Special Events

2nd British Natural Eyesight Conference Date: 29-31 October 2010 Location: Felden Lodge, Felden, Hertfordshire  (near London, England)  Theme: "Children and Eyesight" On Saturday morning Esther will talk about  Focus on Children's Eyes - Dr. Bates & Emily's legacy  of vision work with the young ones. (Read the lecture description here) And on Sunday night Esther will lead a workshop on Astigmatism - How to regain muscle balance  (Read the workshop description here) The theme for the 2nd British Natural Eyesight Conference "Children and Eyesight" is taken from a natural eyesight perspective.  it will include topics such as myopia (shortsight), hyperopia (long sight) strabismus (squints) and other conditions. In today's world of intense school work, use of computers at home and at school, mobile phones texting, etc. and less time spent outdoors children are being bombarded with visual information. More and more children seem to be in glasses or contact lenses from an ever increasing young age with the promise that all can be sorted with surgery - either corrective or laser - 'when you are old enough'.  Sometimes doing corrective surgery for squints improves the cosmetic side, but doesn't sort out how the brain uses the 'seeing' side of vision. Most of the time it may just be due to tiredness and not giving the visual system time to rest and recover before the next onslaught of watching TV or computer games, or the use of screens in school instead of the old fashioned green or blackboards. Coming from a Bates Method of natural eyesight viewpoint - the basis of which is light, rest, movement, memory and imagination - this forward looking conference is aimed for all parents, teachers, and others who are interested in learning more about natural eyesight methods and ways to prevent deterioration and improve eyesight. For more information go to: www.bnec.org.uk I look forward to seeing you there! (back to top)

2nd BNEC Conference, Saturday morning lecture: Focus on Children's Eyes Dr. Bates & Emily's legacy of vision work with the young ones. Presented by Esther Joy van der Werf Dr. Bates and Emily worked together for many years to improve the eyesight of children.  You will learn about their work with school children, their results with children at the clinic, and their great love for these young ones.  Bates said that all children under the age of 16 who had not yet worn glasses, could be cured within one year, and often would be cured in just a few days or weeks.  You'll find out how he did that. Esther will also give examples from her own work of teaching the Bates method to children.   Hopefully you too will be inspired to continue Dr. Bates and Emily's legacy; the delightful work of helping children to keep or regain their perfect eyesight.  (back to top)

2nd BNEC Conference, Sunday evening workshop: Astigmatism - How to regain muscle balance A workshop with Esther Joy van der Werf Astigmatism is a very common vision problem.  As many as three in ten children between the ages of 5 and 17 are diagnosed with it and many wear glasses to 'correct' it.  A number of studies have found that the prevalence of astigmatism increases with age.  The use of lenses obviously does not help much, if at all, to reduce this problem.  I believe as Dr. Bates did, that astigmatism is the result of an imbalance between the muscles around the eyes.  Undue strain on a combination of the recti and oblique muscles creates a lopsided eyeball which results in seeing straight lines blurry at some angles of vision. This workshop will look at how that imbalance begins, and at how to regain muscle balance so that the astigmatism reduces or clears and vision improves.  We will go over the techniques that Dr. Bates used with his patients and also draw from the research on astigmatism by Elliott Forrest OD. (back to top)

A Talk on Natural Eyesight Improvement  Learn what to do for your eyes when vision gets blurry.  (1 hour) Next date: to be announced Location: The Oaks Spa  122 East Ojai Avenue Ojai, CA 93023 FREE to attend for anyone. (back to top)

^Kate Keilman, Esther, Gladys Bennet & Theo Copley. Jacob Liberman demonstrating his new EYE-port >

<  Roberto Kaplan from Austria talks about strabismus v  Deborah Banker, Martin Sussman, Dror Schneider and Carol Gallup responding to audience questions during a panel Q&A

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