Orienting Reflex inhibiting fight or flight?

    EMDR (Shapiro)

    Orienting Reflex inhibiting fight or flight?
    by Leonard Holmes, 10/3/97

    Dr. Shapiro,

    I have found EMDR to be a helpful addition to my work with trauma survivors. I am not particularly convinced by the accellerated information processing theory, but I read an online paper in a Traumatology journal:

    (at http://rdz.stjohns.edu/trauma/contents.html )

    Traumatology-Volume 1, Issue 1, May 1995. "An Orienting Reflex/External Inhibition Model of EMDR and Thought Field Therapy" by Nathan R. Denny, Ph.D.

    The idea is that the eye movements elicit the orienting reflex which interferes with the fight-or-flight response and allows the brain to process the material differently.

    How does this fit with your understanding?

      • An early theory limited in scope by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., 10/4/97
      • Additional theories of mechanisms by Francine Shapiro, 10/5/97
    [Prev] [Up] [Next]
    [Reply] [Home] [Help]