Rakhi Pabari
Behavioural & Professional Certified Paediatric Optometrist
Rakhi Pabari is our Behavioural and Professional Certified Paediatric Optometrist with a particular interest in special Needs (adults and children), developmental and paediatric optometry.
Rakhi did her training in Optometry and Vision Sciences at Cardiff University 20 years ago. This included training at the largest (in the UK) award-winning Vision Assessment Centre focused on infants and young children, children with special needs and adults with intellectual disability. Rakhi was a volunteer with the first Opening Eyes programme of the Special Olympics in the UK at the National Games Cardiff 2001 and also volunteered with the Royal National Institute of the Blind thereafter, helping blind and partially sighted children learn to be more independent.
Rakhi holds a Professional Paediatric Certificate in Optometry to further assist in providing eye care for young infants and children of all abilities. She is an Accredited Member of the British Association of Behavioural Optometrists (BABO) and holds accreditation for various methods of myopia (short-sightedness) control.
Rakhi is also a Certified Screener for Irlen Syndrome.
Irlen Syndrome is a type of visual or perceptual processing disorder. Someone with a visual or perceptual processing disorder has difficulty making sense of visual information. This is different from problems involving sight or vision. When an individual suffers from Irlen Syndrome, their brain has difficulty processing certain wavelengths of light. In this way, light (especially bright and fluorescent lighting) becomes a stressor on the brain.
This stress causes certain parts of the brain (e.g., the visual cortex) to become overactive. It is this over-activity and inability to effectively process visual stimuli that creates a variety of visual, physical, cognitive, emotional, and neurological symptoms.
Rakhi is a certified member of the Interdisciplinary Association of Functional Neurosciences and Rehabilitation (IAFNR) and an experienced provider of the Mellilo Method in the UK.
Rakhi makes the process fun and can be highly energetic, but she also adapts to all personality types to comfortably achieve the best results she can for each individual she sees. She uses a wide range of techniques in her assessment to investigate and address your chief complaint.Rakhi integrates other evidence based therapies into her highly personalised vision therapy programme for each individual which drive the motor and sensory systems to achieve the best results. These methods have been proven to improve areas such as: cognition, attention, focus, memory, speech/language, executive functioning and comprehension.
Outside of behavioural optometry and vision therapy Rakhi’s other interests include diet and nutrition and in particular neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself) and alternative (non mainstream) methods of teaching. She is always adding new tools to her clinic to help accelerate the therapy process and constantly keeps herself updated in the world of neuroscience.
Rakhi also holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Warwick Business School.