EMDR Now and Tomorrow: Connecting Therapy Research to Practice

Now, 30 years after its discovery, there is enough evidence to conclude that EMDR is an established, time-limited treatment for PTSD. This is mainly due to the large and ever-increasing amount of research into EMDR, not only clinical research, but also in the laboratory. An important challenge for EMDR in the coming years is to bridge the gap between the knowledge generated from scientific research and the application of the results in routine clinical practice. Using the presumed working mechanisms, and the role of the eye movements within EMDR therapy as examples, this keynote presentation is structured from three perspectives: past, present and future. We start at Francine Shapiro’s famous walk in the park and we end up with some new and exciting developments suggesting that EMDR could be applied even more effectively in clinical practice.