Re:Scientific Jargon vs. reality

From what I'm reading, the discussion has come back to whether eye movements are necessary or whether the change brought about from EMDR is simply exposer, or cogntive behavioral therapy.

I admit right up front I'm not terribly eductated in EMDR or cognitive behavioral therapy, and I'm no authority on meditation either. However, I am a pretty experienced meditator, I've read about many forms, and practice what works for me. Bored with one object/form of meditation, I move onto one that works better for me.

From my experience, if EMDR works as supporters claim it does, eye movement are crucial. Actually, something on which to fix attention is crucial. It's not unlike focusing on the breath in meditation. If, however, that break into a different mind fails to occur, and I would suspect that this happens more often than not, then EMDR merely becomes exposure therapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy. This is the point that isn't being addressed. Possibly, meditation is poorly understood by most people, and those researching EMDR, or there is a desire to try to present EMDR as something that is unique, distancing itself from an ancient practice.

Ricky makes the point that EMDR is packaged in a unique way and presented in an orderly fashion, which I suspect happens in theory and not in practice. I suspect that as the act of doing EMDR occurs that it isn't that orderly, and the results aren't so even, particularly if eye movements are successful, creating access to the unconscious mind. At that point, it becomes a form of meditation, the eye movments are significant, and that is the thing to be measure. If EMDR unfolds in an orderly fashion, it's probably more likely because the subject remains in the conscious mind, and is being lead by the therapist using exposure therapy.

Again, my ignorance is showing. I am probably completely wrong. I'm just trying to put something out there for people with more training than I have to consider.

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