Mind-Body-World Optometry:
Envisioning Better Holistic Vision Care
Jul 31, 2023 09:31AM ● By Erin Lehn
Natural Awakenings Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess NY
In-Print Spotlight brief August 2023
For more than 19 years, Behavioral Optometrist Dr. Samantha Slotnick has been helping her patients open their eyes to an enhanced way of seeing and perceiving their world. With ongoing study and training, she has continued to grow and develop as a clinician. Her Scarsdale, New York, practice has been evolving along with her. This unique, holistic mode of vision care draws upon Slotnick’s psychology roots and training in visual-motor development, along with her regard for the impact of vision on posture, balance and gait. It also incorporates her understanding of how lenses can shape light and space to instantly enhance one’s view of the world.
Left: Dr. Slotnick and a special friend who gifted the office with a weighted shoulder-snake (now used during vision therapy to separate head movement from body movement). Right: Dr. Slotnick employing techniques for vision and gait with a patient.
Slotnick is excited to announce her continued service to the Westchester community as the clinical director of Mind-Body-World Optometry, an integrative center for holistic eye and vision care, vision therapy and neuro-optometric visual rehabilitation. The new name speaks to the incorporation of the fastest, most immediate treatment modality Slotnick has developed, which she refers to as Lens-based Postural Therapy. “The eyes lead the body, for better or for worse,” she explains. “Postural skews—such as tilting, tipping or turning the head—can lead to chronic neck and back discomfort. Often, these physical habits are visually related—especially when it comes to computer work. Lenses can do so much more than bring the world into focus. They can also be used to alleviate tension, facilitate eye-teaming and eye-tracking, and enhance efficiency.”
In recent years, Slotnick has been partnering with physical therapists, bringing the art and science of lens-based therapy beyond the computer and into free space, for enhanced movement and comfort in the world. “The changes are profound and immediate, addressing longstanding habits of movement and gait, facilitating greater balance and sure-footedness,” she affirms. “This therapeutic application of lenses has even been shown to facilitate the immediate reduction of tension, improved freedom of breathing, greater joint flexibility, and increased range of movement when exercising.”
Mind-Body-World Optometry provides a whole-person approach to vision care, with the understanding that optometry can provide so much more than eye care alone. “We do not treat dis-embodied eyes,” says Slotnick. “The eyes perceive from their position in the head, upon a body, with feet on the ground, ready and able to move into the world. This is the foundation of all our therapeutic offerings, both passive and active therapies alike, for children and adults of all ages.”
Slotnick offers vision care for all ages and continues to provide regular, free, in-office workshops to support community education on how vision develops, and how differences between people result in differences in how we use our vision. “Attendees learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of vision problems, and to raise personal questions about this invaluable treatment modality,” says this passionate practitioner who feels she was “born” to do this work. “I dealt with personal challenges interfering with my binocular vision. Through vision therapy, I retrained my brain to coordinate my eyes and enhanced my ability to process visual and spatial information.”
According to Slotnick, vision is our means of touching what lies beyond our grasp. “Who we are shapes our view of the world, our use of our vision, and our outlook for the future. Behavioral optometry provides everyone with a personalized opportunity for self-evaluation, growth and change, with impacts extending far beyond the visual process. You can indeed, envision your world,” she confirms.
Mind-Body-World Optometry is located at 495 Central Park Ave., Ste. 301, in Scarsdale, NY. For more information, call 914.874.1177 or visit DrSlotnick.com.