By Thomas Lecoq
Why do some ODs go through the challenging post-doctoral training required to provide effective vision therapy? The best of them don’t do it for the money, although that is a wonderful side effect. They often do this because it is deeply satisfying work. Changing the lives of patients for the better is the work of angels. That is what Lecoq Practice Development is all about. It is our indirect way of participating in angelic work.
Increasing the number of people who need vision therapy, who actually receive it is the whole point of our Mastering the Art of Vision Therapy Communications course. David Cook attended our course some years ago. And after, he wrote the following on a popular VT OD site. No one has said why an OD should take this course better than Dr. Cook.
By David Cook:
"In practice, it's so easy to let little things drop out. I attended Thomas Lecoq's seminar this weekend and realized one of the little things I'd forgotten: Vision problems often come connected to persons.
Years ago in the COVD Journal I wrote a article for which I received the Optometric Editor's Association award "best non-technical article". The name of the article was something about "eyesight and the human heart." The gist of the article was that we aren't treating people with broken eyes. We are treating people with broken hearts.
When I got back to my practice I could hear those broken hearts speaking. One father called to say that his son turned his head to the side sometimes when he was reading. The father told me he had been to an optometrist and an ophthalmologist and that both had said there was no vision problem. A week ago, I would have explained to the father that a head-turn often suggests a problem with two-eyed seeing.
Instead, I asked, "How is your son's reading?"
The father sounded as if he were falling through the receiver as he said, "Not good!" His voice soft, he shared his concern. I week ago I would have told them the two-eyed vision problems, such as the one suggested by the head turn, often make reading difficult. Instead I said, "I imagine your son is upset."
The father said he was. The tone of the father's voice suggested that the child was not the only one. I asked, "And I imagine your wife (homeschool mother) is pretty frustrated.
She was. As the father put it, "She tells me about it EVERY night!" There was no reason to bring up the fact the father was a bit upset by his wife's frustration.
I said, "I need to see your son."
I asked where they lived. They named a town ninety minutes away. There was NO talk about the drive. Smoothest appointment I ever made.
I used to say, "At Cook Vision Therapy Center we are Changing People's Lives." Back then I still understood what I was saying. My eyes used to mist up when I said it.
I'd like to thank Thomas Lecoq for putting the tears back in my eyes. Thanks for the reminder of the little something I'd carelessly let drop out: My reason for being in practice."
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David Cook is one of the leading lights in developmental optometry and I am privileged to count him among my friends. I hope you will arrange to attend the course Dr. Cook attended. It is available as a group course, or you can have Amee Lecoq come and deliver it to your whole staff. My hope is that it will breathe life into your practice in an inspiring way that brings out the best in every member of your team. And, fills your therapy room with happy patients, on their way to a great life.