The future of evidence in EMDR

Evidence based practice has gained increased attention in recent years, having been advanced initially by the medical professions, encouraged by various academic institutions, increasingly required by insurance companies, and endorsed by many professional associations. Although this represents an important movement towards improving the quality of care available to clients, there are legitimate concerns about what constitutes evidence. In the past 15 years, research on EMDR has proliferated and the methodological rigor of that work has greatly improved. Yet skepticism ahout the effectiveness of EMDR remains and much is still unknown about the parameters of this innovative approach to psychotherapy. This presentation will provide a description of evidence based practice as a backdrop for examining the current state of EMDR research with recommendations for areas of research that are needed, methodological issues that should be considered, and the role of practitioners in the generation of that knowledge. Findings from a mix-methods study evaluating the effectiveness of EMDR with adult female survivors of childhood sexual abuse will be used as an example to critique the limitations of the gold standard approach to generating evidence based practice and to illustrate the importance of methodological diversity in the pursuit of knowledge about the practice of psychotherapy.

Conference

English

Tonya Edmond

Edmond, T. (2005, September). The future of evidence in EMDR. Plenary presented at the 10th EMDR International Association Conference, Seattle, WA