Epilepsy Experts


Donna Andrews, Ph.D.

Neuropsychologist Donna Andrews is the co-director of the Andrews-Reiter Epilepsy Research Program in Santa Rosa, California. She is a pioneer in the use of behavioral therapy to treat epilepsy.

Dr. Andrews is the author of Taking Control of Your Epilepsy, a comprehensive guide for patients seeking to halt their seizures. Her work has been published in numerous medical journals, including Seizure, and in respected collections of medical research, including Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Epilepsy, edited by neurologists Orrin Devinsky, Steven Pacia, and Dr. Steven Schachter, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Andrews and Harvard-trained neurologist Joel Reiter, co-director of the A-R Research Program, were the first doctors in the country to make several critically important medical discoveries about epilepsy. Through their research, they found that seizures have definite triggers, pressure factors in a patient's life that spark an attack. Doctors had previously believed that epileptic attacks struck randomly.

With further research, Andrews and Reiter showed that seizure triggers do not have to be physical pressures. They can also be emotional. Stress, anger, fear and shock, they demonstrated, can also spark seizures in epileptics.

Applying these discoveries, the Andrews-Reiter clinic teaches epileptics several key skills. Patients learn to recognize their auras, the physical cues that a seizure is beginning. And patients learn to recognize their triggers, the emotional and physical pressures that spark seizures in epileptics.

Dr. Andrews has shown that if a patient identifies his auras and responds with focused relaxation instead of panic, he can stop his brain's electrical misfirings before those misfirings become full-blown seizures.

To establish long-term health, at their clinic in California, Andrews and Reiter start patients on the path to resolving the emotional pressures that trigger their seizures.

In 30 years of treating epileptics with this approach, Dr. Andrews has helped thousands of patients halt their seizures, many of whom were considered refractory, or untreatable, cases. Her work has drawn global recognition and been called "an important step forward in the treatment of epilepsy."

Dr. Andrews' interest in epilepsy came from personal experience. As a child, she suffered from debilitating seizures. Doctors told her there was nothing she could do beyond taking medication. Refusing to accept that prognosis, Andrews began researching the medical condition and investigating its function in her body, explorations that led to the Andrews-Reiter methods.

Today Dr. Andrews has been seizure-free for over 40 years and has been off all medication for several decades. She continues to treat patients, as well as lecture about the A-R approach at medical facilities across the U.S., Europe and Canada.

Siegward Elsas, M.D.

Neurologist Siegward Elsas is a fellow at the Friedrich-Husemann Hospital for Integrative Psychiatry in Buchenbach, Germany, and an internationally recognized expert in the treatment of epilepsy.

Dr. Elsas served as an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Sciences University, where he conducted pioneering research into electrophysiology and sensory perception, including an examination of the triggers of epileptic seizures. He studied neurology at UCLA and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a practicing physician, Dr. Elsas has spent years treating patients with the Andrews-Reiter behavioral approach. He works with patients whose seizures continue despite medication, helping them develop introspective accounts of their seizures. Dr. Elsas urges his patients to write seizure diaries, in which they record the story of each seizure, including their thoughts and feelings just before an attack.

Dr. Elsas found that by writing these journals, patients began seeing connections between triggers and attacks, realizing then how to alter their behavior to prevent additional seizures.

Combining these behavioral approaches with EEG and heart rate analysis, Dr. Elsas has been pushing the Andrews-Reiter techniques to the next level, in the process helping numerous patients stop their seizures.

In 2005 the National Institutes of Health honored Dr. Elsas for his research with the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award.

Patients and Families


Joshua Kors

Joshua Kors is an investigative reporter for The Nation, where he covers health issues.

He is the winner of the National Magazine Award, George Polk Award, IRE Award, the National Press Club's Hume Award, the Mental Health Media Award and many others. He was also a finalist for Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, and the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism.

His reporting on health issues has been featured on PBS, CNN and the BBC. He also collaborated with ABC News' Bob Woodruff on "World News Tonight" and "Nightline" investigations, part of a series on health issues in the military, which won the Peabody Award.

Kors has testified twice before the U.S. Congress, in July 2007 and September 2010, and his health reporting has sparked multiple investigations by the Pentagon.

He has written extensively about his own epilepsy, detailing how the Andrews-Reiter techniques helped him stop his seizures and dramatically improve his health.

To learn more about Kors' experience with the Andrews-Reiters approach, click here. A version of the same article aimed at younger readers is also available here.

Conference Directors


John Park and Ellen Novack

John Park and Ellen Novack are the directors of Epilepsy Conference Toronto, a gathering of families, patients and medical professionals interested in the Andrews-Reiter approach to epilepsy.

Park and Novack became active in the epilepsy community after their son Trevor began having seizures at the age of 13. The family's effort to get Trevor the medical care he needed proved complicated. Park and Novack brought their son to several neurologists, with mixed results.

When Park and Novack learned about the Andrews-Reiter behavioral approach to epilepsy, they flew to California to meet with Dr. Donna Andrews. Trevor began treatment at the Andrews-Reiter Epilepsy Research Center soon after, and in the months since his treatment, his health has improved dramatically.

Trevor's recovery spurred Park and Novack to organize ECT, a conference where both neurologists and families can learn more about the A-R approach.

Park has worked in the health field for many years. In 1995 he founded the Canadian Medical Network, an international health management company that helps clients navigate the global healthcare system. Novack had a public relations company, Grand Events, and is now working on a gardening book.

The couple have three children.