EMDR integrative group treatment approach (EMDR-IGTP) for the reduction of perceived stress in parents with disabled children: A therapeutic approach

Severe disabilities in children can cause high levels of stress within families and scientific literature reports a few studies about using EMDR group therapies for reducing parents/caregiver’s stress. This research, based on a pre-post study design, aims to verify a) if the EMDR-IGTP is an effective therapy in reducing perceived stress and b) if EMDR-IGPT is effective in reducing some psychopathologic caregivers’ symptoms. The participants consisted of 15 parents with severely disabled children who underwent the therapy sessions of 100-120 min each administered by two trained EMDR therapists with a specific training in this protocol. At baseline, the PSS (Stress Perception Scale) and the SCL-90 (Symptoms Checklist-90) were administered, with respect of the anonymity, by the same two trained therapist who conducted the sessions. At the end of these sessions, a week later, the same scales were administered along with a parent’s statements questionnaire. These scales and the questionnaire were administered again after three-month post-treatment. The results demonstrated an important improvement of the caregivers’ stress (PSS raw score from 33,33 to 22,86 after a week [t value 9,92x10-9, p<0.05] and the score decreased also after three months post-treatment [t value 3,06x10-4, p<0.05]), and a significant decrease of the parents’ worries (statements reported from parents as “reduction of future worries”, “more information to copy with” and “feeling less alone”) as emerged from the anonymous questionnaires administered a week and three months posttreatment.

Journal

English

Franco Bin
Rosa Disnan
Viviana Langher
Daniela Marchetti
Maria Michaela Bin
Lorenzo Beltrame

Bin, F., Disnan, R., Langher, V., Marchetti, D., Bin, M. M., & Beltrame, L. (2026, March). EMDR integrative group treatment approach (EMDR-IGTP) for the reduction of perceived stress in parents with disabled children: A therapeutic approach.  Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 20()