You will also be astonished at the amazing changes EMDR brings about so speedily. Perhaps her dismay with other therapies came about because she spent four years in Jungian analysis and two years in psychodynamic psychotherapy without experiencing the epiphany that EMDR produced in minutes. Clinical reports by EMDR practitioners suggest the therapy is most useful in the eradication of single traumas. Often in only one session. EMDR is touted as highly effective for the treatment of phobias and other emotional disturbances, especially post-traumatic disorders.
Theories abound as to why the technique is therapeutic.
Parnell lists some of them. An early speculation was that there is some physiological process akin to the benefits derived from rapid eye movement during sleep. Parnell's emphasis on authorized training, and personal experience of EMDR, by therapists wishing to practice this powerful modality, is almost cult-like. Her guidelines echo the early psychoanalytical movement with its undertones of faith in the theory and loyalty to the founder. EMDR clears impediments to wholeness, yet never removes what is adaptive and functional.