VT Works

For the benefit of our readers, can you share how you first became involved in Developmental Optometry and how that role has evolved over time?

Interestingly, I’m a product of the Tour de Optometry. Ironically, I started out wanting nothing to do with vision therapy. I even remember telling another pre-optometry student that I chose a school farther from home because I heard the closer one did too much VT.

Then Carol Scott came to speak during my first year as part of that lecture series. She talked about the difference she was making in patients’ lives, and that completely changed how I saw the field. I started learning everything I could, and the more I learned, the more I loved it.

Since then, I’ve had the chance to run my own practice, help other doctors build VT programs, and most recently take over Ted Kadet’s practice after his passing. Whether it’s seeing a child finally succeed in school, helping a doctor feel confident offering VT, or reassuring a post-concussion patient that what they’re experiencing is real, it’s incredibly meaningful work.

Emergent famously began with a holiday conversation, a 3D printer, and a big idea. Looking back now, what does that moment reveal about how you approach problem-solving, and what problem were you truly trying to solve at the time?

Yes, and our families were not thrilled that we spent the holiday tinkering with a 3D printer instead of time with them. My brother and I have always liked building things together, and at the time, we just wanted to make beautiful, functional, and professional VT equipment.

What that moment really taught me is that nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Whenever one of us says, “That should be an easy fix,” the other just laughs. Every piece of our magnetic VT system went through hundreds of versions before it got to where it is now.

I’ve learned that the work is always harder than you expect, but also that the process is part of what makes it worthwhile.

Emergent offers consulting services focused on the practice management side of Developmental Optometry. What need did you see that made consulting a natural extension of your work?

When I graduated, there weren’t private-practice VT residencies, and I quickly realized I didn’t just need clinical experience. I needed to understand how to actually run a vision therapy practice day to day. Even with a background in business and having managed companies before optometry school, I still felt unprepared to build something like that on my own.

So I did what seemed logical at the time. I asked a few doctors if I could work with them just to learn the nuts and bolts. I even told them they could pay me very little, because I knew I was really asking them to invest in me knowing I would eventually move on. No one took me up on it, which I completely understand now.

That meant I had to figure things out the hard way. I started from scratch and learned through trial and error. It was frustrating at times, and honestly pretty lonely, but it taught me a lot. And that experience is what planted the seed for consulting. I didn’t want other doctors to have to stumble through the same learning curve if they didn’t have to.

Over the years, after starting and growing my own clinic and working with practices across North America, I’ve been able to see what actually works in the real world, not just in theory. Now I get to walk into clinics with tools that took years to build and help them wherever they are in their journey, whether they’re just getting started, trying to add VT to their practice, or thinking about what the next chapter looks like. That part of the work feels especially meaningful to me.

With the recent passing of Dr. Bob Sanet, the Online Sanet Seminar Series continues to bring his words to life and preserves a legendary live experience. What did it mean to you personally to help bring Dr. Sanet’s work into a permanent, accessible format?

As I said earlier, when I came out of optometry school, I felt really unprepared to start practicing vision therapy. The Sanet Seminar Series was honestly a godsend for me. I still remember sitting there and feeling almost electrified as Bob talked about how powerful and impactful vision can be and how much it can change someone’s life.

He didn’t just teach activities. He gave me the foundation I needed, both the step-by-step “how” of vision therapy and the deeper “why” behind it. He also shared story after story about the lives he had changed, and along the way dropped so many practical pearls about running a practice that I’m still using today.

I owe a tremendous amount to both Bob and Linda Sanet for shaping the way I practice and teach. There really isn’t a greater honor for me than helping preserve that work and making sure his knowledge and passion can keep reaching new doctors and therapists for years to come.

The original Sanet Seminars were immersive, intense, and deeply human. How did you balance honoring that experience while translating it into an online format?

A lot of people, including you Robert, have said how immersive the online version feels, like you’re really sitting in the classroom. The ability to pause and rewind is something we never had before, and it actually makes the material more approachable.

I can’t take much credit for that. Joe Lia recorded Bob’s 2017 course, and the multiple camera angles, sound quality, and interaction with the audience were captured beautifully. It really preserved the feel of the room.

More recently, we’ve worked to make the material easier to use by labeling the individual lectures by topic. That way, if someone wants to train staff on a specific subject, they can go straight to Bob’s teaching on that area. A quick shout-out to Drs. Curtis, Gardner, and Pope from Achieve Family Vision in Utah that helped put that together.

Having Dr. Leonard Press contribute 600 pages of commentary, diagrams, and explanations is no small thing. What role do you think deep clarification and language precision play both in the seminar series and in Vision Therapy education as a whole?

I don’t think Len really needs much of an introduction. Anyone who’s spent time in vision therapy has learned from his writing at some point. He has a gift for explaining things in a way that just makes sense, and he’s been doing that for a long time. I mean, he literally wrote the textbook on vision therapy.

What makes his contribution to Bob’s course so special is that he isn’t just commenting from the outside. He’s in the room as a participant, and then he takes what Bob is teaching and adds another layer of depth to it. Bob had an incredible way of presenting ideas, and Len has a way of unpacking them and putting language around them that helps you really understand what’s going on. Having both of them together in the same course is pretty remarkable.

Beyond the Sanet Series, how do the other educational materials Emergent offers support clinicians at different stages of their Vision Therapy journey?

As our clinic grew, we were constantly training new vision therapists. While I enjoy teaching, I realized that repeating the same foundational instruction was taking significant time from both me and my lead therapist, and it was costly to train staff who were not yet producing. At the same time, many therapists told me they wanted more education, but their doctors were not in a position to send them to courses.

Our online training programs help bridge that gap.

The Vision Therapy Basics course provides the essential foundation for someone new to vision therapy so they can begin practical training with confidence. The Advanced Course builds on this with deeper topics such as refractive error, lenses, visual neurology, and interpretation of common testing.

These courses also support optometrists who want to get started in vision therapy but may not feel clinically confident yet. We distilled the most important concepts from the Sanet Series, along with practical clinical insights, into training that can be completed in hours instead of days. From there, clinicians can continue expanding their expertise through the full Sanet Series, which includes lifetime access for both doctors and their staff.

Looking across training, equipment, and consulting, what do you see as the biggest unmet need in the Vision Therapy community right now?

This one honestly hits close to home for me. The biggest hindrance to vision therapy right now is insurance billing, period.

We have practitioners who are deeply passionate and genuinely helping patients, yet some are being pushed out of providing care simply because the billing environment makes it so difficult. That is really hard for me to watch. When I heard that Jason Clopton, who many of us consider one of the giants in our field, was no longer practicing because of insurance challenges, that hit me pretty hard.

At the same time, I understand there is no simple solution. As a profession, optometrists tend to be rule followers. Most doctors are not trying to push boundaries. They just want someone to clearly tell them the right way to bill so they can take care of their patients and run a sustainable practice.

The challenge is that right now there really is not one universally accepted, financially viable path for billing vision therapy in private practice. Instead, clinicians are often choosing between different levels of administrative burden and financial risk.

In our practice management course, I try to be very transparent about the different billing approaches that exist and the realities and risks associated with each so doctors can make informed decisions.

Until we are better represented in the coding and reimbursement world, I think this will continue to be one of the biggest barriers to expanding access to vision therapy.

On a lighter note, you’re known for bringing humor, energy, and genuine support to the people you work with. How does that lighthearted approach shape the culture you build, and why do you think it matters?

People say that the hardest part of owning a practice is dealing with people.  While that may be true, to me it’s like saying that the hardest part of life is relationships with others. Yes, that might be true, but there is so much depth and joy that come into your life as a result.  To me I find that the relationships with the people I work with have been some of the greatest highlights to my professional career. I think it is important not to take ourselves too seriously and to really be there for the people we work with.  

Closing Thoughts from Robert: A great thanks to Dr. Benjamin Winters, FOVDR, for his transparency, humor, and relentless commitment to building things that last. If there’s a thread running through Ben’s story, it’s this: he didn’t set out to become a champion of vision therapy; he became one because he was willing to change his mind. From being a student who actively avoided VT, to sitting “electrified” in a Sanet lecture, to building equipment piece by piece with his brother, to helping doctors navigate the business side of practice; Ben’s path reflects something deeply important in our profession. Growth doesn’t happen because something is easy; rather, it happens because someone is willing to wrestle with complexity long enough to build something meaningful. What strikes me most is that his work spans generations. He’s helping new therapists get their footing. He’s helping doctors build sustainable practices. He’s preserving Dr. Sanet’s legacy into the future. That’s not just entrepreneurship; it’s stewardship. Vision Therapy has always been about more than activities and equipment. It’s about people, patients, families, therapists, mentors, teachers. Ben’s story reminds us that the field grows when we invest in infrastructure, in clarity, and in one another. For those reading this: if you’ve ever wondered whether one lecture, one mentor, or one “holiday tinkering session” could change the trajectory of your career; the answer is yes. Ben is living proof it already has. Cheers!