LECTURE

Protecting our binocular vision through space

Our eyes were designed to move, to search, to scan, to alternate distances. They move even when they appear to be still. A healthy set of eyes depend on a curious and inquisitive brain, always looking for novelty. So, what happens when novelty is not out there anymore?

We are facing a confinement of our horizon to the distance of a computer screen, imprinting an extra stress on the visual system. Our brain is built to work in a survival mode, always looking for the fastest adaptation according to the environment’s demands. A decrease in the flexibility of our accommodative system that may affect the quality of binocular vision is one of these “handy” adaptations that may lead to consequences as different kinds of suppression and errors of refraction.

How can we help, as visual therapists, so that the adaptations may be mostly favorable?

WORKSHOP

Opening space to see

The construction of our relationship with space is very important to functional visual balance. It is something that contemporary life style has taken from us: space to be, space to see, to appreciate, to choose.

Functional visual problems, like most refractive errors and their relation to binocular dysfunctions, can be an adaptive result of a perceptual mismatch of visual space. I intend, in this workshop, to explore this theme, showing the intimacy between the quality of binocularity and refractive errors, and suggest procedures in visual therapy.

Fernanda Leite Ribeiro, Brazil

She's an optometrist, vision educator, and Self-Healing practitioner/educator certified by the School for Self-Healing (San Francisco, CA –USA). She has a degree in Behavioral Optometry by Instituto Thea ( Florianópolis, Brazil) in collaboration with the Sanet – Vision Seminars ( San Diego- CA, USA). She is a Fellow of the College of Syntonic Optometry (USA)