Prospects of empirical research on tactile stimulation in EMDR: Issues and suggestions for future research

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has an established training and standard protocols. However, minor changes are continuously made to some parts of the methods. There are several controversies regarding EMDR. One such controversy concerns ways of using bilateral stimulation at the time of 'safe place exercise' and resource development and installation (RDI) in the preparation phase. This controversy involves several issues that must be resolved before making conclusions. Therefore, the author conducted a literature review and examined the following issues: (1) whether alternative eye movements, tactile stimulation and auditory stimulation, could be treated equally or not, (2) whether the speed and the amount of the BLS have been verified or not. This study focused on tactile stimultion which is more frequently used in the clinical settings.  Results indicated that existing empirical research is insufficient fo making any conclusions about this controversy.  Therefore, further research is needed in the future.

Journal

Japanese

Rieko Mishima

Mishima, R. (2020, May). [Prospects of empirical research on tactile stimulation in EMDR: Issues and suggestions for future research]. Japanese Journal of EMDR Research and Practice, 12(1), 26-38