Ian Barron, the Director of the Center for International Education at UMass, has recently been invited to join the Council of Scholars in the Future of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy Project. The Council is an intellectual community of 35 EMDR international thought-leaders, working together to produce material that will advance the field, establish the parameters of EMDR efficacy, and identify areas for future research.
The Future of EMDR Project will seek to build a cogent and curated body of knowledge about EMDR therapy, which can guide the organization and delivery of clinical services, encourage EMDR training in universities, and broaden its use in service delivery. The Project will determine EMDR therapy’s core elements and define what constitutes a treatment modification. It will also work on developing global standards for training and competency which are objective and evidence informed.
WebMD on their web site describes EMDR as a fairly new, nontraditional type of psychotherapy. It's growing in popularity, particularly for treating post-traumatic stress disorder which often occurs after experiences such as military combat, physical assault, rape, or car accidents.
At first glance, EMDR appears to approach psychological issues in an unusual way. It does not rely on talk therapy or medications. Instead, EMDR uses a patient's own rapid, rhythmic eye movements. These eye movements dampen the power of emotionally charged memories of past traumatic events.