Lost in translation: A phenomenological exploration of a humanistic psychotherapist’s experience of integrating EMDR therapy into their practice

This qualitative research study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was conducted to address a gap in the research on the experiences of humanistic therapists who use and integrate EMDR into their practice.

Article Abstract

“As a humanistic psychotherapist, I have integrated many different psychotherapies into my core theoretical model. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has provoked an enthusiasm, a wonder and a struggle unlike any other modality I have learned. The journey of integrating EMDR into my practice has been both challenging and professionally transformative. I could not imagine my practice without it. When I trained as an EMDR practitioner in 2016, I experienced a strong sense that this was the missing piece in my practice. I found that EMDR therapy included addressing the emotional, somatic and cognitive aspects of traumatic memories, and offered a methodology for resolution of clients’ presenting issues. The reprocessing of memories had powerful effects on clients, and I found it to be a highly relational and often transpersonal psychotherapy. From my EMDR training in 2016, I became an accredited practitioner in 2018, and an EMDR consultant in 2020. I am currently an EMDR Europe and EMDR Institute accredited facilitator. I integrate EMDR therapy with my core humanistic approach in addition to gestalt, internal family systems and mindfulness approaches. In truth the real journey of integrating EMDR into my practice has been one of becoming trauma informed and educated in emerging neuroscience and its implications for bottom-up approaches in psychotherapy. As an EMDR consultant with a responsibility for the development and accreditation of trainees, I noticed that psychotherapists from a humanistic paradigm reported difficulty integrating EMDR into their practice. EMDR training is a secondary psychotherapeutic training. I became curious about the research on EMDR integration and sought to develop a deeper understanding of how humanistic psychotherapists experience this in practice.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an empirically supported and validated psychotherapeutic approach. It has evolved from a technique to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to a comprehensive psychotherapeutic approach used to treat a broad range of mental health issues (Bulnes and Scelles, 2021; Laliotis et al., 2021). Previous research has found that humanistic psychotherapists find it difficult to integrate EMDR into their clinical practice, while CBT therapists showed higher rates of integration post training (Di Giorgio et al., 2004; Dunne and Farrell, 2011). Research also indicates that when it comes to EMDR integration and how psychotherapists carry this out in practice, much depends on their original therapeutic paradigm in addition to their client population (DiGiorgio et al., 2004; Grimmet and Galvin, 2015). Researchers have called for larger qualitative studies to explore how EMDR is integrated into practice and for within-group studies to explore factors that influence therapist integration (DiGiorgio et al., 2004).

To date, little research on the experiences of therapists who practice EMDR has been conducted (Marich et al., 2020). This research study, “A phenomenological exploration of humanistic psychotherapist’s experience of integrating EMDR into their practice”, was conducted to address this gap in the research. Qualitative research using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was conducted with seven EMDR-trained psychotherapists whose core theoretical model is humanistic. All participants were fully trained, not accredited and were in regular EMDR supervision with an accredited consultant. This study sought to explore the impact of a humanistic theoretical paradigm on EMDR integration and identify other variables which may influence this process. Findings from this research study have implications for clinical practice and how EMDR training and supervision of humanistic psychotherapists is conducted.

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Article Access

Open Access

Murphy, M. (2025, Summer). Lost in translation: A phenomenological exploration of a humanistic psychotherapist’s experience of integrating EMDR therapy into their practice. Inside Out: The Irish Journal for Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, 106, 11-17. Retrieved from: https://iahip.org/Inside-Out-Archive