Well Ive got the day off ! In the middle of a busy term at school its a training day …and not something I need to do .So here I am back in a coffee shop , a large fabulous Latte sitting in front of me ( and possible a cheeky little cake …shhhh). I thought I would take this opportunity to look at something Ive been meaning to do for a while and thats EDMR.

Isn’t it just watching tennis ?

When I was a kid , we had a very basic tennis game on a console at home , I think it was called Pong , it involved a bar or bat either end of the screen , each controlled by a player and a basic ball bouncing between both , this until now has been my thoughts on EMDR. It can’t be good can it ? watching a ball traveling left to right then back , what’s next Wimbledon on prescription?.

Anyway , there is a chance that Ive got it all wrong , it might just be part of the solution to my anxiety and trauma Ive been looking for ….or not , lets discover.

Firstly EMDR is also known as Eye Movement and Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy ( If you think I’m going to write that out again ….let’s keep EMDR). The therapy only started to be a glimpse in its creators eye in 1987 . Francine Shapiro , who suffered from a distressing past, discovered ( the story goes she was in a park at the time ) that she could decrease her negative emotions with eye movements.She repeated this with others and found the same results . She gained more success by adding cognitive elements to the sessions. Shapiro ran some trials and seemed to replicate her findings , some thought she was proposing a cure to anxiety and trauma in one session , she however never seemed to claim this , actually she claimed to desensitise anxiety symptoms and for five sessions needed to treat PTSD.

It wasn’t until 1991 that the term EMDR was used by Shapiro , further research had been undertaken ( Cooper NA ,Club GA 1989,Flooding …PTSD in combat veterans ) reporting moderate clinical effects after 16 sessions of EMDR. The treatment continued to develop , in 1995 EMDR was no longer considered experimental , in 1998 the American Psychological Association identified EMDR as having .. “Probable efficacy”.

So EMDR is with us , its still often considered controversial and some see it as something other than proper science .

So what do independent and ( importantly )…recent studies say about this treatment . Ive got to admit I downloaded the EMDR app last night and had a go , I found it more than a bit strange , it reminded me of a sort of meditation with my eyes open . It also reminded me of a test that my optician does when I get my eyes checked .

Joking aside , the World health Organisation , The American Psychological Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs recognise it and here in the UK you can get treatments on the NHS.

I should add that the EDMR Association advocate an eight stage framework for treatment . These being : History and Treatment Planning . Preparation ( expectations , concerns or questions ). Assessment ( identifying beliefs , feelings and sensations ). Desensitisation ( this is where the eye movements come in). Installation ( Strengthen a positive belief). Body scan ( not an fRMI ! more like the client scanning their body head to toe ) Nearly last … closure ( assisting a client to return to a state of calm ) . Now lastly Reevaluation ( at the next session ensuring distress is still low ).

I had a look on Psychology today to see what they thought ( Psycologytoday.org ) , I found a recent article by a therapist who tried it out to see if there was anything in it ( October 23 Jennifer Gerlach LCSW ) she describes it as ” Its not Magic , but some think its magical “. She quotes de.Jongh et al from 2019 as one of thirty randomised trials that found EMDR effective . Jennifer goes on to quote from Seidler and Wagner 2006 and their Meta-analysis showing EMDR to be as effective as trauma focused CBT .I love the way Jennifer describes EMDR as ” opening a window to the past to find when a core negative belief was formed “. She tells her readers that a whole tree of emotions such as shame can be unexpectedly strong and the sessions can be quite intense. EMDR courses she explains uses aspects from the past present and the future .

This all sounds a bit terrifying for us poor sufferers , Jennifer however reminds all clients that they are ultimately in control and can stop at any point. The therapist will lead the way it seems in the eye movement sets ,but ultimately it’s the client that is utilising their own natural healing processes. It seems that due to this no EMDR session is the same. Jennifer clearly has become a fan , however she does finish by saying that the process remains mysterious . One thing I have noticed is that sessions may well be run in conjunction with other therapies such as meditation or somatic approaches .

Im more interested now ion finding out how this mysterious therapy works …could it for instance help me and my trauma induced anxiety , Id give anything a go at this point !

Nature Sense.org describes the process of EMDR as the means of moving a memory from the fight or flight stage that is stuck in a reactive area of the brain into another part of the brain that can better deal with it .This the writer states , moves the emotional distress to an area where anxiety is not triggered anymore .

Frontiers in Psychology published a paper in September 2019 ( volume 10 ) from Gianluca Castelnuovo ph.D and Psy.D , Isabel Fernandez and Benedikt L Amann associate professor , Barcelona . entitled Present and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy .

They reviewed current evidence , including a Nature article also in 2019 by Beck et al that used the animal model to reveal EMDRs mechanisms of action . This study found that bilateral stimulation compared to controlled conditions lead to” a clear and persistent decrease in fear behaviour “. it was also observed that neutrons in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala were less excited. The authors also quoted Maddox et al , also 2019 that found that EMDR was an ” effective psychotherapy for re-writing the engrams of traumatic memories “. ….this is all heady stuff .

The Frontier’s publication points out that there are currently 25,000 psychologists and psychiatrists across 31 European countries trained in EMDR . The publication further states that EMDR is in the top 50 current top research topics . Current research includes panic disorder ,depression , PTSD , substance use disorder and glioblastoma ( an aggressive brain cancer).There are developing protocols for disaster care , for example Syrian refugees .

More recently Gian Paolo Mazzoni et al December 2022 published a study in Clinical Neuropsychiatry after researching the effects of EMDR ( group treatment ) on 7 women suffering from trauma. Repeatedly assessed for 3 months following treatment. The results found that the women showed a significant reduction in symptoms of disassociation ,trauma and enjoyed improved emotional regulation .

I feel like I always end these short posts with the same message , it’s looking promising but we need more research . Im not sure if we fully understand how EMDR works , a friend, a Doctor once told me we don’t really understand how pain killers work , I don’t know how true that is , but it hasn’t stopped me popping the odd one or two to clear a headache . There is an obvious and growing interest in EMDR , but there is also a clear need for more robust research , especially in humans to see how , why and if EMDR works . This post cannot cover all research , I hope it sparks some interest for you to go and look up more current research and make your own mind up . As for me, I really think id like to give it a go , probably somewhere private though it still seems to be a bit on the fringes . I really hope it works for the people who need it.

Thank you for as ever spending time here , Im just a trauma and anxiety sufferer who is looking for answers , Im not a medical expert , if you are in a bad place , reach out , seek a specialised medical professional , just remember you are not alone .

References

ront. Psychol., 27 September 2019
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 10 – 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02185

This article is part of the Research Topic

Present and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

View all 23 Articles 

Editorial: Present and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

Gianluca Castelnuovo^1,2  Isabel Fernandez^3* Benedikt L. Amann^4,5,6

• ¹Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Psychology Research Laboratory, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Verbania, Italy
• ²Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy
• ³Psychotraumatology Research Center, Milan, Italy
• ⁴Centre Fòrum Research Unit, Institut de Neuropsiquiatria i Addiccions, Barcelona, Spain
• ⁵Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• ⁶CIBERSAM, Madrid, Spain

Editorial on the Research Topic
Present and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

Deconstructing the Gestalt: Mechanisms of Fear, Threat, and Trauma Memory Encoding

Stephanie A Maddox ¹, Jakob Hartmann ¹, Rachel A Ross ¹, Kerry J Ressler ²

Affiliations expand

• PMID: 30946827
• PMCID: PMC6450587
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.03.017

Free PMC article

EMDR therapy may help with trauma and anxiety. What you need to know.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is a common, but not well-understood, approach to treating trauma-related conditions and disturbing life experiences

Advice by Jini Tyler

July 14, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

Group Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Psychotherapy and Recurrent Interpersonal Traumatic Episodes: A Pilot Follow-Up Study

Gian Paolo Mazzoni ¹, Elisabetta Miglietta ¹, Tommaso Ciull ¹, Luciana Rotundo ¹, Andrea Pozza ², Anabel Gonzalez ³, Isabel Fernandez ⁴

Affiliations expand

• PMID: 36627946
• PMCID: PMC9807115
• DOI: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220605

Free PMC article

PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Psychol., 31 May 2022
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 13 – 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835470

This article is part of the Research Topic

Present and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, volume II

View all 17 Articles 

The Therapeutic Relationship in EMDR Therapy

Michael Hase^1* Karl Heinz Brisch^2,3