How Was EMDR Discovered? The Origin, Creator & History of EMDR Therapy

This article has been researched and written by Mariam. AI has not been used in producing this article.

How was EMDR discovered? EMDR was discovered in 1987 by American psychologist Francine Shapiro, who noticed that specific eye movements reduced the emotional intensity of her own distressing thoughts – a chance observation that became the foundation of one of the world’s leading trauma therapies. Understanding how was EMDR discovered gives important context for why the therapy is structured the way it is and why it works.

How Was EMDR Discovered? The Story Behind the Therapy

How was EMDR discovered in practical terms? In 1987, Francine Shapiro was walking in a park in California when she noticed that distressing thoughts she had been preoccupied with seemed to lose their emotional charge spontaneously. She also observed that when this happened, her eyes had been moving rapidly from side to side. Curious, she began paying deliberate attention to the relationship between eye movements and changes in distress – and then started experimenting.

How was EMDR discovered to be effective beyond Shapiro’s initial self-observation? She tested her approach on friends and colleagues before moving to clinical populations. She found that when she guided people’s eye movements while they held a distressing thought in mind, the thought consistently lost its emotional intensity more rapidly than without stimulation. In 1989, she published the first controlled study – results showed significant trauma symptom improvement after a single session of what she was then calling Eye Movement Desensitization.

How was EMDR discovered to need a reprocessing component? As Shapiro refined the method, she recognised that reducing emotional intensity – desensitisation – was not enough on its own. The negative beliefs associated with traumatic memories also needed to be addressed. This led her to expand the protocol and rename it Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.

Who Created EMDR?

Who created EMDR? Francine Shapiro created EMDR. Born in 1948 in New York, Shapiro trained as a psychologist following a serious illness that prompted deep interest in the mind-body relationship. Who created EMDR and what was the scope of her contribution? She founded the EMDR Institute, developed the Adaptive Information Processing model that underpins the therapy, wrote the foundational clinical textbook on EMDR, and trained clinicians worldwide.

Who created EMDR’s theoretical framework? Shapiro developed the Adaptive Information Processing model to explain the mechanism of change. The brain has a natural system for processing experiences and integrating them into existing memory networks. Trauma overwhelms this system, leaving memories frozen in their raw, unprocessed form. EMDR re-engages the processing system, allowing frozen material to integrate and lose its charge.

When Was EMDR Developed Into a Recognised Treatment?

When was EMDR developed beyond the initial research phase? The 1990s brought rapid growth in the evidence base as independent researchers replicated and expanded on Shapiro’s original findings. When was EMDR developed to the point of formal institutional recognition? In 2004, the American Psychiatric Association endorsed EMDR as an effective PTSD treatment. When was EMDR developed to receive global endorsement? In 2013, the World Health Organization formally recognised EMDR alongside cognitive behavioural therapy as a recommended treatment for trauma.

Who Developed EMDR Further After Shapiro?

Who developed EMDR beyond Shapiro’s original protocol? Over the decades, clinicians worldwide adapted and expanded the framework. Who developed EMDR applications for children? Specialists including Ana Gomez developed child-adapted protocols. Who developed EMDR for complex and dissociative presentations? Practitioners at the intersection of EMDR and phase-based trauma treatment created approaches that integrate stabilisation with memory processing for more complex histories. Francine Shapiro passed away in 2019, but the therapy continues to grow, with professional associations now operating in more than 130 countries.

Why the History of EMDR Matters for Clients

Understanding how was EMDR discovered and when was EMDR developed gives you a solid foundation for trusting the therapy. EMDR is not a fringe treatment – it has more than three decades of peer-reviewed research behind it and the endorsement of the world’s leading mental health organisations. If you want to understand how the therapy functions, read our guide on what is EMDR therapy and how does EMDR work in the brain. For a breakdown of what each session involves, see our guide to the EMDR steps protocol.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who invented EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy was invented by American psychologist Francine Shapiro, who made the initial observation in 1987 that specific eye movements reduced the emotional intensity of distressing thoughts. She developed and tested the full protocol, publishing her first controlled study in 1989.

When was EMDR developed and officially recognised?

EMDR was developed throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. It received major formal recognition from the American Psychiatric Association in 2004, and the World Health Organization endorsed it as a recommended treatment for PTSD and trauma in 2013.

How did Francine Shapiro discover EMDR?

Shapiro noticed during a walk in 1987 that distressing thoughts became less intense when her eyes moved rapidly from side to side. She began experimenting deliberately with guided eye movements and found they consistently reduced emotional intensity – an observation that led to the development of the full EMDR protocol.

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