I have read some analysis that when EMDR "works", what is really probably happening is Cognitive Therapy.
You move your eyes around while thinking, "moving my eyes around is going to Desensitize my trauma and Reprocess it".
So it could just be a "placebo effect", if you will. Or just flat out Cognitive Restructuring.
But there is enormous propaganda about EMDR from its creators. Its sort of "culty" and antiscientific, in my view. It seems to be about getting a "Magical Quick Fix".
I think it is a lot of hype.
[
www.emdr.com]
"In 1987, Francine Shapiro was walking in the park when she realized that eye movements appeared to decrease the negative emotion associated with her own distressing memories. She assumed that eye movements had a desensitizing effect, and when she experimented with this she found that others also had the same response to eye movements. It became apparent however that eye movements by themselves did not create comprehensive therapeutic effects and so Shapiro added other treatment elements, including a cognitive component, and developed a standard procedure that she called Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD)1."
------------
There are lots of GREAT therapists out there these days.
In my view, the Cogntive-Behavioral Therapies are excellent.
Coz
Quote
Originally posted by corboy
My therapist specializes in working with traumatized people and those with dissociative disorders. So he sees lots of people with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
I asked K if he used EMDR, a technique that is supposed to be great for alleviating PTSD.
He replied 'No I dont use EMDR. I reviewed the literature (which meant he went to high quality peer-reviewed journals) and overall the reports were that people either did not have their symptoms alleviated by EMDR, or they experienced temporary relief, and then their symptoms returned--sometimes worse than before.
'So it appeared with EMDR the risks outwiegh the alleged benefits.'
Only reason K could do this was he'd gone to a good clinical social work program, sat through all the obligatory classes on research design and statistics, and trained himself to think like a scientist--while still keeping his warm, loving heart.
The rules and methods of science protect us from mere wishful thinking and fantasy. They force us to test our dreams and let them go if the dreams cant pass the test.
To do that means being willing to grow up and tolerate some frustration.
But a lot of therapists dont learn to think like scientists, and they dont realize the extent to which they are targeted by hucksters peddling baloney.