The Landscape of EMDR Therapy

Abstract

The philosophical architecture of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) intersects with key foundations in psychotherapeutic thought, drawing from and, at the same time, challenging elements from psychodynamic, behavioral, and humanistic traditions. At its core, EMDR therapy-intrinsically client-centered, emerged in the late 20th century and has evolved into a robust, empirically supported, comprehensive treatment intervention for pathogenic memories. The theoretical framework underpinning EMDR therapy-adaptive information processing (AIP) reflects a synthesis of diverse philosophies that capture the complexity of the human psyche and the potential for adaptive transformation. One of the reasons EMDR has survived into its 4th decade is that it is grounded in pragmatism, exploring the links between adverse life experiences, memory integration, principles of neurobiological processing, transformative change, resilience, posttraumatic growth, the nature of both conscious and unconscious processes, and ultimately memory reconsolidation theory. The EMDR therapy/AIP framework invites a fundamental re-examination, distinct from extinction learning and psychodynamic unconscious processes, and instead encapsulates the humanistic focus on human potential and experiential authenticity. This chapter seeks to illuminate EMDR therapy, past, present, future, in its broadest landscape exploring 16 dimensions, highlighting its back story, its evolution as an international, comprehensive, transdiagnostic psychotherapy for the treatment of trauma across the life span, and its uniquely integrative potential in understanding and addressing the global burden of psychological trauma.