The Method

Dr. Sam teaches that the eyes reveal many of our mind-body patterns related to health. For example, neuroscience shows that the eye pathway connects directly and influences brain function, the endocrine system and the nervous system. Somatics presents that gestation, birth, and bonding imprints affect adult postural, visual, and cognitive patterns. Chinese Medicine conveys that many of the energy meridians connect to the eyes especially the liver (our major detoxification organ of the body).

work-lens Dr. Sam Berne’s unique program uses The Berne Method^™, an individualized approach that begins by guiding each person to self-discover the visual patterns one may be using as an adaptive response to stress, trauma, and cultural conditioning. He will then offer a developmental process of eye-brain mindful awareness activities, somatic movement practices, medicinal essential oils, and other subtle energy therapies to help students increase their creativity and vitality!

Sam believes the group dynamic or unified field amplifies healing. His gentle and humorous approach creates a safe, trusting environment for students to increase their wellness potential by learning a deeper self-responsibility, self-regulation, and sustaining health practices.

He is constantly developing The Berne Method^™ by researching a diverse variety of disciplines some of which include: vision therapy, pre-and perinatal therapy, biofield analysis, quantum physics, neurobiology, medicinal essential oils, continuum craniosacral therapy, photo (light) therapy, and dolphin-assisted therapy, and with respect to expanding human potential.

Offerings

Vision Therapy Continuum Medicinal Essences Dolphins Craniosacral Light Biofield

Vision Therapy

My vision therapy program is grounded in an understanding of human development and uses a physical therapy approach to assist integration of the eyes, brain, and body.

work-string While most medical practitioners treat each sense in isolation, the sensory and motor systems are wired together neurologically, and our visual auditory, motor, kinesthetic, and vestibular (inner ear) systems share and match information with each other. Peripheral vision, which tells us about spatial relationships, depth perception, and movement, comes together with motor, kinesthetic, and vestibular system information to help us with balance and movement.

A newborn’s peripheral vision is more highly developed than its detailed vision. For eye movements to develop, the brain has to receive feedback from both the kinesthetic and vestibular systems. As a child learns to move, crawl, and balance, movement and vision interact and develop in tandem. But when there is a limitation in either sensory or motor development, mismatches occur in the child’s experiences. This can lead to brain adaptations and, eventually, to visual distortions like myopia, hyperopia, strabismus/amblyopia, and accommodative/convergence difficulties.

Continuum

“The fluid presence in our bodies is our fundamental environment; we are the moving water we brought to land.” -Emilie Conrad

Continuum offers an opportunity to come into both our physical and spiritual vision, expanding our biological awareness at the same time.

Throughout my journey from eye doctor to healing arts practitioner and group facilitator, I have been on a quest to find ways to become a better person and practitioner and, ultimately, to better serve my patients and students. When I saw how CranioSacral Therapy enhanced my vision therapy program, I decided to learn about other somatic methods, and Continuum became one of the foundations of my life and my work.

Studying with Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, I discovered that unconscious habitual responses created major limitations in my wellness. Using spiral and wave movements, sound and breath, Emilie taught me ways to increase the versatility within my own body. As my exploration of Continuum intensified, I became aware of a subtle rhythm and flow within myself and my creativity and vitality increased. I grew to recognize the reality of body flow and became adept at following it without trying or needing to know where it was going.

This new approach was very freeing for me, and I learned that the deeper I could go in recognizing and freeing myself of my habitual patterns, the more I could help others do the same thing. The freer I became, the more empathy I could bring to others.

In my training with Emilie, I learned to prescribe Continuum sequences to help patients release pre- and post-natal adaptive trauma patterns, chronic stress, and toxicities, all of which keep us bound in habitual, unhealthful patterns. When I used this non-intrusive, relaxing practice with cerebral palsy and brain-injury patients and with children diagnosed as being on the autism-A.D.D. spectrum, the results were astounding! Continuum allowed them to begin releasing long-standing patterns, behaviors, and tensions that had been labeled intractable.

Our eyes and vision carry almost 80% of our body tension, so it seemed natural to apply these protocols with patients who had severe vision problems. Once again, they responded to the treatment and wanted more! I began using Continuum with people who had cognitive issues and general health maladies that allopathic medicine had given up on, again with great results.

I am now an Authorized Continuum Teacher. This certification means that I am qualified to use Continuum with individuals and in my workshops and retreats.

I highly recommend Emilie’s book Life on Land and the Continuum website.

For other classes in New Mexico, see Authorized Teacher Amber Gray, Continuum Santa Fe .

Medicinal Essences

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I am very excited to bring you this ancient Medicine of the Plants and Trees!

I am a certified aromatherapist and use only the highest grade, pure medicinal essences. These single essences can transform physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and create wholeness in our life.

Medicinal essences can heal common conditions including arthritis, autism-A.D.D. spectrum disorders, depression, digestion, immune system concerns, insomnia, menopause problems, migraines, neck and back pain, respiratory ailments, sexual dysfunction, skin cuts, stress/anxiety, and substance abuse. They are useful for anyone who is seeking emotional/spiritual growth and expansion or wants to improve their vision and eye health. They are good for pet health issues, too.

Essential oils are highly concentrated and come from the soul of the tree. They are the light and energy reservoir of the plant. I have found them to be adaptogenic, or flexible in response to a person’s needs. They are also alchemical – able to transmute health problems into health.

I have learned from my studies that plants and trees are the original medicine of the Earth. Teachers don’t have to be human – we can sit at the feet of plants and animals and learn from them. We are the stewards of plants, animals, and the Earth. If we listen to plants and follow their instructions, they can help us.

Therapeutic-grade medicinal essences contain very complex chemistries — that is why they can help so many conditions and help heal mind-body-spirit. They contain properties of both energy and matter and work in similar ways to homeopathy, Bach Flower remedies, and herbs.

I use essences from Wisdom of the Earth, a company dedicated to providing high vibration, medicinal grade essential oils. Wisdom of the Earth’s plants are wild-crafted or grown using biodynamic farming practices, and they are committed to working with the environment as they produce these oils.

Wisdom of the Earth’s essences come directly from the plant — nothing is added or subtracted. Therefore, the essences remain pure, which is necessary for their high medicinal quality. In addition, all the oils are hand-poured, which the company believes increases the essences’ healing quality. Wisdom of the Earth does not believe in multi-level marketing and has stayed small to insure high quality.

I will recommend specific essences to enhance your healing process and address the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your health. Use of the essences will support all other therapies that you are doing with me.

Join me in a seminar or schedule a private session if you would like to use medicinal essences for your specific situation, to learn about the consciousness of the essences and deepen your relationship with them, or to address myths you may have heard that medicinal essences are toxic or unsafe.

Interested in becoming certified to use medicinal essences? See events pagee for the schedule of level one certification courses.

Dolphin Swim Vision Wellness Hawaii Retreat

The Dolphins reflect many of the qualities we as humans aspire to embody: unconditional love, harmony, sensuality, play, humor, compassion, wellness, beauty, grace, and healing ourselves as well as beautiful mother Earth.

More than ever, the dolphins are sending us messages to return to the sea and reconnect to our fluid body of wisdom.

“Thank you for facilitating such an amazing adventure. It has really helped focus my life’s vision.”

As we receive their sound and imitate their spiral movement, we begin to remember our primordial nature as we come into unity. (Community)

The dolphins create an energy field that take us into other dimensions and help our brain and body recalibrate to its original pattern of health.

The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins show us how our human connection to all species increases our bio-intelligence for healing as we re-discover our crystalline nature. We enter the 5-D world that diffuses competition, domination, and self-limitation. Instead, we are birthed into the world of cooperation, unity, and unconditional love.

Not only do we take in the dolphins, but also they take us in! Our breathing opens up as we find our own rhythm to life!

“What a wonderful time. It was so full and I’m overjoyed to have been a part of it. I keep thinking about the dolphins, the feel of being in the water with them. I can’t wait to go back!”

“I’ve noticed a lot of changes since my return. Some outside and some inside.”

“I’m experiencing a lot more synchronicity and awareness. I’ve also realized that I have been resisting seeing things in my life for what they are. I’m seeing more clearly now, and setting boundaries that I was afraid to set before. It feels very good to be in a more powerful place!”

“The last day of our retreat we floated with the dolphins and the surf. We melted into the water with our fins and masks and snorkels. The dolphins came and embraced our presence. They played ferociously, spinning diving, devilishly playing in our amidst, entertaining us as we ate lunch aboard the boat. One final swim and we made our final count. All twenty aboard and a dolphin rose, as if choreographed, to leap and spin one final time. As we headed out back across the relentless waves to the dock, a sea turtle floated, turning his head and bright eye up at us.”

CranioSacral Therapy

Early in my career, as I began developing my program for vision therapy, I discovered that when I used CranioSacral Therapy, the results of other treatment modalities were enhanced. Patients who had this mind-body therapy not only saw greater improvements in their vision and brain function, but they seemed to develop more resources to sustain their health.

The craniosacral system begins functioning in the womb and continues to function until death. It is made up of the fluid and membranes that surround and protect the spinal cord. For a baby or child, an imbalance in this system can adversely affect the development of the brain and spinal cord, which can result in sensory, motor, and neurological dysfunction.

In CranioSacral Therapy, a very gentle touch is used to ‘listen’ to the pulsation generated by the ebb and flow of cerebrospinal fluid, seeking places where the motion is disturbed by constriction or resistance. The therapy, performed on a fully clothed body using a very light touch, helps the body to resolve any resistance patterns and re-establish the original flow of cerebrospinal fluid, assisting the body’s own hydraulic forces to attain balance. The result is a nervous system free of restrictions and a body that is able to return to its greatest levels of performance.

CranioSacral Therapy can be very effective for releasing tension patterns or trauma in the eyes, brain, and body. In children, it can help improve a variety of conditions including colic, ear infections, visual and auditory processing problems, strabismus and amblyopia, cerebral palsy, torticollis, autism, A.D.D., and seizures.

Please consider CranioSacral Therapy for children who have experienced any of the following:

Birth trauma. Breech, C-section, Pitocin-induced birth, forceps, suction, and premature birth are all considered birth traumas.
Physical trauma, especially in early life.
Psychological trauma, especially in early life.

A nervous system which is free of impingement is more in balance and better able to support of the natural processes of healing.

Light Therapy

During light therapy, different lights and colors are used to stimulate and re-sensitize the retina’s receptor cells. Light therapy can be helpful in improving peripheral vision, with resulting improvement of both overall eyesight and body balance. It can help to reverse eye disease and can improve children’s visual fields, enhancing their memories and balance.

Light therapy works in two ways. First, it improves retina and optic nerve function – 75% of the light that enters the eye goes first to the retina and then to vision centers at the back of the brain. The remaining 25% travels to the hypothalamus, which controls the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system. So, in addition to improving eyesight, light therapy can also help with nervous and fluid system health, hormonal output, energy balance, growth and maturation, circulation and breathing, emotions, reproduction, heat regulation, activity, and sleep.

Biofield Analysis

We are made of light and energy, and we emit photons (light).

For years, witnessing great changes with my patients using vision therapy and other customized treatment, and knowing that every part of every living thing emits light energy, I wished I could assess human energy fields and chakras in a more quantifiable way. Then, in 2009 I met Dr. Konstantin Korotkov, a biophysicist from Russia who invented a camera that uses sophisticated software to measure energy fields and chakras in a process called Electrophotonic Imaging. Dr. Korotkov’s camera interfaces with both science and medicine because the results from the electrophotonic capture (EPC) camera are repeatable, reproducible, and quantifiable.

Here’s how it works: Fingertips are placed one at a time into the special camera box. (The fingers are the termination points of the body’s 12 main meridians.) The camera captures the light emitted from each finger and then analyzes those images with a sophisticated mathematical tool known as fractal dimensionality. In real time, data measurements of the energy patterns of the person’s chakras, glands, and organs are collected and then displayed as fields in and around human figure drawings. Electrophotonic Imaging also can measure the energy fields of plants, crystals, homeopathy, essential oils, and water.

Metabolic Needs For Our Eyes

Did you know that the retina has the highest metabolic need of the entire body? An active and extensive micro-capillary circulation network is needed to fulfill vital transport requirements to the retina and optic nerve. Micro-capillaries make up 74% of our blood vessels and are responsible for oxygenation, nutrient absorption, and metabolic waste removal. These tiny blood vessels feed every part of the eyes with oxygen and other nutrients and dispose of free radical by-products, allowing our delicate eye tissue to use its lymph and immune systems properly. When the microcirculation is restricted or defective, we experience faster aging that can lead to conditions like macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, and dry eye, as well as overall deteriorating vision. To learn more on how to affect oxygenation and hydration, contact us for more information.