I recently cured one little chap who had already had two operations for a squint and was on the waiting list for a third. We found his main problem was stress and when we worked with that and his eye co-ordination he was better in six weeks.”You can also improve your sight by popping a food supplement designed for eyes. “Balance, spatial perception, mismatches in seeing and hearing can all lead to confusion and mixed messages between the eyes and brain. We use visual therapy to fix problems such as inadequate focusing, for instance in squints. In this system, vision is considered to be an inseparable part of the whole human being, and therefore easily affected by behaviour, our environment, stress and the mental connection between eyes and brain.”Vision links in with the other senses,” says behavioural optometrist Paul Adler.

Until results from such a study are published, it’s nonsense.”Some of the principles of the Bates Method are already accepted by mainstream eye care. The idea that the eyes need the same care and stress relief as the rest of the body has been developed in various ways, not least as a part of a discipline called behavioural optometry, which is fast gaining popularity in the UK. Dr David Gartrey, ophthalmic consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital, argues “The Bates Method has no scientific basis whatsoever. No studies looking at patients before and during treatment, as well as after, have been carried out. The three fundamental exercises from the Bates method are “sunning”, which involves shining a bright light on closed eyes; “palming”, which is covering the eyes with cupped hands, resting the palm on the top of the cheekbones; and “the long standing swing”, which is keeping your eyes focused as you turn back and forth from left to right.
Conditions such as astigmatism, long and short-sightedness, as well as weakening sight, have been improved and sometimes cured by the Bates method, and clinical trials by Dr Kaplan appear to prove its effectiveness British eye specialists, however, are unconvinced.

He found that an enormous amount of tension builds up in and around the eyes, causing problems with their function. So, the Bates Method is about relaxing those muscles in order to restore good circulation, which helps to improve the eyes’ efficiency, which then leads to less stressed usage of the eye and therefore to a more relaxed muscle. A new video, chucklingly entitled Eyerobics, and endorsed by Dr Robert-Michael Kaplan of Pacific University’s College of Optometry in Portland, Oregon, provides a guide to the technique. Dr William Bates was a New York ophthalmologist who decided more than 80 years ago that if eyes respond to glasses by getting weaker, or lazier, the muscles around the eyes were the key factor in poor vision. Improving your sight by exercising your eyes might seem pretty implausible. But a number of ophthalmologists believe that an exercise programme based on something called the Bates Method may keep eyes in better shape. She will also give an illustrated talk on 1 Nov and a one- day workshop on 2 Nov..

If you suffer from long, short or failing sight, you’re probably resigned to either wearing glasses or contact lenses or saving up for laser surgery. I think it was brave.”See Melanie Manchot’s work from 18 Oct to 7 Dec in an exhibition by the Royal Photographic Society at The Octagon Galleries, Milsom Street, Bath, 01225 462841. This tallies with an American Psychiatric Association study which concludes: “Physicians with affective disorders tend to select psychiatry as a speciality”. Dysfunctional, abusive and alcoholic family backgrounds were also more prevalent among mental health professionals than other health workers.
The profession itself is inherently hazardous to both physical and mental health. An estimated 40 per cent of therapists are actually attacked by their clients. Between 20 and 30 per cent experience the suicide of at least one patient.

At its most basic level, the job involves listening to an almost never- ending succession of serious problems and grim world views. According to Epstein, mental health professionals kill themselves at an unusually high rate: almost twice that expected of physicians. It is a high-stress job, in which the professionals turn to drink and drugs for solace. Some even become addicted to the work itself and find retirement particularly difficult to face.Despite all this, psychotherapists are unlikely to seek therapy, often because of feelings of embarrassment or professional superiority; even therapists mistakenly see therapy as a form of failure. Far from being a sign of professional impairment, it is often the therapists who don’t seek help who are in the most trouble.Epstein concludes that since the therapists seem incapable of looking after themselves, the onus is on you, the little guy, to spot the therapist in trouble. As he puts it, “If, during your session, a little voice begins screaming `This guy’s eyes remind me of my college roommate’s when he was tripping on acid’, don’t be afraid to ask questions.”A number of former clients were only too happy to tell me about the incipient craziness they had witnessed in their shrinks. Yet often it was the method of practice itself which seemed bizarre.Sarah described a shrink she visited while living in Geneva.