To EMDR OR NOT EMDR, IS THAT THE QUESTION?

Dear Brian G, Dr. Don et alia. struggling with
"scientific" justification of EMDR.

I am a humble clinician, not a researcher, let
alone a statistician. I do read the literature
and try to understand the ying and the jang
of the shifting debate on whether EMDR is truly
an innovative method that merits a singular standing
alongside CT, CBT, RET, etc. or is just another failed
attempt to "mesmerize" the mental health field with a
clever display of smoke and mirrors.

Although I am, Brian and Dr. Don, what you would call
a "believer", it really isn't because I am swayed by
the scientific "findings". To paraphrase something
that William James said about philosophers: "There is
really only one thing that a mental health researcher
can be relied on to do, and that is to contradict what
another researcher has concluded". Was it the wisdom
of a "layperson" on this discussion forum who stated
that, after following the scholarly debate, he decided
the outcome to be a essentially a draw ("45-50) on
scholarly argumentation but felt "in the end" that he
"found it difficult to believe that EMDR is a complete
hoax".

Why am I a believer? Well, although not from Missouri,
I simply believe what I see as I do EMDR. CBT, my prior
choice among the approximate 500 alleged therapies out
there, is a powerful "talk therapy" method and, perhaps
just as importantly, a wonderfully coherent, methodical
way of thinking about and structuring therapy--from assessment to goal achievement. EMDR is all of this as
well--the outcome is deep and enduring but, especially,
faster and less emotionally drawn out for the traumatized
client than is CBT (in my opinion). Furthermore, an appreciation of the full methodology of EMDR requires a
clinician to pay close attention to the multimodal components of a client's problem--something all good therapy
demands but about which few methods give guidance.

At the end of my clinical day, it is not what the research
says but what my clients say. It works! It heals and it
heals in a wonderfully enduring and profound way that takes
much less time (for me) than CBT/CBT exposure therapy.

So, after reading hours of scholarly debate on this forum
over the past few days about the "newness" of EMDR (and I
believe that it is "new" but yet organically connected to
the best of other treatments), I can only offer the words
of a reknown, former (and probably controversial) chinese
prime minister who said "It doesn't matter if the cat is
black or white, as long as it catches mice". EMDR, like the cat, gets the therapeutic job done.

Finally, please don't leave us Brian G and Dr. Don. We
need to hear the distant thunder to help us discern the
posssible approach of threatening storms.

Peace,

Jerry Murphy

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