Please join us for this free continuing education webinar by Dr. Ann M Wagner. It is available to all clinical psychology specialists as a live webinar and will be made available on-demand.
Presenter: Ann M. Wagner, PhD, ABPP
Title of Presentation: Vision Loss and Mental Health: Exploring Messages and Meanings
Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm PT/1:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET
CE Credit: 2.0 hours
Presentation Summary:
An estimated 2.2 billion (nearly 1 in 4) people worldwide experience, or are at risk for, vision loss or blindness, and their numbers are expected to increase as people live longer. Chances are high that most mental health providers will at some point in their careers work with a client experiencing vision loss. Many therapists may feel unprepared. Whether sighted or not, everyone has been exposed to societal messages and myths about blindness. Many people with blindness experience complex grief, anxiety and/or depression. They may seek therapy to adjust to their vision changes; they may also seek therapy for reasons unrelated to vision loss.
In this presentation, we will use Narrative Therapy principles as a guide to explore messages, meanings and stories/narratives of people with vision loss and factors associated with increased risk for depression and/or anxiety. No single person can speak for all others, so the ideas presented in this presentation are intended to foster contemplation and not to be viewed as hard-and-fast “dos and don’ts” when working with clients with vision loss. Use of Narrative Therapy principles, it is hoped, will help guide a discovery of new meanings and ideas that therapists can carry forward to enhance their sense of confidence as well as the personal agency of the client, whether the work is about the blindness, not about the blindness, or a bit of both. The concepts reviewed in this presentation may also apply to working with people experiencing other types of disability.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe risk factors associated with anxiety and/or depression for people experiencing vision loss/blindness or other disabilities.
2. Identify at least one message or bias about blindness that comes from broader culture and society.
3. Distinguish between the medical model of disability and the social model of disability.
Speaker Information:
Ann Wagner, PhD, ABPP, is a Board Certified Clinical Psychologist. She worked for 26 years on the PTSD Clinical Team at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. Now retired, she remains professionally active as a consultant and invited guest speaker on a variety of topics, including mental health and vision loss. Dr. Wagner is blind due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited eye condition characterized by progressive night blindness and tunnel vision. In presentations to national and international groups, including the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, she has addressed such topics as complex grief, anxiety, depression and resiliency related to vision loss or serving in a helper role. She welcomes curiosity and questions about RP.
Registration Required:
Only registered specialists will receive the Zoom link and access information.
The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The American Board of Professional Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content. The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Board of Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0198.