Esther van der Werf certified Natural Vision Educator

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Natural Eyesight Improvement Expert

Esther van der Werf Quick Facts

Main Areas: Natural Eyesight Improvement through the Bates Method
Best Sellers: to come!
Career Focus: Teacher and Promotor of the Bates Method
Affiliation: Association of Vision Educators

As a teenager I had perfect vision, until I was 18, which was the year that I failed a class in college, learned to drive, and was in a relationship my parents did not approve of. Stress entered my life that year, and my eyes reacted with blurry vision.

I was given glasses for nearsightedness back then, but could not get used to these 'barriers on my nose'. The glasses made me feel separate from the world, and besides, they did not make me look 'more intelligent' as I'd hoped... So, I "lost" those glasses, and for the next 16 years I lived in a slightly blurry world.
In that time I once tried eye exercises for a couple of weeks, but did not have the discipline to stick with that daily regimen, and my vision did not improve at all.

Fast forward to 1999, when I came across the book 'Relearning to See' by Thomas Quackenbush. I was skeptical about it, remembering my failed eye-exercise attempt, but the author assured me it was not about eye exercises. So I bought it, with the hope that it would help keep my vision at the level of slight blur, and not get any worse.

It took me 2 weeks to read this big book, and by applying the techniques it described I regained 20/20 vision (100% vision) by the end of those two weeks. That was a pleasant surprise, so I tried this method out on a friend who was very nearsighted, and he went from not even being able to see an eyechart from 20 feet (20/400 or worse vision acuity), to reading 20/50 without glasses, in just one month. That's only one line away from passing the drivers test! That was impressive!

So I became seriously interested and started to study this Bates Method in depth. I became a certified teacher in the summer of 2000, and continued studying various methods of improving vision. I trained with Tom Quackenbush in San Francisco, Marc Grossman OD in New York, and Neal Apple MD in New Mexico. On top of that, I studied everything Dr Bates ever wrote about improving eyesight naturally. Dr Bates' methods are pure and simple, easy to use, easy to apply, and they are the most effective of anything I've seen.

My own vision has since improved to 20/15 (better than average), and at times I even see 20/10, with better color and depth perception thrown in as unexpected bonuses. I'm delighted with my regained vision, and love teaching others to reach the same joyous clarity.

For information on classes to improve your eyesight in a natural way please visit www.visionsofjoy.org/classes.htm

Esther van der Werf Books

Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Esther van der Werf

It is a mistake to believe that even though the glasses do no good they cannot do harm. Glasses keep up the strain. A person wearing glasses for myopia has to strain all the time in order to make the eyeball elongated sufficiently to fit the glasses.

William H Bates, MD, Better Eyesight magazine, September 1922

When a patient says he has no time to practise, he is mistaken.
He has all the time there is to use his eyes in the right way,
or he can use them in the wrong way.
He has just as much time to use his eyes properly
as he has to use them improperly.
William H Bates, MD, Better Eyesight magazine, May 1924

More vision quotes can be found here.