“Stepping into the trauma memory scene” with EMDR: what is it like for adults with psychosis?
Description
Background:
Psychosis is increasingly being viewed as another form of complex post-trauma experience. Despite this, psychosis- specific trauma therapies remain underdeveloped due to fears they may cause stress. Treating complex trauma has particularly been avoided in psychosis. Eye Movement and Desensitisation Therapy (EMDR) is argued to be a theoretically compatible treatment for psychotic phenomena by storing distressing trauma memories into a more adaptive state. Qualitative research exploring the accept-ability of this novel, potentially controversial, treatment, is limited.
Methods:
Ten participants were interviewed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to enable in-depth exploration of experiences of EMDR targeting trauma memories in psychosis.
Results:
Three Group Experiential Themes (Readiness, An Extraordinary Process, Transformations) and nine subthemes emerged. The themes arose like a journey, representing the differ-ent stages of the EMDR experience, including engagement, the unique EMDR process and the perceived impacts of EMDR on participants’ lives.
Discussion:
The results are connected to existing EMDR theory and its tailored application to psychosis. The implications for clinical practice and future research for this novel treatment approach are discussed.
Psychosis is increasingly being viewed as another form of complex post-trauma experience. Despite this, psychosis- specific trauma therapies remain underdeveloped due to fears they may cause stress. Treating complex trauma has particularly been avoided in psychosis. Eye Movement and Desensitisation Therapy (EMDR) is argued to be a theoretically compatible treatment for psychotic phenomena by storing distressing trauma memories into a more adaptive state. Qualitative research exploring the accept-ability of this novel, potentially controversial, treatment, is limited.
Methods:
Ten participants were interviewed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to enable in-depth exploration of experiences of EMDR targeting trauma memories in psychosis.
Results:
Three Group Experiential Themes (Readiness, An Extraordinary Process, Transformations) and nine subthemes emerged. The themes arose like a journey, representing the differ-ent stages of the EMDR experience, including engagement, the unique EMDR process and the perceived impacts of EMDR on participants’ lives.
Discussion:
The results are connected to existing EMDR theory and its tailored application to psychosis. The implications for clinical practice and future research for this novel treatment approach are discussed.
Format
Journal
Language
English
Original Work Citation
Hardwick, A., Colbert, S., & Lavender, T. (2025, July) “Stepping into the trauma memory scene” with EMDR: what is it like for adults with psychosis? Psychosis. doi:10.1080/17522439.2025.2526059
Collection
Citation
““Stepping into the trauma memory scene” with EMDR: what is it like for adults with psychosis?,” Francine Shapiro Legacy Library, accessed December 17, 2025, https://francineshapirolibrary.omeka.net/items/show/29839.