Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing

Abstract

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) was described by Shapiro (1989a,b) as a new method for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In May 1987, while walking in the park, Shapiro noticed that her own disturbing thoughts changed then disappeared “without any conscious effort” (Shapiro, 1995) when they had been temporally paired with diagonal upward to and fro eye movements. Over the next six months Shapiro worked with approximately 70 people to develop a procedure based on the temporal pairing of distressing images and thoughts with various eye movements. Shapiro began to develop strategies to unblock stalled emotional processing, which was initiated by EMDR in non-patients. She successfully tried the method on a Vietnam veteran suffering from severe PTSD and then embarked upon a trial of EMDR on a mixed group of victims of rape, molestation and Vietnam combat trauma. Initially, EMDR achieved wide recognition as a new breakthrough treatment for PTSD. This was, in part, because of very positive early reports (e.g. Wolpe & Abrams, 1991), but also because the EMDR effect appeared to occur with unprecedented speed, often in cases of PTSD that had previously resisted treatment by many other methods over a long period.