EMDR and Learning Research

Holistic Psychologist, Psychologist Philadelphia, Published Articles

 

EMDR and Learning Theory

Jeanette, Doris. EMDR and Learning Theory, Perspective, January 2002, 31.

As humanists we know that any technique is only as good as the person using it. In 1975 I worked directly with Joe Wolpe, MD, Father of Behavior Therapy. He was a kind and gentle sprit who sincerely cared about his clients who of course he called "patients." He used his warm relationship with them to support them in facing and eliminating their irrational beliefs. His relationship manner was as important as his desensitization and he even mentioned this fact in his book.

I also meet B. F. Skinner, who in my opinion, was as close to a Black Box as a human being can get. Skinner's terror must have been very high on the SUDS's scale is all I can say. I remember his body and social manner being as rigid as many of the people I worked with in Mental Hospitals. Any technique used by Skinner would make a person more controlled and more rigid.

I share this with you because learning theory can be helpful to us in breaking free from our conditioned responses. Desensitization when applied to the deep profound level of the heart, the body, the soul and the emotions can help return us to wholeness. I personally think learning theory should be taught in the early grades to school children to them stop the insidious and unconscious brainwashing that occurs in families and schools.

EMDR, the newest form of desensitization, can be helpful in breaking up the obsessive, record playing thoughts that are stuck in our brain. These techniques when used in a harmonious manner with people by a warm loving psychologist can be effective in helping people face their terror. I only use them when a person is stuck and cannot move their own breath, emotions and body. And I use them applied all the way to the core, bottom issues and images.

Joe Wolpe, learning research, learning theory, desensitization, effective therapy, EMDR