Hi, I’m Dr. Julie Steinhauer. In this video, I’d like to talk to you about a topic that’s kind of difficult to discuss but it’s actually really necessary. Let’s talk about this difficult topic, that if you are in any kind of sports, maybe you’re playing an instrument, maybe you’re in bodybuilding, you understand that it takes a certain level of commitment in order to achieve your end results in order to be good at what you’re doing.
Now vision therapy actually isn’t really any different. It takes a level of commitment in order to be in a vision therapy program and depending upon what type of program you’re in, there are some that can be a lot more rigorous than others. For instance, traumatic brain injury, stroke patients, who’ve lost vision, those are programs that are really difficult. It takes a lot of hard work. Maybe a strabismus or eye turn, that’s really, really, significant. Cases like amblyopia where it is really deep seated where eyesight is, maybe it’s 2,400 or maybe you’re not even seeing on the letter chart, maybe just counting fingers from a couple of feet away. Those are cases that are more challenging, which means that they’re going to require more of your time, more of your energy, and more of your positive mindset.
So when we’re working with patients, one of the very first things that we’re looking for is if that person is actually a good fit for our practice. If the individual is really having a hard time keeping the energy level up, they’re really down in the dumps about everything, sometimes that’s not a good fit for a vision therapy program.
Now I want to be careful there because we do understand that if you’ve lost vision or something like that, we absolutely know how upsetting that can be; how life altering it can be. How it can just change everything and how a person could end up having problems with keeping depression away and keeping their mood elevated. We certainly understand that. So I’m not necessarily saying that those individuals are not a good fit for vision therapy program. However, if you’re kind of a negative individual who’s constantly always battling negativity, then it probably is not going to be the right thing for you.
First of all, most of those individuals come to us saying, “I don’t know that you can help me. I’m not sure that there’s anything that can be done. I think my case is just too far gone, I’m too old. I’m too this. I’m too…” And that’s a mindset that’s very hard to drag up and say, “Yeah, we can help you. Yes, we can help you.” You know, our job is to actually correct your vision. It’s not necessarily to get your mindset to be in the right spot. That’s your job and so when you come to us, or go to any other forms of therapy, really you want to keep in mind that is super important for your mindset. I know it can be hard. I definitely know that it can be challenging. There’s lots of things that I’ve faced in my lifetime that have been super, ultra challenging that I’ve had to kind of dragged myself up from but it is something that’s super important and it is a choice to have a positive mindset on a day in and day out kind of a basis.
So when you are thinking about looking at something like a vision therapy program, perhaps with our clinic, then one thing I would tell you is, do you think you can do it? Do you think you can have the proper mindset? Do you think that you can put in the amount of work it’s going to take? Because sometimes, sometimes there are some things that we do in life, you know, maybe it’s a healing process that you’ve gone through something traumatic in your life and you’ve had to go through levels of healing for years. Sometimes you’re like, “Man, I feel like I’m putting in the work. I feel like I’m doing all of these things.” Maybe it’s an exercise program to get your body more healthy and you’re like, “Man, I’m putting in the time and I feel like I’m gaining weight or I’m not making any headway. The scale’s not changing. The body doesn’t look like it’s changing.”
Sometimes you feel like you do so many things and it just goes unnoticed, unchanged, seems like there’s not a significant amount of improvement for a period of time, until you reach a threshold and then it changes.Can you be that person who works consistently for a length of time, maybe not seeing as many results as you want to see, depending on your case, until all of a sudden you do?
I want you to think about these things. It’s actually really important and again, this is one of those videos kind of hard to talk about because we don’t want to be discouraging to anyone. We want everyone to realize that there’s definitely help for you and there is. But whether or not you can receive it mentally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, well, that is up to you.
So really think about what you’re getting yourself into when you make a commitment. Are you going to actually put the time into it? Will you actually put the energy into it? Will you actually put the mental space, psychological, emotional, spiritual, everything that needs to go into it for your healing to really truly occur?
If that’s you, we obviously want you to reach out to us. Our phone number for those who are local is (618) 288-1489. For those of you not local, go to our website at visionforlifeworks.com. You can either click schedule a consultation direct with me. We can talk about how we can help you with your vision, or you can click on the questionnaire button and that’s going to kind of take you through filling out some questions for us and then we’ll go into an email back and forth process with you.
Remember that no matter what you do in life, whether you’re trying to make a change in your mental kind of mindset, whether you’re trying to make a change with your overall body, maybe you’re trying to make a change for your life for the better, because of some trauma that you’ve gone through, or maybe you’re a healing from a car accident or a stroke, no matter what it is, that’s kind of your mountain, you have to look at it as though you’re going to reach the mountain top, always knowing that you’ll be successful. It just takes time and it takes the right mindset and it takes energy.