The EMDR Research Foundation is committed to providing funding and support for unbiased research in EMDR with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of client care and the transformation of lives. Funding research alone won’t do that – research has to be available and accessible to clinicians in a way that is relevant to their work. It is discouraging to hear from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Care (2001) that it can take one to two decades for research to be integrated into routine clinical practice, but clinicians and researchers can expedite that integration by sharing our own clinical stories inspired by or supported by research. The EMDR Research Foundation’s new project, the Translating Research into Practice column, aims to provide an accessible forum for researchers and clinicians to bring research alive and make research findings relevant in a clinician’s day to day practice. By sharing our clinical experiences we can provide the vital link between research and practice.
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Researchers read research, but clinicians are more likely to be influenced by the case examples described in research (Stewart and Chambless, 2010). Many clinicians acknowledge that they skim through research articles to find the nuggets of case examples. This is not surprising: clinical stories engage us and encourage us to read more. When we read a research article, it is with our own clients’ lives in mind as we consider the possible influence on our own practices. “How will this make a difference in my work with my clients? With a particular client or particular disorder, does this support my current interventions or help me to identify another clinical choice? Does this help me understand my client, case conceptualization, or treatment effects more fully? Does this provide a strategy or technique for using EMDR with a client for whom I haven’t yet used it?” For the non-research oriented clinician, case examples motivate us to wade through the more analytically organized data within a research article as we connect the findings with the heart and passion of our work.
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With this in mind, the EMDR Research Foundation’s Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) column is soliciting clinical case examples inspired by or supported by research. Clinicians, if you have read a research article that stimulated your thinking, inspired your work, or made a difference in your work with a client, please share this by writing a brief case description that elucidates or is inspired by the findings of a research article. Researchers if you have been involved in a research study and would like to share clinical examples that elucidate your findings, we invite you to share them with your clinical colleagues by writing your case example and how it relates to your research. Clinical consultants and trainers, if you have found a research article that has proven helpful to a consultee or to trainees in their understanding of or application of EMDR, please share your experiences. We can support researchers in disseminating their findings and provide the critical link between research and practice.
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It has been said that “life is too short to learn solely from our own mistakes.” In the lifespan of a clinical practice, it is also clear that our work with clients is too important to learn only from our own clinical experience. Research and the clinical stories that spring from its application provide a distillation and elaboration of the experience of others, shine a light on possibilities for our own practices, and thereby accelerate healing for our clients. The EMDR Research Foundation’s Translating Research into Practice column aims to support clinical excellence through the dissemination of clinically relevant research findings – exponentially expanding the clinical experiences from which clinicians learn. We look forward to the contributions of clinicians, consultants, trainers and researchers to this column.
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Instructions for authors:
• Purpose: To translate research findings pertaining to EMDR into applications in clinical practice. The research article might explore clinical applications, the theoretical model, the procedures, or the underlying neurobiology.
• Format: Please include the following:
(1) Full citation and abstract of original research article,
(2) Clinical vignette(s) or case example(s) from your practice, using standard EMDR procedures, that support, elaborate, or are inspired by the findings of the original research article,
(3) Discussion of the relevance of the research findings in your clinical practice,
(4) References.
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Our new column is published in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research. The first article “EMDR with Grief: Reflections on Ginny Sprang’s 2001 Study” was written by Katy Murray and can be downloaded for free at http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1933-3196.6.4.187.
If you would like to contribute to the Translating Research into Practice column or volunteer to help with this project please contact the Foundation’s office at info@emdrresearchfoundation.org or Katy Murray at katymurraymsw@comcast.net.
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References:
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2001). Translating Research into
Practice (TRIP) II: Fact Sheet. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. AHRQ Pub No. 01-P017 downloaded 2/2012: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/trip2fac.pdf. - Murray, K. (2012). EMDR with Grief: Reflection’s on Ginny Sprang’s 2001 Study. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 6(4), pp 187-191.
- Stewart, R. E. and Chambless, D. L. (2010), Interesting practitioners in training in
empirically supported treatments: research reviews versus case studies. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66: 73–95.
