Second thoughts

That was the strongest and most potentially inflammatory public statement I have ever made re the EMDR controversy. Not my usual approach. Naturally, I have had second thoughts about it. In particular, it is not very nice to call people liars in the context of a scholarly discussion.

I did this because I think that telling the truth is important. The lies have been doing a lot of harm. When it comes to trauma treatment, the availability and quality of treatment can have enormous influence on quality of life for the traumatized person as well as those affected by that person.

Sometimes we are talking life and death. For example, I was involved in an intervention project at a small-town high school in which there had been several homicides within the past year. The project fell through, and the planned series of interventions (including but not limited to EMDR) did not occur. This school's dropout rate went up, discipline problems increased, substance abuse increased, depression and PTSD increased (despite many going for private treatment). By a year later one friend of an earlier victim died after driving drunk, and a close friend of another of the original victims committed suicide. When the value of trauma treatment is more widely recognized, and when the best trauma treatments are recognized as such, more of these kids will be saved. Just for example.

Sorry if I ruffled some feathers.

Replies:

Re: Second thoughts, by Deb K, 2/19/00

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