[Psychotherapeutic treatment of traumatic stress with the EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)...

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a method, developed at the end of the nineteen-eighties, for the treatment of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The patient is asked to concentrate on certain aspect of the traumatic memory while keeping his eyes fixed on the movements of the therapist's finger. Apparently, this triggers information processing that results in appreciable relief for the patient. The method has proven to be equally as effective as behavioral-therapeutic techniques, and, has in the meantime, been included in national and international guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. The indications for EMDR treatment include not only PTSD, but, increasingly, also other, sometimes more severely chronic, it trauma sequelae. Within the framework of basic care, EMDR must be embedded within a treatment plan and should, where applicable, be combined with other methods.