Title: Eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR): clinical practice review
Material Type: Book
Subject: report
Subject: child trauma--therapy--children and young people--post-traumatic stress disorder
Description: Eye Movement Desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative therapy approach that neutralises the psychological impacts of trauma experiences through enabling adaptive information processing. EMDR therapy focuses on the traumatic memory, seeks to change the way the memory is stored in the brain, thus resolving trauma based clinical symptoms. This is a point of clear difference from traditional exposure-based treatments, which largely seek to habituate distress associated with the traumatic event and change the perceived meaning of the event for the individual. EMDR was initially developed for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and has been clinically evaluated as evidenced based for this purpose. EMDR is now considered a gold standard treatment for PTSD, endorsed by the World Health Organisation as a treatment for PTSD. This report is a critical review of the EMDR therapeutic approach. The critical review describes the intervention, and then examines the feasibility of implementing this approach in Western Australia. The review drew on an experienced group of practicing psychologists who each read the program materials, and participated in a group discussion on the strengths, limitations, and potential challenges of implementing the intervention. The review makes some recommendations around the prescribed sequencing of therapeutic stages, the level of training appropriate for clinicians employing the technique, and caution in the use of the technique with younger children because of the lack of an evidence base.
Date of Publication: 2021
Place of Publication: Australia
Publisher: Pursuit of Excellence in Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect
Date: 2021