What is EMDR, this "magical" therapy for healing trauma?

Solène Delinger 4:56 p.m., January 26, 2022, modified at 4:58 p.m., January 26, 2022

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Have you ever heard of EMDR?

However, this therapy would be "magical" for people with phobias or post-traumatic disorders.

What is this method and is it really effective?

Guest in "Bienfait pour vous" on Europe 1, Patrick Lemoine, psychiatrist and doctor in neuroscience, details the benefits of EMDR. 

Eye movements

First of all, EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in English, ie the desensitization and reprocessing of information through eye movements.

EMDR is neither alternative medicine nor soft medicine.

It relies on the movement of the eye, a quick scan from right to left as the person reconnects with the traumatic event through thought.

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A therapy invented by a woman 

EMDR was invented in 1987 by psychologist Francine Shapiro in San Francisco.

That year, she learns in a very brutal way that she has cancer.

Devastated, assailed by dark thoughts, she sits down at the edge of a lake to follow the flight of birds.

She then feels lighter and formulates this hypothesis: what if the back and forth of the eyes could relieve our negative thoughts and emotions?

She then embarked on an unprecedented experiment: she asked 80 volunteers to follow her finger with their gaze by experimenting with eye movements.

And it works! 

Numerous clinical studies were carried out in the following years, then the method was imported into France in 1994 with the book "Guérir", by David Servan-Schreiber.

EMDR therapy is practiced in the offices of psychologists as well as psychotherapists and psychiatrists.

Its effectiveness was validated in 2007 by the Haute Autorité de Santé, by the WHO in 2013, then by Inserm in 2015. 

EMDR is intended for all people who suffer from an anxiety disorder following a traumatic situation, such as an attack, rape, abortion, natural disaster or even a divorce, a breakup, a car accident. .

Relive the trauma 

During an EMDR session, the practitioner suggests that the patient think about the moment of the trauma, letting his emotions rise.

Then, he asks her to follow his finger with his gaze, which he moves in front of him from left to right.

The stimulation lasts about tens of seconds, then the patient expresses his emotions and sensations to the therapist.

This process is repeated several times during the session.

The intensity of the emotion caused by the memory of the trauma will gradually decrease, until it disappears. 

The price of EMDR sessions varies from 80 to 150 euros.

Some mutuals and complementary insurance offer coverage for EMDR.