Heralded as a ‘miracle cure’, EMDR has an almost cult like following amongst some practitioners. Maybe it our wish to believe in the existence of a quick fix magical solution to our problems or just our fascination with the Victorian parlour trickery but few psychological treatments have received such remarkable attention, especially in the absence of a solid evidence base of it’s effectiveness. Numerous controlled studies show that EMDR ameliorates symptoms of civilian PTSD better than doing nothing, but not a shred of good evidence exists that EMDR is superior to exposure-based treatments that CBT therapists have been administering routinely for decades. Paraphrasing British writer and critic Samuel Johnson, Harvard University psychologist Richard McNally nicely summed up the case for EMDR: “What is effective in EMDR is not new, and what is new is not effective.”

 

If you are suffering with any of the issues discussed in this article and would like to seek professional help then you may find our page about how we can help with PTSD useful.