Clinician adherence to and combination of methods with EMDR for post traumatic stress disorder

The clinical adherence to and combination of methods with EMDR to treat PTSD has not been explored. This is of some concern as 27 000 clinicians are trained in EMDR globally. This exploratory study gained information on Australian trained EMDR clinicians' adherence to EMDR, and the methods they combined with EMDR to treat PTSD. Survey responses from 126 clinicians were analysed using predominantly descriptive statistics. The findings of this study showed that the majority of respondents perceived that they closely adhered to the standard EMDR treatment. However, respondents reported adhering more closely to the phases than the steps of EMDR. Statistically significant findings showed that more experienced EMDR level 1 clinicians were more likely to add steps and phases to EMDR, and to change the standard sequence of steps. Clinicians with greater years of experience were also more likely to change the standard sequence of steps. In addition, more experienced EMDR level 2 clinicians, were less likely to educate their clients about PTSD. Almost all respondents combined EMDR with other methods to treat PTSD. Combined methods included CBT, hypnosis / relaxation, system / solution focused methods and exposure. This research has contributed to theory and practice by uncovering that clinicians appear to use EMDR differently to researchers, by changing EMDR to meet client needs, combining EMDR with other methods and Holly Byron 16/9/99 vi therapies, and introducing EMDR in the mid stage of treatment. These findings are vital to reduce the scientist-practitioner divide by accurately testing EMDR's efficacy and enabling future controlled trials to reflect the clinical use of EMDR.

Dissertation/Thesis

English

Holly Byron

Byron, H. (1999). Clinician adherence to and combination of methods with EMDR for post traumatic stress disorder. (Master's thesis, University of Canberra). Retrieved from http://erl.canberra.edu.au/uploads/approved/adt-AUC20060626.132112/public/01front.pdf