EMDR

Research has shown that about five hours of EMDR treatment eliminates PTSD in 84 to 100 % of civilians with a single trauma experience including rape, accident or disaster
~Francine Shapiro

EMDR works. It's fast, simple and effective, with unprecedented success in the treatment of symptoms that have been traditionally hard to treat using CBT or talk therapy, and even medication. This success has made EMDR the most frequently sought treatment by clients, and the one most routinely prescribed by doctors and psychiatrists. Once the object of scorn within the scientific community, EMDR is now so wildly popular that its success has become a double-edged sword. 

Everybody wants EMDR!

The problem is that clients seem to believe that, because their symptoms are severe or have not responded to more conventional methods of treatment, they need EMDR, as though it were a kind of magic wand for a broad range of symptoms and problems. When all else fails, try EMDR. 

I wish it were that simple. But it is not so.

First of all, EMDR is not a broad spectrum treatment. It works only when the core of the problem can be defined and targeted by the practitioner. While its use need not be limited to symptoms of a single trauma (see above quote), when the cause of symptoms is too diffuse or undefined, i.e. a traumatic childhood, relationship or another complex cause, it cannot be treated with EMDR. There may be aspects that can be targeted but the EMDR still has to focus on one particular occurence in much the same way as radiation therapy aims at one particular tumor. It would be absolutely useless, if not to say unethical, to subject a client to EMDR to rid them of the general discomfort manifesting as, say, generalized anxiety, depression, chronic pain or low self-esteem. We would need to deal with the discomfort the same way we would deal with feathers poking through a pillow, one feather at a time. Moreover, in isolating the direct cause, other interventions may be necessary along the way.

Another thing that should be clarified is the acronym EMDR which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocesing. Though EMDR originally used eye movements to bilaterally stimulate the brain*, it was never to reach the unconscious (as in hypnotherapy). Nor is EMDR the same as tapping (EFT), mental re-programming (as in NLP) or somatic experiencing therapy 

EMDR is remarkably efficient. It is a quick fix, but it is not a panacea.

* a better acronym would be BSRT (Bilaterally Stimulated Reprocessing Therapy)

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