OTA – The Koomar Center

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As one of the largest occupational therapy practices in the country, we are privileged to be able to provide services to clients experiencing a wide range of sensory processing difficulties. As we have grown over the last three decades, our goal has remained unchanged–to provide the highest quality occupational therapy and speech and language therapy services possible.

Please browse our website to find out more about sensory integration, our services, and our research initiative. We hope you will find it informative.

Our Founder

Jane Koomar, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
1954 – 2013

The late Dr. Koomar co-founded OTA-Watertown in Watertown Square in 1983, and it is now known as OTA The Koomar Center in Newton, Massachusetts. She served as President ot OTA as well as President of the Board of the Spiral Foundation. She was also a Professor of Practice at Tufts University, Boston School of Occupational Therapy. She completed her PhD in developmental psychology at Boston University where she was also an assistant professor in occupational therapy. In 1984 she studied with Dr. Jean Ayres, who developed the theory of sensory integration. Sadly Dr. Koomar passed away in February of 2013.

Dr. Koomar, an icon in her field, meant so much to so many people, and changed for the better the lives of thousands of children and their families. Many titles come to mind when trying to describe Dr. Koomar: mother, wife, visionary, entrepreneur, scientist, educator, author, mentor, and healer, but what probably describes Dr. Koomar best is not a title, but the sincerity and humanity of her actions. Her gift to see the strength in people by supporting them to be the best they can possibly be, and her selfless capacity to nurture the souls of those she taught, treated, and mentored is immeasurable. Dr. Koomar reached people in ways that no others could.

What our happy clients say

Thank you for your very kind note. In the absence of time, I wanted to send you a quick response to say THANK YOU. You have done an *exceptional* job with Brianna–going above and beyond, thinking outside the box, really getting to know her, and supporting us at every step of the way. You are a very talented person/OT, and we are lucky to have gotten the chance to work with you. Please know how appreciative we are of all that you have done for Brianna.

I think the report does an excellent job — better than I have ever been able to do — of explaining what I experience. It will be a great educational tool for any MD I see in the future. You are really the first person I’ve seen who has been able to really take in and understand what I’m saying in all of this.

Adult Client

Wanted to send a quick update on the past week. It’s hard for us to believe but Ellie has essentially slept through the night every night since last Wednesday. Wonder if we finally hit a turning point! Also she loved your thank you card and upon reading it told me “let’s read it every day” 🙂

Thanks again for changing things around for us. The OTA therapists have changed my child’s life just in the short time we have been there. We are so thankful.

Generally we think Jeff has improved a great deal – Because of you & OTA. Our lives have definitely changed for the better in the 15 months we have been here. He absolutely loves coming here. OTA has been unbelievably AMAZING!!!! We love OTA!!!

It has been an absolute pleasure to work so closely with (OTA consulting OT) over the past two days of our OT seminar! I have learned so much from her observations and feedback. She has also been able to easily identify students who present with sensory needs and has given concrete and constructive suggestions to teachers on how to best support these students in the classroom. Our teachers are reporting that this is an extremely beneficial seminar and that they feel empowered and educated by her consultations.