The journey from artist to art therapist to DIR: Floortime Interventionist
Join our conversation with Marissa Cytryn as she describes her progression from being an artist to using art as a core therapeutic tool to form relationships with special needs children.
Invisible on the Spectrum
Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie have a heart-to-heart discussion with Mary Kate and her mother Patricia regarding Mary Kate's long road to getting accurately diagnosed as a woman impacted by Autism Spectrum. Both mother and daughter recall the severe cha...
A Family's Experience with Sunflower Syndrome
Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie expand on their initial interview with Uma Nambiar when they sit down to speak with Sanjay and Priya Nambiar, the parents of twin girls who contracted a rare genetic disorder at age 3 years and their 8-year, relentless jou...
The Sun and Me: My Journey with Sunflower Syndrome
Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie interview college freshman Uma Nambiar. She has just written a children's book about her and her twin's experience with a rare genetic disorder, from diagnosis to successful treatment. A rare 'child's eye view' of what it'...
Not Dead Yet: A Story of Resilience and Recovery
A Story of Resilience and Recovery; Dr. Ann and Dr. Estie interview Rabbi Robbi Tombosky as he describes his near-death experience post Covid, and the road back to recovery. Discussion centers on the strategies he used, the people he relied on ...