De rol van het op afstand beleven en het herbeleven in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Abstract

This research is a replication of previous research by Lee, Taylor and Drummond (2006) which describes the mechanisms that underlie the therapeutic effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). This replication tested whether the content of participants’ responses during EMDR seems more effective when the responses are more consistent with distancing than reliving. The responses made by 15 participants were examined during their EMDR treatment session. Two raters coded these responses whether they were consistent with reliving, distancing, associated (responses which didn’t refer to the trauma) or affect (responses which referred to an emotion). Although not significant, the results are pointing in the same direction as found by Lee, Taylor and Drummond (2006), namely the greatest improvement seemed to occur when participant showed distancing-responses. In addition to Lee, Taylor and Drummond (2006), this research made a distinction between the participants who experienced their trauma with guilt/shame or with a sense of powerlessness. These results showed that in the guilt/shame-condition the distancing-responses seemed to be more effective and in the powerlessness-condition reliving-responses were significantly better. For further research it is mainly necessary to have more participants.