“EMDR therapy arrived in Italy 25 years ago and, at that time, in the field of psychotherapy there was not a great deal of knowledge of the mechanisms of trauma and the contribution of traumatic experiences in various disorders. Therefore, a lot of culture was created on the subject and the EMDR Association invested a lot to understand the role of trauma in mental health. Therefore, numerous researches were carried out and today trauma has become a transdiagnostic aspect, something unthinkable at the time”. This was said by Isabel Fernandez, psychologist and psychotherapist, director of the Research Centre of Psychotraumatology in Milan, who brought the therapy to our country and is president of the Italian and European Association of EMDR, Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or Desensitization and reprocessing through eye movements. (Video)
Today, there are over 20,000 psychotherapists trained on the topic of trauma. From the Costa Concordia disaster to the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the flood in Emilia Romagna, EMDR has proven to be one of the most effective therapies in managing and reworking trauma. Discovered in 1989 by American psychologist Francine Shapiro and introduced to Italy in 1999, EMDR therapy, which focuses on treating traumatic experiences at a neurobiological level through alternating bilateral stimulation, was included in 2013 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the psychotherapy of choice for the treatment of PTSD in children, adolescents and adults, and for all disorders related to stressful situations. In fact, many scientific publications and international literature highlight the long-term impact of traumatic experiences on people’s mental health, well-being and functioning “and EMDR has accompanied all these developments – explains Fernandez – by carrying out research, culture and psychoeducation on these topics”.
The evolution of EMDR therapy in Italy concerns not only the expansion of knowledge, but also that of the fields of application. “Over the years – adds the expert – we have seen how effective it is in acute and emergency situations, such as in the case of natural disasters and other catastrophes, to go and work with EMDR with the population, with children, in schools. We have also seen a huge development at the hospital level, both in the emergency room and in the various departments, where EMDR is now a structural part of many psychology units. The effectiveness of this therapy – Fernandez emphasizes – has also been highlighted in the field of abuse, violence and eating disorders. All the evolutions in these fields of application have always been accompanied by research and studies. What has characterized the development of EMDR therapy in Italy has been precisely the quantity of research and publications done on the topic”.
In recent years, the EMDR protocol has also been integrated with other psychotherapy approaches. “It is in fact regularly used by therapists with different training who start from different approaches and different theories of the mind – explains Fernandez – but who can include the EMDR protocol in their clinical practice. This has brought great richness to our work because we have managed to confront ourselves with a common language and, speaking about the EMDR protocol and the role of trauma in the life history of our patients, we are managing to make ourselves understood and to work better – he concludes – not only with our patients, but also as a professional community”.
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