A few years ago, I went through a deep depression brought on by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My psychologist was one of the foremost experts on something called “E.M.D.R.” which means Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming. The treatment worked but I would like to know how, does anyone have any experience in this??
Check out this link to the Skeptics Dictionary
http://www.skepdic.com/emdr.html
The jist of it is, no one knows how it works. Not even the people who practice it. There are some who doubt that it works at all. And there is definitely some question about what aspects of this therapy are actually effective and what parts are hocus pocus.
Stephen Barrett’s site also has a paragraph about the technique, available at http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mentserv.html . It includes:
I am glad EMDR worked for you, but most of the empirical research would suggest that EMDR works simply because you believe that is should (in this case it is similar to other behavioural treatments in that ALL therapy seems to work about equally, regardless of what actually happens in therapy). So in other words, in GENERAL, Freudian psychoanalysis works as well as EMDR, or behavioural therapy, or beating someone with a magic magnetic wand, so long as the person actually believes it COULD work. For any one individual, the secret seems to be in finding a therapeutic modality that makes sense for them. So the answer to your question would seem to be that EMDR worked for you because it seemed reasonable to you that it would.
I guess another important fact tom pint out is that EMDR was used together with conventional therapy, so together it worked for me. I do have to disagree with you on one point though, I didn’t actually believe anything would help, complete and total hopelessness was actually how it felt, too afraid to believe in anything, but whatever she did, I’m better now.
Kinda strange but I do it to myself often & it does work. Don’t need all that fancy bancy wording, just to make more money.
But you can try it. Simply have a think of something & spin yourself around. Often youll forget what you were thinking. A bit like being at the kitchen sink, hearing something behind you, turning around & checking then going back to the dishes & forgetting what you were thinking of.
Poysyn said:
That’s one of the strange things about the placebo effect – even if consciously you tell yourself that you don’t believe in whatever it is you’re doing, the effect can still occur. For one thing, why would you be bothering to do it if you had absolutely no hope it would work?