Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being
Types of Maltreatment: Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Physical Neglect, Emotional Abuse, Exposure to Domestic Violence
Target Population: Children and adults who have experienced trauma. Research has been conducted on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), post-traumatic stress, phobias, and other mental health disorders.
EMDR is an 8-phase psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the symptoms of trauma. During the EMDR trauma processing phases, the client attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses that include the client’s beliefs, emotions, and body sensations associated with the traumatic event while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Therapist directed bilateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus but a variety of other stimuli including hand-tapping and audio bilateral stimulation are often used.