Personality change in trauma victims by the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, resource development and installation, and emotional freedom techniques

Personality change in victims of trauma has been demonstrated by key researchers in the field of trauma. This research explored this area further by studying if problem personality patterns can improve to healthier levels by processing trauma symptoms with new rapid trauma techniques. This research provides new information in trauma and personality, as well as offers links to possible new treatment methods. The hypothesis tested in this research was that significant change in problem personality patterns would occur in trauma subjects whose symptoms were processed through a multi-impact therapy that included Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), building ego structure through Resource Installation and Development and reducing physiological stress through the use of Emotional Freedom Techniques, as compared to subjects in the control group who received talking therapy. A sample of ten female participants was selected that had traumatic backgrounds and posttraumatic symptoms. All subjects received the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI III) as a pre and a post test, and the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS) throughout 14 weeks of treatment. The PAS provided a means to measure subjects through descriptive statistics and the MCMI III measured the three highest clinical personality scales and the changes that occurred after the treatment. Within the two groups, the results of the PAS showed that talking therapy may be extremely helpful for personality improvement for some individuals processing trauma issues, but not all. The MCMI III results showed that the multi-impact group appeared to be somewhat more stable, meaning that the multi-impact treatment appeared to aid improvement on all three personality scales. The talking treatment group showed improvement on the most problematic personality scale, minimal increase on the second highest personality scale, and the third highest personality scale became significantly worse as compared to the multi-impact treatment group. This confirmed the hypothesis that there would be significant change in clinical personality scores. This implies that the multi-impact treatment helped individuals in a more efficient manner, in that improvement on personality syndromes or disorders was global.

Dissertation/Thesis

English

Gloria S. Greway

Greway, G. S (2003). Personality change in trauma victims by the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, resource development and installation, and emotional freedom techniques. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 64(4-B), 1902