Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the most recent additions to the armoury of treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This chapter briefly outlines the EMDR procedure, and reviews the growing number of outcome evaluation studies, before considering some of the recent theoretical explanations that have been offered. EMDR has been used with a variety of populations, and its use with children and adolescents is considered here. At the heart of EMDR is the notion that accelerated processing of disturbing material can be directly facilitated at a neurophysiological level using a variety of dual attention tasks. Accordingly, a by-product of resolution at the neurophysiological level is cognitive and emotional well-being.

Book Section

English

Patrick A. Smith
William Yule

Smith, P. A., & Yule, W. (1999). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. In W. Yule (Ed.), Post-traumatic stress disorders: Concepts and therapy (pp. 267-284). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons