Light Therapy: An Effective Treatment For Student's Disruptive Behavior

n early 2006, Dr. Lizotte informed me of an exciting new use of light therapy that he was directly involved with at the North East Institute in Holyoke, Massachusetts called NERI. It is a special education school for adolescents who are so seriously disruptive that they cannot function in a regular classroom. The school’s first task is to try to discover the factor(s) that seem to cause these students to be disruptive. Eye testing revealed that a substantial majority of these young people had functioning vision disabilities such as poor eye tracking which effectively prevented them from learning to read. Dr. Lizotte decided to utilize tracking exercises and balancing, “physical therapy for the eyes,” using the Spectral Receptivity Trainer as the bedrock procedure for getting the students’ autonomic nervous systems in balance. The results as of early spring 2006 were impressive. After a range of twelve to twenty-four treatments, dependent on each student’s disability level, the treated student’s disruptive behavior declined to the point where they were able to be mainstreamed into a regular classroom and were able to learn to read. The Institute hoped to build each student’s diagnosis and treatment into their individualized educational plan so that financial costs and human costs will be drastically reduced with a positive benefit to each adolescent and to society. On January 29, 2007, the Principal of North East Institute sent Dr. Lizotte the following assessment of seven students who had been receiving the therapy we have just described. The names are fictionalized to preserve privacy.

Update for Dr. Lizotte 1/29/07

Jim: Jim is now more willing to participate in classroom activities. We have seen him become more productive with less acting out.

Brian: Brian has missed a lot of school so it is hard to judge right now.

Dan: We are thrilled with the progress Dan is making. He is relating to people more and making more eye contact. When he first began vision therapy he never participated with the group but spent his time doing his “own thing” such as playing with cars. Now he comes to class and works with the group. He even initiated reading a book to the class. Up to this point we did not know for sure if he could even read!!! He tells everyone that “eye coordination with the doctor” is helping him. (Isn’t that cute???)

Carol: At this point I have not seen much change except for the fact that she is able to use the saccadic fixator now and has previously been unwilling or unable to do so.

Richard: At the beginning of the year Richard could not even tolerate being in class for the entire period. It is still difficult to get him to complete assignments but he is more willing to try to work on activities that address his weak reading and writing skills.

Tom: Tom is working hard on handwriting and written expression. He has become less difficult to redirect.

Zack: Zack seems more alert in school and participates more in class. We are seeing less of him going into total “shut down”.

Light therapy is a non-invasive technology unlike the commonest therapies of today, which involve powerful very invasive drugs with all kinds of undesirable side effects. At times it is a toss up as to which is worse the proposed cure or the disease! We are into the “light age.” If Liberman is accurate in his predictions, “scalpels will be replaced by lasers, chemotherapy by phototherapy, prescription drugs by prescription colors, acupuncture needles by needles of light, eye glasses by healthy eyes. Cancer will be a disease of the past.” 1 As noted previously, light therapy deals with the intimate relationship between body and mind (spirit). The affective (emotional) side of us is seen as foundational in terms of physical health. Present traditional analysis, counseling, and medication, often concentrate on simply erasing the pain rather than finding its cause and dealing with it. They will be replaced by light therapy that sees and treats the mind and body as mind-body, one intimately connected, functioning, whole, system. The focus of light therapy is upon the person – the whole person and not on the disease. Liberman and I agree with two important statements with which he concludes his work and I conclude this article. These statements are “the study of light affirms the interconnectedness of all things” and “let the light in” (207)!

Endnote 1 Jacob Liberman, Light-Medicine of the Future (Santa Fe. New Mexico: Bear and Company, 1991), p. xv. This and subsequent direct references from this work are reprinted by permission of Inner Traditions International, Rochester, Vermont.