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.

EMDR Rape Support Forum

We have recently been made aware of an online rape support forum for victims who are being treated with EMDR. This appears to be a great resource for those struggling with the trauma of being raped or who are concerned about a loved one who is going through this ordeal and who have sought out EMDR as treatment or are considering EMDR.

Resources like this are incredibly helpful for victims of trauma. Do you know of any other similar online support resources?

Top Three Reasons to Become an EMDRIA Certified Therapist

Are you wondering what all the fuss about Certification is? Well, here are the top three reasons you should consider becoming an EMDRIA Certified Therapist:

1. Certification is a mark of excellence. It demonstrates that you have the knowledge to provide quality treatment in EMDR.
2. Certification demonstrates that you are consistently working to increase your knowledge and advance your skills as an EMDR Therapist by attending EMDR continuing education courses on a regular basis, as required for recertification.
3. Potential clients often prefer an EMDR therapist who is Certified and will search the EMDRIA website for therapists in their area who have this designation.

Please remember that completing EMDR basic training does not mean you are Certified!

For more information on the Certification process, Certification requirements or about EMDRIA Certified Therapists please visit the EMDRIA Certified Therapist portion of our website.

New Department of Defense PTSD Treatment Approach

On July 1, 2009 the US Department of Defense Military Health System website posted the following article by Captain Barry Lewis :

“Symptoms of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include continual nightmares, avoidance behaviors, denial, grief, anger and fear.

Some soldiers, battling these and other symptoms, can be treated successfully as an outpatient while assuming their normal duties. For others, however, returning to work and becoming their old selves again were challenges recognized by several mental health professionals across the European theater.

‘We were looking at how we can best meet the needs of our clientele, and we were identifying that a lot of the soldiers needed more than once a week outpatient, individual therapy and probably needed more than once or twice a week group therapy,’ said Joseph Pehm, chief of Medical Social Work at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC).

The solution came in the creation of an intensive eight-week therapeutic post-traumatic stress disorder Day treatment program called ‘evolution’ that began in March 2009 at LRMC. During the eight-hour days, patients enrolled in the program participate in multiple disciplines and interests, including art therapy, yoga and meditation classes, substance abuse groups, anger and grief management, tobacco cessation, pain management and multiple PTSD evidence-based practice protocols.

‘I am a great believer in the kitchen sink, meaning I throw everything, including the kitchen sink, and something will stick,’ said Dr. Daphne Brown, chief of the Division of Behavioral Health at LRMC. ‘And so we’ve come with all the evidence-based treatment for PTSD that we know about … We’ve taken everything that we can think of that will be of use in redirecting symptoms for these folks and put it into an eight-week program.’

Brown, Pehm and Sharon Stewart, a Red Cross volunteer who recently received a Psy.D. in psychology, said the program is designed from research into the effects of traumatic experience and mirrors successful PTSD programs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as programs run by psychologists in the U.S.

‘We are building on the groundbreaking work that some of our peers and colleagues have done and just expanding it out,’ said Brown.

During treatment, patients begin the day with a community meeting where they discuss how well they feel and any additional issues or concerns since their last meeting. The remainder of the day depends on the curriculum scheduled for that week.

The first few weeks focus on learning basic coping skills such as how to reduce anxiety and fight fear, as well as yoga and meditation for relaxation. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), an evidence-based practice for treating PTSD, is also conducted during the early phases of the treatment program.

‘The concept behind EMDR is that, essentially, memories become fixed in one part of our brain and they maintain their power and control over our emotions as long as they are fixed there,’ said Brown. ‘And if we can activate a different part of the brain while we’re experiencing that memory, we can help to remove some of that emotional valence from it. So we use physiological maneuvers to activate both sides of the brain.’

The goal at the beginning of the PTSD program is to provide patients with a number of tools they can use to help them calm down when feeling overwhelmed, especially before more intense therapy begins in the latter weeks. Cognitive processing therapy is used throughout the program. EMDR and prolonged exposure therapy are also available on an individual basis at the soldier’s request. All three techniques are research-based treatments.”

Read more…

What are your thoughts about this new treatment approach?

EMDR Books in the 21st Century

Google Books, a service of Google, offers visitors the chance to scroll through and read a wide collection of books online — including books on EMDR.

Google Books has 1,049 books that contain EMDR information within their covers uploaded to the system — 84 of which you can see a limited preview of and 668 of which you can read in full online.

Not impressed? Well, not only can you read the books, you can read reviews of the book or located it in your local library — all with a click of your mouse. You can even add books that you find on Google Books to your own personal Google Library so that you can reference them at a later time!

Because of the limited quantity of EMDR-related books in most national bookstores, visiting a bookstore and browsing through EMDR related books is not an option for most of us.  Now, you can visit Google Books and browse through thousands of books to choose the one that is just right for you — and you can even purchase it online at that time with the click of a button.

So, whether you have a book in mind that you want to flip through, or you want to conduct a very specific topic or phrasing search to find the book that’s right for you, you can do it all from the comfort of your home or office.