Research and clinical experience using EMDR with psychotic patients

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach with broad and growing empirical support. It is an internationally recommended approach for post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This chapter summarizes the application of EMDR therapy to psychotic disorders with several systematic studies and case reports. Within the field of EMDR therapy, psychopathology is understood through the adaptive information processing (AIP) model. The treatment of psychotic disorders with a specifically trauma‐oriented psychotherapy, such as EMDR therapy, can help us to evaluate the relation between trauma and psychotic symptoms. The chapter describes some examples of psychotic patients treated with EMDR therapy to illustrate different combinations of biological, traumatic, and environmental factors contributing to psychotic symptoms. Results from EMDR therapy research and clinical practice offer a different perspective for understanding how some symptoms that have been defined as psychotic can be influenced by traumatic experiences.

Anabel Gonzalez 
Dolores Mosquera 
Andrew M. Leeds

Gonzalez, A., Mosquera, D., & Leeds, A. M. (2018, November). Research and clinical experience using EMDR with psychotic patients