Before Vision Therapy:
First, let me say that I’m over 40. My vision isn’t what it used to be. I have glasses to correct my eyesight, but I was still struggling with aspects of my vision. During an eye exam with Dr. Oakland, he really listened to my concerns and explained that eyesight is different from vision. He introduced me to vision therapy and said it’s not just for kids. Before therapy, I struggled with things like Scrolling on my phone & Reading tickers making me dizzy, and Focusing beyond closer objects. Also, I could not see into the future. Of course, I’m kidding, but Dakota Vision Therapy was very upfront with me about the realistic and logical expectations of the process before I started. Because we are all created differently, we will not all reach 100% perfect vision. But Oh My Goodness did I reach more than I expected.
After Vision Therapy:
During therapy, I learned that vision is not all in the eyes. Vision is your brain processing what your eyes are seeing. Sometimes that can get out of whack, and therapy helps realign it, even for old dogs like me.
I’ll be honest though, I didn’t quite understand half the exercises at the beginning, but here at the end, I’m seeing real results in things I didn’t think would be possible. My biggest achievement would have to be in the Pepper Arrows. I have no rhythm, so I was miserably horrible at it at first, but now I’m sailing through recognizing the direction from a distance, indicating the direction as I take a step forward or backward, and doing it to a beat of over 90 BPM.
Jordan and Alyssa (therapists) explained every exercise very well AND its purpose. Understanding how and why the exercises worked made it easier to stick with them. Their ingenious solutions to customize the exercises to my ability created tools I can use for the rest of my life to maintain my vision and keep it in peak condition, for my age.
Good Vision is a journey, and Therapy is a map.