EMDR for fears and phobias: Effective applications and new developments

It is estimated that more than 40% of the general population suffers from one or more fears of a specific object or situation at some times in their lives. Since EMDR is capable of resolving disturbing memories of events that are critical in the development and maintenance of clients' problems, EMDR has proven to be applied effectively on a variety of disproportional fears, including those of traffic, chocking and dental treatment. Maybe the most significant novel development in the field of EMDR is targeting clients' mental representations of future doom, or so called 'flashforwards'. This opens up opportunities, not only for a rapid alleviation of people's fears, but also for the treatment a wide range of other mental health problems. This presentation provides an overview of the current empirical evidence regarding the use of EMDR for fears and phobias. It will be demonstrated how core memories, and other mental representations (e.g., flashforwards), can be found, and how EMDR can be applied to achieve a reduced fear response. This will be illustrated by various video segments of clients with different types of phobias.

Conference

English

Ad de Jongh

de Jongh, A. (2014, June). EMDR for fears and phobias: effective applications and new developments. Keynote presentation at the 15th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland