
	"EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy has emerged as a procedure to be reckoned with in psychology....Almost a million people have been treated .... Also, further research appears to support the remarkable claims made for EMDR therapy." -- Reported in The Washington Post, July 21, 1995 "New type of psychotherapy seen as boon to traumatic disorders." -- Reported in The New York Times, October 26, 1997 What is EMDR? Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) integrates elements of many effective psychotherapies in structured protocols that are designed to maximize treatment effects. These include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies. EMDR is an information processing therapy and uses an eight - phase approach. During EMDR, the client attends to past and present experiences in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Then the client is instructed to let new material become the focus of the next set of dual attention. This sequence of dual attention and personal association is repeated many times in the session. Is EMDR effective? EMDR has a broad base of published case reports and controlled research which supports it as an empirically validated treatment of trauma. The Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs Practice Guidlines have placed EMDR in the highest category, recommended for all trauma populations at all times. In addition, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies current treatment guidelines have designated EMDR as an effective treatment for PTSD (Chemtob, Tolin, van der Kolk & Pitman, 2000) as have the Departments of Health of both Northern Ireland and Israel, which have indicated EMDR to be one of only two or three treatments of choice for trauma victims. Most recently, the American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline (2004) has placed EMDR in the category of highest level of effectiveness. "The speed at which change occurs during EMDR contradicts the traditional notion of time as essential for psychological healing. Shapiro has integrated elements from many different schools of psychotherapy into her protocols, making EMDR applicable to a variety of clinical populations and accessible to clinicians from different orientations." Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine "EMDR assists survivors in the immediate aftermath of violent trauma by breaking through the walls of denial, shock, grief and anger..Ideal for those who have been unable to forget past traumatic life events, as it allow for a rapid processing of even deeply rooted memories, giving individuals back control of their lives and their emotions." Dusty Bowencamp, RN CTR Disaster Mental Health, American Red Cross
	John Christie MA, NCC is a trained EMDR clinician. Click here for more information.



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