Francine Shapiro: biography of the creator of EMDR

When talking about the different ways of doing therapy in psychology, it is common to think of psychoanalysis, humanism or cognitive behavioral therapy. The truth is that there are many types of therapies, among which we find desensitization and reprocessing through eye movements, created by Francine Shapiro.

Francine Shapiro discovered that eye movements were able to reduce the intensity of distress from negative thoughts. In his research with war-traumatized subjects, he found that EMDR significantly reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in these subjects.

Francine Shapiro Biography

Francine Shapiro was born on February 18, 1948 in Brooklyn, New York. She was the creator of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), to treat and cure post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Shapiro graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1968 and his master’s degree in 1974 from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. In 1979 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The experiences she had from said disease and reading different authors increased her interest in literature on the depressant effects of stress on the immune system. From these readings, she gleaned the idea that there were very few therapies designed to help people with these problems.

Due to the above, decides to investigate the existing procedures for these problems and disseminate them to the public. In the years that followed, she participated in numerous workshops and teaching and self-help programs to reduce stress. She also enrolled in the Professional School of Psychological Studies in San Diego with the goal of learning what was being taught in psychology.

Francine Shapiro became executive director of the EMDR Institute in Watsonville, California. She was also founder and president of the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program, a program that seeks to bring EMDR to communities that have suffered natural disasters and whose mental health needs are not covered with psychotherapeutic approaches to effectively treat psychological trauma.

She received several awards, including the distinguished International Sigmund Freud Award, the California Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Psychology Award, and the American Psychological Association’s Division 56 Award for outstanding contributions to the practice of psychology. trauma.

Contributions to psychology

Francine Shapiro discovered that people who experience trauma often do not fully process it. The feelings and memories associated with trauma often exist, but are separated, so that the person is not able to construct an accurate story with them. Additionally, people who have experienced trauma may mentally revert to intrusive flashbacks, terrifying nightmares, which in turn can lead to great anxiety.

EMDR was developed to help people who have experienced trauma. Their intervention was capable of reducing the overwhelming feelings associated with the traumatic event. It also allowed the person to adequately control memories and behaviors linked to the trauma.

Francine Shapiro and EMDR

He EMDR is a therapeutic approach that works on the information processing system. Sometimes, this system can become blocked or function inadequately for various reasons, which can lead to the appearance of different symptoms.

The main objective of EMDR is to quickly facilitate the reduction of negative feelings and thoughts.. In addition, it seeks to reduce the psychological stress associated with trauma, which increases the person’s quality of life (Grant, 2000).

Its implementation includes eye movements, creation and rejection of images, cognitive restructuring, reorganization of sensory stimuli related to the traumatic experience, sequential organization of information, and delimitation of awareness of related physical sensations (Shapiro, 1999).

The phases of this approach are the following (Lemus, 2008):

Medical history and treatment plan: evaluation of symptoms and dysfunctional behaviors.Preparation: establish an appropriate therapeutic relationship, raise reasonable expectations, perform psychoeducation and training in self-control techniques.Assessment: Identify the most significant memory. Identify negative cognitions and express positive ones.Desensitization: achieve changes in the sensory experience related to the trauma. Increase the sense of self-efficacy and improve introspection. To do this, the patient is asked to focus on the meaningful memory during brief bilateral stimulation sessions, which consist of rapid tones, taps, or eye movements.Facility: incorporate and extend positive cognitions, replacing negative ones.Body scan: make bodily sensations such as residual muscle tension disappear.Closing: have a sense of self-control and learn to handle disturbing situations.Re-evaluation: propose new objectives and strategies in which the results of the intervention can be appreciated.

one last goodbye

In her final years, Francine Shapiro received a second cancer diagnosis and died suddenly on June 16, 2019 at a medical center north of San Francisco, not far from her home, after a long struggle with breathing problems.

Even though he is no longer in this world, His legacy is still very much alive and is of great help to those who have gone through traumatic situations. Without a doubt, his work and contributions to the field of trauma psychology will hardly be forgotten.

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