EMDR therapy with first episode psychosis: Intervening early

The links between trauma and psychosis are well established in empirical literature (Giannopoulou et al., 2023) and qualitative research (Campodonico et al., 2022). Developmental trauma increases the risk for psychosis symptoms in adulthood, and often leads to poorer outcomes and more severe symptoms (Bloomfield, 2019). Different types of traumas have been linked to different symptoms of psychosis, such as childhood sexual abuse with the experience of hearing voices, and emotional abuse and neglect with paranoia (K. V. Hardy & Mueser, 2017). Dissociation, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and emotional dysregulation have been found to mediate developmental trauma and hallucinations, and negative schemata appear to mediate developmental trauma, delusions and paranoia (Bloomfield et al., 2021). Dissociation itself can be a driver of hallucinations, not just a mediating factor (Moskowitz et al., 2019). Although ‘psychosis’ is referred to throughout this article for brevity, it is important to acknowledge that the diagnosis of psychosis has challenges, especially when considering the entanglement with trauma and dissociation (see Miller, 2016).

Journal

English

Eleanor Baggott

Baggott, E. (2024). EMDR therapy with first episode psychosis: Intervening early. Journal of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, 34(1), 14–27. doi:10.5281/zenodo.10939133