Brooklyn Vision Therapy

Support Brooklyn's only clinic dedicated to vision therapy! Help us improve visual function in kids, adults and after brain injury.

In February 2020, I opened my own business. It was a labor of love, catalyzed by a unjust firing, but borne from a decade-long dream to build a new kind of practice for my community. With support from my patients, friends and family, I decided to take a leap of faith and go out on my own. I was thrilled to open Brooklyn Vision Therapy as the only clinic specializing exclusively in developmental optometry, neuro-optometric rehabilitation and vision therapy in a borough with more than 2 million residents.

Then COVID-19 hit. To maintain the safety of my patients, I was forced to close the practice after only one month in business, offering solely telehealth services for multiple months, and then adapting in-person services to account for the latest public health guidance throughout the year. Being so new, I was ineligible for most small business disaster aid. Despite these obstacles, I'm so proud to have provided care to more than 75 patients over the course of 500+ appointments! The need is there, and I feel more sure than ever that Brooklyn Vision Therapy provides critical value to the broader Brooklyn community. But I need your help to continue this work.

Raising a second round of funding will allow me to cover latent expenses and ongoing operational costs to ensure I can continue serving my existing patients. It will allow me to hire a part-time staff. (For the past 15 months, I've been operating as a one-woman show -- juggling marketing, administrative work, and being my own receptionist, in addition to patient care!) Most importantly, this funding will put me on the path to offer sliding-scale pricing, a vision (pun intended) I’ve had from the beginning. Providing accessible care is particularly important to me as vision therapy is rarely covered by medical insurance, and I know how powerful this type of therapy can be. Each week, I receive messages from patients with debilitating visual symptoms, many of whom are out-of-work from their brain injury and unable to pay in full. Despite the challenging year I've had personally, I've continued to offer a small discount to those most in need. However, I am learning that I can’t pour from an empty cup, and I, too,  need help from my community to make sliding-scale pricing a sustainable reality. 

I am so very grateful for your support, and excited to share how Brooklyn Vision Therapy evolves and grows in its second year of operation.

Why vision therapy?

Did you know that 1 in 4 children have a learning-related vision problem preventing them from using their eyes and visual system comfortably and efficiently? Unfortunately, problems with tracking, eye alignment, and focusing are not always detected, even during a standard eye exam. Symptoms overlap with those of ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities, and can make it difficult for kids (and adults!) to reach their full potential. 

These functional visual problems occur much more commonly and severely after concussion, stroke or neurological disease.

Vision therapy improves the brain's ability to control these visual skills more efficiently and comfortably - improving reading, learning, and other activities of daily living. I have seen firsthand that is often the missing piece that allows a child to succeed academically, or a brain-injured patient to return to work.

BVT is also the first practice in NYC prescribing virtual-reality based vision therapy for home to make therapy more accessible and engaging!