DOD’s Positive Psychology Plan

A recent article by a Psychotherapist named Belleruth Naparstek entitled More Troops, More Rotations, More PTSD: Will Positive Psychology Save Our Soldiers? on the popular Huffington Post site, discusses the Department of Defenses new Positive Psychology plan, and brings up some interesting points.

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive Psychology focuses on things like authenticity, productivity, creativity, altruism, gratitude and connection with community, instead of targeting symptoms and pathology. The idea is to build on strengths. So you do things like write down 3 things that went well each day and try to assess why. You identify and ponder personal strengths and see how they can contribute to the Whole.

The hope is that by increasing the soldiers self-esteem and positive outlook prior to deployment, it will help to decrease their chances of suffering from PTSD when they return.

So what research is there to support this new program? There isn’t any supporting this usage. However, the DOD is spending $120 million to launch this new program.

The article also mentions the fact that EMDR did not make the VA’s list of approved treatments despite its being well researched and effective.

To read the entire article, click here.

Please comment below to let us know what your thoughts are regarding this new Positive Psychology program. Do you think it will be effective in preventing PTSD?

Dr. Francine Shapiro Interview Aired on Radio Show

In July EMDRIA reported that Dr. Shapiro would be interviewed by the Martha Trowbridge Radio Hour, a show which concentrates on providing valuable and relevant information to women who are suffering. We were recently notified that the interview with Dr. Shapiro is now available online!

The interview is part of a posting on the Martha Trowbridge Radio, LLC blog, entitled Dr. Francine Shapiro: Breaking Trauma’s Grip – The Powerful Treatment of EMDR.

EMDRIA is thrilled to see the message of EMDR spreading through new and important outlets!  Please listen to the interview and share it with colleagues, patients and friends as you see fit!

SAMHSA Reviewing EMDR…

EMDR has been accepted for review by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP), a  service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). EMDRIA had submitted an application in February 2008 to be reviewed.  Dr. Christopher Lee of the EMDRIA Research Committee, who submitted the application, has agreed to be the Principal for this review.

We will provide updates as more information because available!

Help Us Counter a Common EMDR Misconception

It seems that no matter how many organizations come out in support of EMDR or how many research studies support EMDR’s efficacy, EMDR is still incorrectly considered as non-evidence based by some members of the psychological community.

A recent article in Newsweek lumps EMDR with non-evidence based therapies such as dolphin-assisted therapy, and was described as a therapy that few therapists learned to use. This article obviously ignores that EMDR is not only evidence based, but that tens of thousands of therapists have been trained in EMDR worldwide.

The incorrect information in this articles was provided to the author by Timothy B. Baker of the University of Wisconsin who is the leader for the publication, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, which is being published next month.

Another article, entitled “The Sorry State of Psychotherapy” and published on the Medical Network,  in which Timothy Baker is also interviewed, states that CBT is the most effective therapy for PTSD and criticizes the fact that it is not used by more clinicians. This statement ignores the fact that the American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (2004) has given EMDR the same status as Cognitive Behavior Therapy as an effective treatment for ameliorating symptoms of PTSD.

EMDRIA has contacted the authors of these articles to make them aware of the incorrect information published in their articles and has requested that they publish corrected information.

Please join the fight to make the psychological community aware of EMDR’s evidence-based status by contacting anyone who speaks incorrectly about EMDR. You can use this bibliography to support your claim if you chose to do so.

“Help All Those Wounded Vets”

This weekend an article regarding PTSD and EMDR by John Young of Cox Newspapers was posted on the Austin American Statesman website, and includes quotes for EMDRIA President Sharon Rollins, and Past-President Sue Hoffman:

Then again, I heard from a veteran in Austin who had sought help, and wanted everyone to know what worked for him. He called it a cure. “It” is EMDR.

Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing is a mouthful. It causes the unversed to think “quackery” by the sixth or seventh syllable. It’s not. It’s a tremendous breakthrough that could help countless war veterans and others who are dealing with trauma.

The procedure was discovered and refined by San Francisco behavior therapist Dr. Francine Shapiro. She found that effecting a pattern of side-to-side eye motion with a trained practitioner somehow can dislodge crippling things from the brain’s right hemisphere — deeply buried impressions and memories that, said Shapiro, “are beyond verbal comprehension.”

This is a major departure from traditional psychotherapy because it doesn’t involve talk.

“Talk doesn’t affect the emotional brain or the physical brain,” said Waco therapist Sharon Rollins. “EMDR works on all levels,” just as REM (rapid-eye movement) plows the fields of sleep.

Read the rest of the article here

EMDRIA encourages all of its members to contact their local media and be available for interviews regarding EMDR whenever possible. In fact, EMDRIA is working on a kit to help members with press releases!  As soon as it is available we will notify you here on the blog!