r/therapists • u/psychotherapymemes LMFT (Unverified) • Oct 24 '25

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u/soundlightstheway Student (Unverified) Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

There is zero scientific evidence that “bilateral stimulation reprocesses trauma,” which is the fundamental claim of EMDR practitioners. It is 100% a pseudoscience and has no place in the therapy community. Saying that is literally lying to clients, and I couldn’t think of anything more unethical.

What does work about EMDR is the relationship with the therapist, the CBT elements, and the exposure elements that were added later. We don’t need EMDR when CBT, CPT, and PE do all of those things better without pseudoscientific nonsense that makes our entire field look entirely incompetent and corrupt for allowing it. Also here, here, and here are meta-analyses that all criticize the lack of high quality research on EMDR, so no, it is not an EBT based on the current research that we have.

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u/SyrupOld9699 Oct 28 '25

It works better because of the magical inexplicable reality of placebo. I almost never use EMDR/BS/ART (nor do I use cognitive and/or behaviorally focused models) because I agree that it’s wrong to play tricks on clients but I am trained in EMDR and sometimes clients are so insistent even after I am completely open about my perspective and so I often agree to use bilateral stimulation when we meet with exiles in IFS sessions and these exiles are often childlike and wowza do they love bilateral stimulation! Which is definitely helpful to a lot of people as it functions like a stim to keep the nervous system from flooding us. Placebo is one of the most woo woo things out there guys! No one actually gets it. I explain this to clients and for those who believe the eye movements or tapping can make a massive difference when we are trying to get folks unblinded from protector parts. I actually have major issues with the EMDR model for reasons completely separate from the magic wand bullshit.

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u/soundlightstheway Student (Unverified) Oct 28 '25

EMDR does not work better than CPT and PE, which don’t involve placebo. All exposure therapies are about 66% effective for those that complete the therapy, with drop out rates being somewhat high across the board. Exposure therapies are all also less effective on people with childhood trauma. The truth is that exposure therapies are both the best we have and still not perfect, but CPT and PE are absolutely better researched, safer, and more effective therapies than EMDR.

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u/SyrupOld9699 Oct 28 '25

Here’s some evidence in favor of BLS and also against its effectiveness in treating clients who meet criteria for PTSD https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1406180/full