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How does EMDR work?
Abstract
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective treatment for alleviating trauma symptoms, and the positive effects of this treatment have been scientifically confirmed under well-controlled conditions. This has provided an opportunity to explore how EMDR works. The present paper reports on the findings of a long series of experiments that disproved the hypothesis that eye movements or other ‘dual tasks’ are unnecessary. These experiments also disproved the idea that ‘bilateral stimulation’ is needed; moving the eyes up and down produces the same effect as horizontal eye movement, and so do tasks that require no eye movement at all. However, it is important that the dual task taxes working memory. Several predictions can be derived from the working memory explanation for eye movements in EMDR. These seem to hold up extremely well in critical experimental tests, and create a solid explanation on how eye movements work. This paper discusses the implications that this theory and the empirical findings may have for the EMDR technique.
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“These experiments have demonstrated that the efficacy of such techniques can be explained in the context of working memory theory, whereby eye-movements occupy limited cognitive resources during memory retrieval, resulting in the storage of less vivid/emotional memory representations (see Van den Hout & Engelhard, 2012 for an overview).”
From Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application (2019) · cites this paper as Van den Hout & Engelhard, 2012
In the citing paper
“What these have in common is that the treatment targets problematic aspects of the trauma memory, whether by techniques such as exposure (Foa & Kozak, 1986), restructuring (Ehlers & Clark, 2000), or dual-task interference (Van den Hout & Engelhard, 2012).”
From Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application (2019) · cites this paper as Van den Hout & Engelhard, 2012
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Metadata
- Authors
- van den Hout, M. A., & Engelhard, I. M.
- Affiliations
- Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
- Utrecht University (NL)
- ORCID
- Engelhard, Iris M.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-12
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 724-738
- ISSN
- 2043-8087 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2142320849
- Semantic Scholar
- fd258a7e6c723c18d012bf7fef275199e4479b5b
- Cited by
- 247
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 8.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- EMDR, working memory, dual-task interference, eye movements, bilateral stimulation, trauma symptoms, horizontal eye movements
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