Re:EMDR and OCD

This is a complicated question, and I must remind you that we can't really do case consultation here -- we don't have enough information. So I will offer you a few general comments:

EMDR has been used successfully for OCD (based on clinical case reports, not controlled studies) but the protocol is not the usual EMDR protocol. Marcia Whisman, MSW, has described a protocol that combines exposure and response prevention with EMDR, and takes the client back in time to earliest occurrences of some of the negative cognitions that underly the obsessive thoughts. She has used both cognitive behavior therapy (exposure and response prevention) (18 years, as I recall) and EMDR (10 years) and finds EMDR much more comfortable than E&R alone -- for the client to experience and for the therapist to implement.

Any therapist using EMDR on OCD should consider Marcia Whisman's protocol and/or consultation -- Marcia is in St. Louis.

You may wish to show this page to your therapist. Best of luck,

Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD
Fair Oaks, CA

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