Among these is the therapeutic relationship. EMDR works best within an empathic relationship. Current methods of research require strict control of extraneous variables that might confound the results of the study. In short, people are not able to respond spontaneously on command, because if they could it would no longer be spontaneous, and if they don't they are not obeying the command. A third reason involves the credentials of the researcher and the unfortunate gap between research and clinical practice.
Researchers learn and practice EMDR protocols in order to test the method fairly.
Clinical experience with EMDR convinces people of its efficacy. As expected, tight research protocols were absent or violated by sincere attempts on the part of the clinicians to actually help their subjects. Each method, however, brought some relief to the subjects chosen by Figley and Carbonell. But any commonality an-tong the methods remained elusive. The largest number of people in both groups are the approximately two-thirds within one standard deviation above and below the mean.