EMDR therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an eight-phase psychotherapeutic approach that emphasizes the physiological information processing system in the origin and treatment of mental health issues (Shapiro, 2001, 2014a). Its theoretical basis is the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, which holds that the primary source of psychopathology is the presence of memories of adverse life experiences that have been inadequately processed. These inappropriately stored episodic memories, which include the perceptions, sensations, beliefs and emotions that occurred at the time of the adverse life event, can be triggered by current internal and external stimuli, contributing to ongoing dysfunction. This model was developed in the early 1990s and since then has been supported by research demonstrating the role played by disturbing life events in the genesis of many forms of psychological and somatic symptomology (e.g., Affifi et al., 2012; Felitti et al., 1998). [Excerpt]

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Francine Shapiro

Shapiro, F. (2016, April). EMDR therapy. Stress Points