11 years of PSYTREC: substantial PTSD improvement and low dropout in many intensive treatment cohorts. Complexity need not mean postponing trauma treatment. Our review shares the findings, and research still needed. traumaj.com/index.php/pub/ar… #PTSD #EMDR

Finally, a study on EMDR for social anxiety in which EMDR therapy targeted flashforwards. The study by involved patients who had been referred after CBT had previously proven ineffective or because the treatment was expected to be complex. After just three #EMDR sessions, we observed a pattern of reduced social anxiety. As the pre-registered analyses were not significant, the findings must be interpreted with caution; however, the effect sizes provide a clear signal that warrants further research. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

PTSD and dissociative disorders may be more similar than we think. New findings suggest that trauma-related dissociation organizes into 3 domains: depersonalization/derealization, amnesia, and identity dissociation. PTSD and dissociative disorders share the same structure—differing mainly in severity. Clinical implication: high dissociation alone is not a reason to withhold trauma-focused treatment. doi.org/10.1037/trm0000676 #PTSD #Dissociation #EMDR #TraumaFocusedTherapy

EMDR therapy goes beyond fear. In 560 participants, taxing peoples' working memory reduced the vividness and unpleasantness of autobiographical memories, whether the dominant emotion was fear, shame, anger, or sadness. Clinical message: EMDR therapy works for all types of emotionally salient memories (i.e., involving shame, anger, sadness or guilt). doi.org/10.1080/02699931.202…

Strong new evidence for EMDR therapy A meta-analysis of 65 RCTs (N=3,342) found significant and lasting reductions in PTSD, anxiety and depression. One of the largest syntheses to date confirms #EMDR therapy as an effective and durable PTSD treatment. doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-0…

Interesting and clinically reassuring meta-analysis by Hoppen et al. (2026) on the safety of psychological treatments for PTSD in children and adolescents. Across 72 RCTs involving 5,677 young people, trauma-focused psychological treatments proved remarkably safe: dropout rates were relatively low, while sustained symptom deterioration and adverse events were exceptionally rare. For EMDR therapy, the average dropout rate was only 3.5%, compared with 8.9% in waitlist conditions. Notably, the study by Carlijn de Roos and colleagues showed one of the most favourable estimates: only 1 of 54 participants dropped out of EMDR, compared with 2 of 18 in the waitlist condition. The take-home message is clear: trauma-focused treatment for children and adolescents is not only effective, but also very well tolerated, and there is no indication that it increases treatment dropout. Important evidence against the persistent idea that trauma processing in young people is inherently risky. acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.co… #PTSD #EMDR #TraumaFocusedTherapy #ChildMentalHealth #Psychotherapy

What if we are treating personality disorders too far downstream? Our new paper argues that pathogenic memories of adverse childhood experiences may help drive and maintain personality pathology, and that #EMDR therapy can target these memories directly. Nine studies, including four RCTs, now point to improvements in personality disorder symptoms and functioning, also in patients without PTSD. Perhaps it is time to move beyond managing the consequences and start targeting the underlying drivers. frontiersin.org/journals/psy…

🚀 Coming soon: the EMDR 2.0 Manual! A practical, science-informed guide to making trauma treatment more focused, flexible, effective, and efficient with EMDR 2.0, Blind-to-Therapist, the EMD Bomb, Flash 1.0, Flashforward, and more. By Ad de Jongh & @Suzy Matthijssen. 📘 Soon available via enhancingtraumatreatment.com #EMDR #EMDR20 #PTSD #TraumaTreatment

A new international review identifies PSYTREC as part of the European model of intensive PTSD treatment: a multi-approach combining evidence-based trauma-focused interventions. This model is associated with very large effect sizes for PTSD treatment. A gratifying recognition of a decade of research and innovation. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.… #PTSD #EMDR #Trauma #EvidenceBased #MentalHealth #intensivetreatment

Can adults with PTSD and high ASD traits benefit from intensive trauma-focused treatment? Our new study suggests they can. ✅ 83% no longer met criteria for PTSD after treatment ✅ Similar remission rates in participants with low (87%) and high (79%) ASD traits ✅ Nearly one-third of those with high ASD traits shifted into the low-trait range ✅ No dropouts, no adverse events, and no reliable symptom worsening The message is clear: high ASD traits should not be considered a reason to withhold evidence-based trauma-focused treatment. tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.… #PTSD #ASD #Autism #EMDR #Trauma #Neurodiversity

Borderline personality disorder does not exist in nature, it exists in diagnostic manuals. linkedin.com/posts/ad-de-jon…

Presenting at the #BIGSPD26 conference about the trauma-focused treatment of personality disorders. It is possible in a ten session model within a five werk time frame. Read how personality disorders develop and can be treated based upon the AIP model and #EMDR therapy. frontiersin.org/journals/psy…

Very interesting article about Dissociative Identity Disorder (#DID). According to the authors, there is little evidence to support the construct of DID. The symptoms are best described as CPTSS or borderline personality disorder. Treating those symptoms seems the best approach. di.aerzteblatt.de/int/archiv…

A persistent misconception in trauma therapy is that clients must first learn to regulate their emotions before direct trauma-focused treatment can begin. The empirical evidence does not support this. A recent meta-analysis shows that phase-based treatment is not superior to trauma-focused therapy. And in clinical practice, therapists need not fear that direct trauma-focused work will lead to greater dysregulation than so-called phase-based approaches. Important reading for anyone working with PTSD and complex trauma: Meta-analysis: journals.lww.com/jonmd/abstr… To see how this is applied in dd practice and to learn that, as a therapist, you need not fear that a client will become more dysregulated with direct trauma-focused treatment than if you had chosen so-called phase-focused treatment, you can read this open-access article: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/… Let’s follow the evidence — not the myth.

Clinical guidelines matter. Last year, the APA placed #EMDR therapy one step below PE and CPT, relying on an outdated meta-analysis that excluded newer EMDR studies. A new reanalysis shows why this matters and offers recommendations to prevent this in future guidelines. doi.org/10.34133/jemdr.0034 #EMDR #PTSD #TraumaTreatment

A new study shows that a strong therapeutic alliance does not depend on having one fixed therapist. Even in intensive trauma-focused treatment for #PTSD with rotating therapists, a meaningful alliance can be built and maintained. The alliance also appears closely linked to symptom change: higher symptom severity may weaken the later alliance, while a stronger alliance predicts greater subsequent symptom reduction. Importantly, unresolved tensions or conflicts in treatment were associated with both weaker alliances and poorer outcomes. doi.org/10.1080/20008066.202…

A new, comprehensive meta-analysis provides strong support for the application of intensive treatment for PTSD (especially at 270 min. per week), but also for individual adjustments to the protocol. doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2026.1…

Childhood adversity isn’t just a risk factor but it may drive personality disorders. A large longitudinal study (N=8,199) shows ACEs, especially emotional abuse/neglect, strongly predict PDs, ↑ risk for borderline PD ×5. Supports trauma-focused treatment (e.g. #EMDR), even without PTSD.

A new meta-analysis based on 40 studies showed that EMDR therapy was associated with reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with control conditions in adults and adolescents. Reductions were generally larger for anxiety, although the difference was not statistically significant. Follow-up findings indicated that benefits were generally maintained over time. spj.science.org/doi/10.34133…

We are happy to hear that our review article on #EMDR therapy has been so well-read. If you haven't seen it yet, and are interested in an up-to-date overview of the mechanism of action and the scientific research, you can find it here. @sharifelleithy onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…