Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

This chapter illustrates similarities in EMDR and memory reconsolidation, in Unlocking the emotional brain: Memory reconsolidation and the psychotherapy of transformational change.

Chapter Access

Purchase/Subscription Required

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2024). Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). In B. Ecker, R. Ticic, & L. Hulley (Eds.), Unlocking the emotional brain: Memory reconsolidation and the psychotherapy of transformational change. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003231431

eBook ISBN: 9781003231431

About the Book

“This chapter studies a published, five-session case of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) that produced transformational change, eliminating long-term symptoms of panic attacks, guilt, and self-condemnation following a natural disaster trauma: In a tornado catastrophe 10 years before, the female client survived but her husband died. Our commentaries show how the therapeutic reconsolidation process (TRP) was fulfilled by EMDR methodology, supporting our general claim that fulfillment of the memory reconsolidation process of unlearning is always the immediate precursor and direct cause of transformational therapeutic change. EMDR was developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Francine Shapiro for the treatment of post-traumatic symptoms, and is now applied more broadly. EMDR’s conceptual model, Adaptive Information Processing, views the brain’s memory systems as seeking adaptive mental health, but susceptible to becoming stuck on distress-laden, unprocessed memory formed in negative experiences. The target of change in EMDR is that memory material underlying and generating the presenting symptoms, which makes EMDR deeply kindred with the TRP framework. To accomplish the accessing and transformational change of those memory contents, EMDR utilizes dual focus, in which the client’s attention focuses on both the internally experienced, problematic memory material and an external, bilateral oscillation of perceptual attention.”

—Description from publisher