When Sight Heals the Brain: A Memoir of a Brain Injury Journey and the Visual Road Home

Author Bio: Ingryd Lorenzana

Dr. Ingryd Lorenzana is an international award-winning neuro-optometrist and vision specialist, the innovator of the groundbreaking patent-pending CogniViision® “TRAIN the BRAIN not JUST the EYES “protocol that targets vision disorders in the brain and a true believer in Brain Training through vision as an effective method to succeed in school, excel in sports, increase productivity in the workplace ultimately transforming quality of life.

Dr. Ingryd, as her patient’s call her, has a great passion for her work, and with good reason. She truly is a testament of when she, the “patient” had to become the “doctor” to find solutions for her own ailments. Most of her life, she struggled with reading and attention issues. She loved to learn but had great difficulty with being a slow reader and didn’t know why. She always had to work harder and study longer than any of her friends just to keep up if she was to succeed. Born in Colombia, she came to the US at 10 years of age and was led to believe that her struggles with reading and attention were due to English being her second language.

It was not until Optometry School that she discovered she had been struggling with an undiagnosed visual condition known as Convergence Insufficiency (CI). CI is an eye-teaming problem in which the eyes have a strong tendency to drift outward when reading or doing work close-up. A person with CI must use extra effort to make the eyes turn back in, which can lead to slower visual processing speed and can impact the way a person learns, reads and even pays attention. Completing a course of vision therapy for the treatment of CI became pivotal to obtaining her degree and inspired her to choose vision learning disabilities as the focus of her life’s work. She went on to complete a Residency in Pediatrics – Binocular Vision and Perception at the Illinois Eye Institute, including an internship at Children’s Memorial Department of Ophthalmology and the Illinois College of Optometry, where she earned her doctorate degree.

Early in her career she taught at both the Illinois College of optometry and Southern College of Optometry, but then went on to established Advanced Vision Center in 2003, where she serves as Director for Pediatric and Adult Specialty Optometric Services. In 2012, she founded the Brain Vision Institute with the mission to specifically provide the Neuro optometry and vision therapy services to patients diagnosed with neuro-functional disorders as seen in ADD/ADHD, Learning and Reading Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorders, as well as treating patient with strabismus, amblyopia, convergence insufficiency, eye movement skills, and visual perceptual disorders.

She continuously stays at the forefront of the latest neuroscience research as seen through the expansion of her work to include management of visual processing deficits in patients with concussion and traumatic brain injury through maintaining over 20 various certification that include but are not limited to: certified IMPACT Pediatric and Adult Concussion Provider, Brain Health Provider for the Amen Clinic Method, Advanced Brain Technologies and HeartMath.

Dr. Lorenzana is a Fellow of both the College of Optometrist for Visual Development and The American Academy of Optometry in additional to serving as Adjunct faculty to both the Chicago College of Optometry and Western University College of Optometry. She has collaborated significant contributions to the arena of children’s vision research specifically in the area of strabismus and amblyopia as an active principal investigator for the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigative Group since 2004.

As a highly sought after, international speaker, Dr. Lorenzana has garnered numerous industry awards for her research and contributions to optometry. She has been featured on the “Donny Loves Jenny” TV series for her work with Jenny McCarthy’s Son, Evan, and WGN Channel 9 Morning News on the topics of children’s vision and it impact on learning. Recently she was named “3D Eye Doctor of the Year” from Hollywood’s 3D International and Advanced Media Society and won the 2014 Influential Women in Business Award from the Daily Herald. In 2013, she was selected America’s Top Optometrist by the Consumer research Council of America. However, she considers her greatest achievement to be the opportunity to make a difference in every one of her patient’s lives.