Eye Movement Therapies & Science….

Eye Movement Integration Therapy (EMIT) was developed by Connirae and Steve Andreas. Whereas Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) was developed by Francine Shapiro. Both EMIT and EMDR are complex, specific desensitising treatment methods.

Eye Movement (EM) therapies desensitise patients to anxiety and facilitate integrated information processing. Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) is the theoretical framework underpinning both EMIT and EMDR. It addresses factors related to both pathology and personality development. AIP contributes to orienting responses (ORs), which involve retrieving information from previous experiences and integrating it into a positive emotional and cognitive schema.

A dual-attention stimulus, such as eye movement, is a core component of EM therapies because it induces physiological conditions that activate information processing. Eye movements may unblock the brain’s information-processing centres, creating connections between stored information about past events and adverse outcomes. This connection helps generate a response to current stimuli. Subsequently, relaxation responses—or a new series of physiological reactions—reconnect to the stored information from previous adverse experiences, allowing the new information to be reintegrated.

The nature of the dual-attention stimulus differs between EMIT and EMDR due to variations in their theoretical bases for neural access. EMIT uses selective eye movements to access areas of the brain that may be sustaining negative cognitions. These eye movement locations closely correlate with research on NLP’s visual accessing cues. EMIT is commonly acknowledged as a “kinder and gentler” approach, allowing eye movement transitions to proceed at a pace comfortable for the client (as long as the eyes are tracking the stimulus). In contrast, EMDR uses saccadic horizontal eye movements paced at the fastest rate the client can tolerate.

Both EMIT and EMDR have provided clinical benefits for nearly 30 years. While EMDR has maintained a strong focus on PTSD (and related issues), EMIT has evolved into a methodology that supports a broader range of clinical presentations.

One of the most prolific and recognised authors and clinicians in the EMIT field is Dr Danie Beaulieu. She notes that memories formed via the amygdala—without first passing through the hippocampus—are often fragmented and lack narrative structure. These memories are stored within the senses, and different personalities may find them “stuck” in varying sensory modalities. Recovery from trauma requires integration of hippocampal and amygdala-based memories—a normal brain process. EMIT facilitates this integration through its selective use of eye movements.

In 2005, Dr Beaulieu expressed that EMIT enables multi-sensory access to both traumatic and positive memory traces, supporting integration and healing.

There are now two published research studies on EMIT, along with two non-peer-reviewed reports by Beaulieu (2003), Struwig & van Breda (2012), and van der Spuy & van Breda (2018):

  • Beaulieu (2003) collected data from seven clinicians treating 57 adults.

  • Struwig & van Breda (2012) conducted mixed-method research on 12 adolescents (ages 14–16) in a South African residential facility.

  • Van der Spuy & van Breda (2018) replicated this study using a mixed-method approach to explore EMIT’s effectiveness in treating early childhood trauma.

Findings from these studies indicated significant improvement in trauma-related symptoms after just one EMIT session, based on pre- and post-treatment measures using the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) (Briere, 1996; Briere, 2005). Areas showing significant change included:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Posttraumatic stress

  • Dissociation

Even though EMIT research is still emerging, its clinical use continues to expand globally. As Beaulieu stated:

“For the public mental health care provider facing financial restrictions, rapid, effective treatments are equally high priority.”