{"id":11847,"date":"2025-11-16T02:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T18:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11847"},"modified":"2025-11-16T02:19:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T18:19:37","slug":"explainer-emdr-therapy-helped-miley-cyrus-and-prince-harry-but-how-does-bilateral-stimulation-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11847","title":{"rendered":"Explainer | EMDR therapy helped Miley Cyrus and Prince Harry, but how does bilateral stimulation work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A therapy to address trauma using guided eye movements has been endorsed by celebrities such as Prince Harry, Miley Cyrus and Sandra Bullock.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Yet when my daughter Hattie told me her therapist had suggested EMDR \u2013 eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing \u2013 as part of a plan to manage the intrusive thoughts that frequently accompany her <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">sometimes disabling obsessive-compulsive disorder<\/span>, I was sceptical.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">How on Earth, I questioned, could \u201ceye desensitisation\u201d get rid of distressing thoughts that had apparently resisted <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">CBT \u2013 cognitive behaviour therapy<\/span> \u2013 and medication?<\/div>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">EMDR\u2019s history<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">EMDR therapy was developed by Dr Francine Shapiro, an American psychologist and educator, almost 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The discovery in 1987 was accidental. Walking in a park one day, she noticed that moving her eyes from side to side seemed to reduce the distress associated with upsetting memories.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-12vv9w2 e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Princess Diana with Prince Harry. Harry has said EMDR helped him deal with the trauma of his mother\u2019s death. Photo: Instagram\/oprahdaily\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/11\/13\/b979b689-90e4-449e-8b3c-ff0dbe6b0a9c_8a66ae79.jpg\" title=\"Princess Diana with Prince Harry. Harry has said EMDR helped him deal with the trauma of his mother\u2019s death. Photo: Instagram\/oprahdaily\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">Princess Diana with Prince Harry. Harry has said EMDR helped him deal with the trauma of his mother\u2019s death. Photo: Instagram\/oprahdaily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">She hypothesised that eye movements had a desensitising effect on negative emotions and began testing this on other people. She subsequently developed the method known as EMDR today.<\/p>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">How bilateral stimulation helps<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While revisiting a negative memory, the patient\u2019s eyes track the therapist\u2019s moving finger or a light from side to side, which creates bilateral stimulation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3332588\/emdr-therapy-helped-miley-cyrus-and-prince-harry-how-does-bilateral-stimulation-work?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[9599,9598,9596,7153,2439,2955,9597,7581,9600,7611,1451],"class_list":["post-11847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-bilateral","tag-cyrus","tag-emdr","tag-explainer","tag-harry","tag-helped","tag-miley","tag-prince","tag-stimulation","tag-therapy","tag-work","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}