ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the history, theoretical underpinning, and pragmatic aspects of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). It expands the understanding of the potential uses of EMDR's highly structured protocol, one that was originally established to treat trauma cases. EMDR operates on the premise that traumatic events often cause a person to develop harmful beliefs and behaviors, and that EMDR processing opens patients to fresh understanding and insights that allow them to cast off these destructive tendencies. Both EMDR and psychodrama engage the mental sphere through their relatively rapid access to emotions through embodied experience. EMDR attempts to explain the reason why a motion or emotion like those triggered by bilateral stimulation (BLS) can evoke a psychodynamic response in the mind and body, and how this embodiment can open the door to modification in the response to the traumatic experience. EMDR's pioneer, Francine Shapiro, introduced the first controlled study of EMDR in 1989.
