A therapy to address trauma using guided eye movements has been endorsed by celebrities such as Prince Harry, Miley Cyrus and Sandra Bullock.
Yet when my daughter Hattie told me her therapist had suggested EMDR – eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing – as part of a plan to manage the intrusive thoughts that frequently accompany her sometimes disabling obsessive-compulsive disorder, I was sceptical.
How on Earth, I questioned, could “eye desensitisation” get rid of distressing thoughts that had apparently resisted CBT – cognitive behaviour therapy – and medication?
EMDR’s history
EMDR therapy was developed by Dr Francine Shapiro, an American psychologist and educator, almost 40 years ago.
