My first enthusiastic comments on this trip to Poland go to my friend Mikolaj Markiewicz, a Polish psychologist working with vision therapies for the last 25 years and regarded as the best expert in this field in Poland, a very busy man with an incredible work on natural vision training for pre-school children and teachers, all over the country. I recommend a visit to Mikolaj Markiewicz's site www.treningwidzenia.pl and for those who need information in English, please write to info@treningwidzenia.pl . I am very greatful for his warm welcoming, supporting our thorough agenda and the friendly partnership we created. Great expectations with fantastic results we achieved in a very short time: not only Mikolaj guided and shared with me the emotions of seeing the Warsaw sites were my mother and father were born and lived until 1939 but also we had time to visit and pay respects at the main points of remembrance of the II World War Holocaust, in Warsaw, in Krakow and the Kazimierz Historic District and as well the town of Oswiecim where the infamous death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau have been already visited by more than 25 million people! Just in time we visited the famous Wielickzka Salt Mine on the outskirts of Krakow and the sparkling cultural life in Krakow gave me the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful concert with the Camerata Cracoviensis and Paul Badura-Skoda, the 83 year old famous Austrian pianist and expert in Haydn and Mozart

After an exciting meeting with about a hundred very interested members of the Polish Blind Association (PBA), the largest association of low vision and blind people in Poland, 73 000 members, and Retina AMD Poland, a non profit group, totally dedicated to help people with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), we had a really challenging meeting with the president of the Association, Anna Wozniak-Szymanska and Malgorzata Pacholec, president of the Retina AMD Poland, when we discussed important technical details of the natural vision therapies and its importance for the improvement of the low vision members as well as future plans together with European Organizations.

In a lovely modern Warsaw  preschool for children with special needs, we worked the whole Sunday with very interested low vision participants: in this workshop we shared a wide range of vision exercises, Meir Schneider body and vision exercises, using several entertaining accessories and experiencing important aspects that can help to improve vision, especially for this target public.  It was great fun with the new support  materials and mostly the presence of the Polish Television - surely excited the imagination of all participants. Impact of the programme was great, many phone calls during the following days of people interested in learning more. An important opportunity for Mikolaj Markiewicz to follow up.

With great interest and commitment, we were received by  Dr. Antonina Adamowicz-Hummel, director of the Academy for Special Pedagogy, regarded the best university in the field of working with low vision children in Poland.  We really had a good chance of understanding the very intense work developed in Poland with low vision persons. During a whole morning  we addressed important  professionals: academics, people working with low vision clients, members of Polish Blind Association and students from all over Poland who came to meet  us. We talked and demonstrated the different possibilities of improving or slowing down the deterioration of vision using methods that are available. Over a wonderful homemade Polish lunch including borsch, meat with potatoes, cake and a real Polish cup of tea, we indeed could understand the fantastic work developed by Dr. Adamowicz-Hummel and her teachers, during the last  20 years in Poland with low vision persons, a subject she lectured at the Ninth International Low Vision Congress, held in Montreal, Canadá in July 2008.

 

Just outside Krakow, after a very interesting visit to the Salt Mines in Wielizcka and the amazing Centre of Rehabilitation for Special Handicapped Children , we had the opportunity to give a three hours lecture (videotapped)  to special skilled teachers from the Centre and other guest teachers, psychologists and special therapists when we debated and presented how vision exercises can be useful for the work of these special teachers. We all learned a lot and specially gained two new friends, the teachers Ewa  Przebinda  and Przemek Sierant who  became our friendly companions and guides during our tour in Krakow.
While visiting Krakow, we gave a extensive interview on vision therapies and our work around the world, to thePolishTelevision for their programme Good Morning Poland,  and we will have soon a copy to show to interested people. 

Mikolaj Markiewicz teaches natural vision improvement techniques to teachers, psychologists and medical doctors in Poland while Sylvia Lakeland does the same in Portugal and Brasil. Hence, the exchange of experiences was incredible and working in Poland was indeed easy with Sylvia understanding Polish and Mikolaj doing all simultaneous translation: seven unforgetable days we hope to follow up in the near future!

Marie Schils, body psychotherapist with an extensive list of courses mainly in Radix, and founder of the “ Longue Vie à la Vue ” program, is trained in Holistic Vision, Bates, Somatic Trauma Therapy of Babette Rothschild, and cranio sacral manual therapy among other techniques, and will be organizing the next 22 International Holistic Vision Conference, from  30 October to November 1st,  2009, in Spa, about 45 km from Liège (Belgium) and 50km from Aachen (Germany).  Workshops will happen before – 29 and 30 October and  after Conference, 1 and 2 November 2009. At the edge of a 1300 hectar forest, Sol Cress is the choice and it is only 10 minutes away by foot to the town of Spa, with a Casino, Museums and a great variety of cultural activities. Just up the road the new Spa´s Thermal Baths. The site of the Conference is being built, www.holisticvision.be and  for contacts marie.schils@skynet.be or  www.marieetmarie.be .