Eye Movement Therapies & EMDR

Eye movement therapies have been in existence for about 20 years. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), originally developed by Francine Shapiro, has proved to be a very powerful therapeutic intervention to help people affected by trauma.

It is approved by NICE in the UK for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We now find that it can have a much wider application, and we also know that other forms of bilateral stimulation, eg audio or kinaesthetic, can be effective. Therefore the content of this course will address not only EMDR, but will also look at Eye Movement Integration Therapy (“EMI”) and Eye Movement Techniques (“EMT”) to give you a wide range of skills in this area.

The ICH offered training in eye movement therapies for the first time in 2007 and it proved to be extremely popular. Those of you who have looked for training in EMDR will have found that it is closely protected by a self-appointed organisation which will only allow training to be given to people with formal mental health qualifications.

There have been a large number of clinical studies which demonstrate the effectiveness of EMDR and, while it was first developed for use with PTSD and severe anxiety, it is now being used more widely. As a therapy, it fits well with hypnotherapy, not least because it addresses similar issues and is also a relatively rapid form of therapy. All hypnotherapists should be familiar with eye movement therapies as, undoubtedly, they will be referred to more in the press and clients may ask about them.

This two day course, which includes demonstrations and practical pair work, is intended to give therapists from any background an introduction to the following techniques:

Day One
• History and conceptual background of EMDR
• Client safety factors
• The 8 stage protocol
• Protocol for phobias
• Cognitive interweave technique

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Day Two looks at variations on the original EMDR approach, namely:
• Eye Movement Technique (a much simpler process for dealing with emotional overload)
• Eye Movement Integration (using eye movements with an understanding of NLP eye accessing cues)
• Wholistic Hybrid of EMDR and EFT (as developed by Dr Daniel Benor)