Private Vision Improvement Lessons

• Information on Private Appointments with Elizabeth Abraham
• Information on Private Appointments with Rosemary Gaddum Gordon

Private Lessons with Elizabeth Abraham

Elizabeth Abraham   (Read Bio)
Vision Education Centre
339 Bloor Street W. #215
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 1W7
(416) 599-9202
elizabeth@visioneducators.com

Private lessons are individually designed to suit your needs. During the course of the one-on-one 90 minute lessons, we explore your vision history and goals, discover how you are using your eyes in various situations, and what you need in order to right the imbalance in your visual system.

I am a teacher, not an eye doctor. I do not look into the back of your eyes, diagnose, or prescribe glasses. My aim is to help you understand how the way you are currently using your eyes might be contributing to your vision difficulties, and to teach you healthy, relaxed vision habits that can enable you to see more comfortably and clearly no matter what your vision condition.

What happens in the lessons?

My approach to vision improvement is based on the work of Dr William Bates, who found that healthy vision is relaxed, dynamic and vibrant, and that eyes that see clearly move freely and are connected to a curious, interested mind.

Habits of strain in the eyes and mind are unconscious and often deeply engrained. My role as a teacher is to help you see your current habits and to support you while you learn to use your eyes in a dynamically relaxed way during all your waking hours.

As well as the Bates Method, I find other modalities helpful depending on the particular needs of the student.

Perhaps your eyestrain or blurry vision is related to neck tension or tightness in other parts of your body. In this case I might help you relax with some gentle bodywork and exercises, or teach you some acupressure techniques you can do for yourself.

The mind plays a huge role in vision and needs to be receptive in order for vision to be clear. Anxiety and stressful thoughts play havoc with the body by upsetting the chemical balance and disturbing natural functioning. As part of your journey toward clear vision we might need to find ways to calm and centre your mind/body. I teach a process called Focusing (www.focusing.org), which helps facilitate the mind/body connection. I also teach The Work of Byron Katie (www.thework.com) to help release stressful thoughts that might be interfering with clarity in your vision and in your life.

How many lessons will I need?

It takes time to discover what works for you, then dedication to continue to put into practice what you have learned. During private lessons we explore all aspects of vision improvement and discover where you need to focus in order to help you improve your vision. Then I support you in your process. Since each person is unique, it is not possible to know in advance how long the process will take.

Private lessons and/or group classes

Many people prefer the privacy and flexibility of individual lessons, and others learn best when they can share experiences with classmates. Whether you decide on private lessons or group classes or workshops will depend on your schedule, your finances, and on your own learning style. Please click here for the Events and Workshops page of this website.

Lessons for children are for 60 minutes. They learn through games and activities, and do well one-on-one. I also work with the parents and teach them how to encourage their children in good vision habits that will serve them for a lifetime.

Private Lessons with Rosemary Gaddum Gordon

Rosemary Gaddum Gordon, DBO, MA   (Read Bio)
Lightwater
43 Mast Cove Road
Eliot, Maine USA 03903
(207) 439-9821

And at:
Cambridge Health Associates
335 Broadway
Cambridge Massachusetts 02139
(617) 354-8360
rosemary@visioneducators.com
cambridgehealthassociates.com

My vision improvement work is firmly rooted in the fundamental premise of the Bates Method - good vision is relaxed vision. When the eyes are relaxed they move freely and easily and see more clearly.

The first lesson is usually two hours long. We will explore the history of your vision and evaluate how you are using your eyes. I will propose a plan and teach you some techniques helpful to your particular vision issues. My aim is for you to leave with a sense of this work and how it might be relevant to you and your goals.

I am not a doctor. I do not look in the back of your eyes, diagnose illnesses or prescribe glasses. I am interested in how you use your eyes, your mind and your body in your usual visual activities and what stressful habits you have adopted that are impacting your vision. If you decide to pursue Holistic Vision Improvement, the subsequent sessions are generally ninety minutes long. All children's lessons are one hour long. The number of sessions you may need will depend on your goals and other factors which we can discuss.

I find that other techniques are extremely beneficial in accelerating the process of recovering good eyesight. The four that I use most frequently are: CranioSacral Therapy(1) to bring more space to the body, especially the head and spine; Acupressure to allow the Chi to move more freely through the meridians and bring direct relief to the eyes from strain and fatigue; Self Regulation Therapy(2) as a way to relieve stress; Focusing(3) to dialogue with the body and explore more of the content behind the stress. During other lessons we may review your office furniture and its arrangement or walk outside to optimize and incorporate your new visual habits. The aim of the lesson is always the same: clearer, more comfortable vision.

Seeing from the Core(4) is another integral aspect of my approach. What I've noticed is that people's bodies change as they effort to see. It appears as a coming forwards, as if they are reaching out with their eyes. Sometimes they actually lean forward with the whole body, or they reach out with their chins; sometimes the body change seems to be on a more energetic level, as if there is energy coming out through the eyes. As people learn to relax this no longer happens. Eyes that are comfortable and not straining appear to sit easily in the head. They appear more settled, more alive and connected to something deeper inside. This is Seeing from the Core and helps you gain the felt sense of relaxed, clear vision so you can better integrate it into your daily life.

1. www.upledger.com
2. See paragraph below *
3. www.focusing.org
4. The Reptilian Brain, Dissociation and Seeing from the Core by Rosemary Gaddum Gordon.

*Self Regulation Therapy

I also do Self Regulation Therapy separately from my work with vision. Life is stressful. We can feel it in the body/mind. The nervous system has a built-in method of managing and processing the stress. When this method is thwarted for some reason, the stress response cannot complete itself and the activation is stored.

SRT works by relieving the nervous system of excess activation. When the nervous system is overly activated we can feel anxious and stressed or hopeless and exhausted. By carefully following the sensations in the body, we can track the natural stress cycle and slow it down. This allows the cycle to complete itself, a little bit at a time so that the activation is released.

Some people have experienced many traumas in their lives. It is often not necessary to work directly on the most severe in order to obtain relief. By working with a fall, a car accident or a medical or dental event, the nervous system is drained and there is space in the container for more joy and ease.

For more information, please go to www.cftre.com .