EMDR therapy for all ages

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy

EMDR therapy has been one of the most useful treatment methods offered since I was trained by its founder in 1993. EMDR therapy is now an A-Rated and empirically validated treatment for PTSD and trauma. The EMDR therapy you experience here adheres to EMDR therapy’s established science and protocols.  Julie has gone through the Certification process (www.EMDRIA.org) and the Consultant-in-Training process and is both EMDR Certified and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant in EMDR. Being a Consultant in EMDR therapy allows Julie, in turn, to assist other therapists in becoming Certified or Consultants themselves. In addition to that, Julie is also an EMDR Institute Facilitator, which mean she helps train new therapists in the EMDR therapy method as it’s founder Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. teaches it. She is also published in EMDR therapy (PTSD, domestic violence, substance abuse, applications with couples and families) for those who appreciate that additional effort.

As you can see, Julie’s consultation skills are kept up to date in many ways. Facilitator’s have extensive additional knowledge in EMDR therapy and provide  training to new EMDR therapists at the EMDR Institute’s Basic Trainings. A trainer provides the main lectures in the morning.  Facilitators train therapists and facilitate their demonstration of that knowledge in the afternoon by providing additional layers of understanding of EMDR therapy, additional lecture and Q&A, and hand’s-on (practicum) applications of what they learned from the main trainer during each morning lecture.

The EMDR Institute (www.EMDR.com) requires their Facilitator’s also maintain their earned status as EMDRIA Approved Consultants in EMDR.

Susan Goodell (Del Mar, CA) and Julie, in July of 2010 ( to 2014), in our interest to benefit our colleagues internationally, and to strengthen and enhance their understanding of EMDR therapy, co-founded and co-moderated EMDRIA’s Approved Consultants list. This provided EMDRIA Approved Consultants a free forum where they could discuss and explore all things EMDR therapy and how to teach EMDR from Basic Training levels to becoming Certified, then becoming Consultants and perhaps later, Facilitators/Assistant Trainers.

What else should you know about EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy is an evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is A-Rated and empirically validated (so it’s backed up by research). Many reputable organizations including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense (VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines), and Tricare (Military) for example all highly endorse EMDR therapy.

EMDR therapy works just as well with very young children, teens, adults, and older adults.  It’s often significantly speedier with children. Therapists in more than 70 countries have been trained in and are using EMDR therapy for more than trauma and PTSD.  We are finding ways to integrate EMDR therapy into the treatment of a majority of problems, and we continue to refine these approaches on a regular basis.

With children specifically, the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare [CEBC] rated EMDR therapy as evidence-based for the treatment of children and their families for trauma due to exposure to domestic violence, physical abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse.

Please click here to read more about the CEBC and EMDR.

EMDR therapy has also been found helpful for treating trauma resulting from natural disasters and combat and war exposure, even if these events do not, in someone else’s eye, rise to the level of trauma that might cause PTSD. Adverse life experiences are other events in life that EMDR can help with.

Please see the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA; 2004) Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Stress Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Stress Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines.  The American Psychiatric Association has also determined that EMDR is an effective treatment for trauma.

Please also see the Department’s of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense (2004). VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Post-Traumatic Stress. Washington, DC.  Here again, EMDR was placed in the “A” category as strongly recommended for the treatment of trauma.

For information on randomized controlled studies on EMDR and the treatment of trauma, please see www.emdrnetwork.org – which includes information about additional nonrandomized studies.  Happy reading 🙂

Lastly, here are some additional areas that EMDR therapy has shown to be helpful:

Body dysmorphic disorder (Brown et al. 1997)
Borderline personality disorder (Brown and Shapiro 2006)
Choking phobia (de Roos and de Jongh 2008; Schurmans 2007)
Deliberate self-harm (McLaughlin et al. 2008)
Domestic violence perpetration and victimization (Stowasser 2007)
Eating disorders (Beer 2005; Bloomgarden and Calogero 2008)
Obsessive compulsive disorder (Whisman 1997;
   Whisman and Keller 1999)
Phobias (de Jongh 2003; de Jongh and ten Broeke 2007)
Panic disorder (Fernandez and Faretta 2007;
   Feske and Goldstein 1997; Whisman 1997)
Pathological gambling (Henry 1996)
Phantom limb pain (Russell 2008; Schneider et al. 2007;
   Tinker and Wilson 2005; Wilensky 2006)
Sex offender treatment (Ricci 2006; Ricci et al. 2006).
Social phobia (Sun and Chiu 2006)
Substance use disorder (Brown et al. 2015; Hase et al. 2008;
   Marich 2009, 2010; Popky 2005; Shapiro et al. 1994; Vogelmann-
   Sinn et al. 1998; Zweben and Yeary 2006)
Excerpted from:
Brown, S., Stowasser, J., & Shapiro, F.  (2016). EMDR Therapy and the Treatment of Substance Abuse and Addiction. In A.L.M. Andrade & D. De Micheli (Eds.), Innovations in the Treatment of Substance Addiction (pp. 69­-102). Switzerland: Springer.