EMDR with grief: Reflections on Ginny Sprang's 2001 study

Abstract

"Translating Research Into Practice" is a new regular journal feature in which clinicians share clinical case examples that support, elaborate, or illustrate the results of a specific research study. Each column begins with the abstract of that study, followed by the clinician'sdescription of their own application of standard eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) procedures with the population or problem treated in the study. The column is edited by the EMDR Research Foundation with the goal of providing a link between research and practice and makingresearch findings relevant in therapists' day-today practices. In this issue's column, Katy Murrayreferences Sprang's (2001) study, which investigated EMDR treatment of complicated mourning and describes how she used EMDR with three challenging cases-a mother mourning for her young adult son who died by suicide, a woman struggling with the loss of her mother to Alzheimer's disease, and a young mother whose baby was stillborn. Case examples are followed with a comprehensive discussion. ©2012EMDR International Association.