Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy by Francine Shapiro

Having completed the basic EMDR course and obtained the therapist certification several years ago, many of the concepts in the book were already familiar to me, making it an easy read. However, I got the impression that the book presented only some selectively effective cases in an overly simplified manner, as it described various cases that dramatically improved in a short period after EMDR treatment.

Although it is certainly a useful tool that can be applied to people who are struggling emotionally after experiencing psychological trauma, I think, like many other psychotherapy techniques, the client’s or patient’s factors significantly influence the therapeutic response. The individuals who responded well to EMDR might have experienced symptom relief, even if they had tried other psychotherapy techniques. Despite the difficulty in accurately assessing the contribution of the therapy itself to the client’s positive changes after treatment, books of this kind tend to overemphasize the therapy’s contribution.

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