EMDR psychotherapy in children and adolescents: An Indian perspective

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a promising psychotherapeutic intervention that seeks to resolve symptoms resulting from disturbing and unresolved life experiences. The poster/paper aims to highlight the efficacy of the EMDR psychotherapy as a promising therapeutic intervention to help in the management of emotional and behavioral problems/disorders of childhood and adolescence. Over the last 4 years, children and adolescents (4-20 years) coming to the clinical setup in New Delhi, who underwent EMDR Therapy were identified. A detailed review study of the cases was carried out to ascertain profile of children and adolescents¸ clinical presentation, and various clinical correlates including levels of improvement and efficacy of the EMDR. We present a series of cases across New Delhi, where EMDR therapy has been used. The problems ranged from psychological issues to complex psychiatric disorders. These include adjustment disorder, separation anxiety disorder, depression, simple phobias, dissociative disorders, post-traumatic stress symptoms, PTSD, stammering and nightmares. Majority of children showed improvement with few sessions with most of the cases requiring 2-5 sessions after initial assessment. On the contrary, adolescents required more sessions to show improvement. There were minimal dropouts once the therapy was initiated and follow-ups over time revealed that symptoms had not relapsed in majority of the population. EMDR psychotherapy in children and adolescents is effective with sustained improvements and holds to be a promising psychotherapeutic intervention for children and adolescents across various psychological problems and disorders.

Conference

English

Deepak Gupta
Tripti Choudhary

Gupta, D., & Choudhary, T. (2014, January). EMDR psychotherapy in children and adolescents: An Indian perspective. Poster presented at the 2nd EMDR Asia International Conference, Manila, The Philippines