Comments from Past Residents:

"What I feel most privileged to have experienced during this SCO Vision Therapy Private Practice Residency was the continued/constant patient care that I was able to provide day in and day out. The sheer number of VT patient encounters was an invaluable experience. Coming out of optometry school, I felt unique in the sense that I had a very good didactic foundation of vision therapy from great faculty, as well as additional experience at a vision therapy private practice. The only thing missing was the opportunity to follow the patient through the entire therapy process lasting months or even years. Through the residency I came to appreciate each session, and each patient within that session, as I worked with them multiple times in a week. I was finally able to see the 'big picture' of VT and how it changed lives; I saw the progression of those lives changing. I knew the life-changing benefits that VT could provide, but until the residency, I never saw them full scope. Previously it was cases through reading showing merely numbers, ranges, and tracings on a page, and not a completely different person post-therapy now talking and interacting with you seamlessly. I got to witness the important stuff --the success stories were always the highlights.

"I also learned how a successful VT practice is run --all of its ins and outs. This was an opportunity I knew would be unique to a private practice VT residency. With a goal to start my own VT practice, the only fitting training would be exactly what I would strive for in my future. Through this residency, I studied everything necessary to provide an office where lives can be changed through VT. I certainly do feel like "one of the chosen few." I now have much more confidence in looking at someone through the eyes of a developmental optometrist and telling them with absolute passion that you can benefit in so many ways from VT. How to conduct therapy sessions, and most importantly, how to interact with the patient and parents is something I feel quite versed in now. Until reading numerous success stories, looking at VO Star tracings progressively improve, seeing Visagraph numbers sky rocket, I don't think I would have been able to fully appreciate all that goes into VT. I certainly would have discovered that in my future, but to be privileged and get this experience at such an early time was truly an honor.

"I now feel with confidence that I can start up my VT practice and immediately impact lives for the better. My residency in Vision Therapy and Vision Rehabilitation was a life-changing experience for myself and hopefully for all those I was able to interact with."

Tanner C. Gates, OD
2010-2011 SCO Resident at Appelbaum Eye Care Associates, PC
2010 graduate of NOVA