EMDR outcomes in a child guidance center: Preliminary findings

An ongoing study is randomly assigning 100 Austin Child Guidance Center clients aged 6 to 16 to two treatment groups: one which receives at least 5 sessions of EMDR intervention along with routine Center treatment programs, and one which receives only the routine Center treatment programs. After one year, 30 cases are participating in the study, and will have completed postesting in time for this presentation. Because study referrals are coming in at less than half the anticipated rate, and because this is one of the first controlled group experiments ever done involving EMDR with children, the author seeks to disseminate preliminary findings based on the pretests and posttests of those 30 cases (plus any additional referrals that complete the study regimen in time for presentation at the conference). Outcome is being assessed by administering the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to parents at the onset of treatment (before any EMDR is provided) and 6 months later. All study participants in both groups are being assigned to experienced child therapists with Level II EMDR training. The therapists also receive EMDR supervision on approximately a monthly basis from Carol York, MSSW, an EMDR facilitator. The fidelity of the EMDR intervention is being rated by Dr. Francine Shapiro based on videotapes of EMDR sessions. Because several subscales of the CBCL will be examined as dependent variables, the final set of data for this study will be analyzed utilizing MANOVA. However, due to the limited statistical power for the much smaller sample in the preliminary findings, the current presentation will focus on univariate ANOVA findings and will emphasize their tentative nature. For the same reason, preliminary data on effect size and clinical significance will receive more emphasis than statistical significance at this time. The EMDR therapists are also keeping logs of qualitative data on innovative ways they are finding it necessary to deviate from the standard EMDR protocol when attempting to provide EMDR to this target population in this type of setting. These innovations are being discussed in the context of ongoing supervision from Carol York. The qualitative data, including clinical impressions on what innovations seem to work better than others and why, will also be discussed in this presentation, as will suggestions for how best to complete the remaining phases of the study and for future EMDR research with similar target populations.

Conference

English

Allen Rubin
Sharon Bischofshausen

Rubin, A., & Bischofshausen, S. (1997, July). EMDR outcomes in a child guidance center:Preliminary findings. In EMDR research with children and adolescents. Symposium conducted at the 2nd EMDR International Association Conference, San Francisco, CA