EMDR for Performance Enhancement: It's Not Just for Trauma

Key points

EMDR is a clinical tool with considerable research validating its efficacy for the treatment of PTSD.

More recently, EMDR is being used by psychologists for performance enhancement in sports and other areas.

Olympic athletes are using EMDR for performance improvement.

The treatment known as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was developed in 1987 by an American psychologist, Dr. Francine Shapiro, for the remediation of trauma symptoms and post- traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ). Though numerous empirical studies (including several randomized control trials, or RCTs) have demonstrated the efficacy of EMDR for the treatment of PTSD (Bisson et al., 2013; Oren & Solomon, 2012), some researchers dismiss EMDR as a “purple hat therapy” (i.e., a therapy th