More to Vision Therapy than meets the Eye.

When I am providing vision therapy with a patient, I have over the years practiced how to see the diagnosed vision problem as part of the total human being. Why? It is evident that my clinical interaction, what I say, how I comment on the patient's responses, has a deep impact on how the patient assimilates the experience. I recall in the beginning I thought that training eye movements was to get smoother eye movements. Also, increasing fusion was to build a stronger binocular system.

As I integrated other disciplines into my daily vision therapy practice, I observed myself speaking differently to the patient. Instead of my telling them things, I asked many more questions. I could change the procedure I was applying at any moment according to the patient's responses. More recently, I conducted vision therapy while the patient was wearing a HeartMan. The vision therapy procedures had a direct effects upon the autonomic nervous functioning of the patient. Anxiety or any kind of inability to deal with stress, led to a sympathetic dominance recorded on the HeartMan. Likewise, working with plus lenses and using relaxation practices gave increases in visual acuity and the a parasympathetic dominance resulted.

I have photographically represented this phenomena in the above photographic collage.The middle part of the photograph is the print out of the HeartMan recording. As a result of this kind of demonstration to my patients, I have a very high compliance with home based vision therapy that integrates the patients lifestyle of being less stressed. My patients see vision therapy as a lifestyle benefit in addition to what is happening at the level of the eyes. This also increases the referral level of patients.