Francine Shapiro, PhD, is an American psychologist and educator who originated and developed EMDR (Acronym for 'Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing'), a form of psychotherapy for resolving the symptoms of traumatic and other disturbing life experiences.[1]
In 1987, she made the chance observation that moving her eyes from side to side appeared to reduce the disturbance of negative thoughts and memories. This experience led her to examine this phenomenon more systematically. Working with approximately 70 volunteers, she developed standardized procedures to maximize therapeutic outcomes, conducted additional research and a published randomized controlled study with trauma victims.[2] After further research and elaboration of the methodology, she published a textbook in 1995 detailing the eight phases of this form of psychotherapy.[3] EMDR is now recommended as an effective treatment for trauma in numerous international practice guidelines, including those of the American Psychiatric Association and the Department of Defense.[4]
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As the originator of EMDR, Dr. Shapiro is a recipient of a variety of awards,[5] including the International Sigmund Freud Award for Psychotherapy of the City of Vienna in conjunction with the World Council for Psychotherapy, the American Psychological Association Trauma Psychology Division Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice in Trauma Psychology, and the Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Psychology Award presented by the California Psychological Association.
Dr. Shapiro holds a B.A. (1968) and M.A. (1974) in English Literature from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. In 1974, while employed full-time as an English teacher, she enrolled in a PhD program in English Literature at New York University. During this time she also became a literary critic, with reviews in the Library Journal and various encyclopedias. She is the editor of a volume entitled Thomas Hardy’s Chosen Poems published in 1978.[6] In 1979, having completed all but her dissertation, she was diagnosed with cancer. Her post-recovery experiences shifted her attention from literature to the effects of stress on the immune system, based on the work of Norman Cousins and others[7] She noted that while many theories had been proposed for these effects, little practical knowledge was available to assist individuals with disease prevention and self-care. She decided to seek out existing cutting-edge procedures and disseminate them to the general public.[8] Over the next few years she participated in numerous workshops and programs that taught stress reduction, self-enhancement and mental and/or somatic self-care procedures. During this period she enrolled in the Professional School of Psychological Studies (an unaccredited, now defunct, school at that time approved by the state of California for psychologist licensure),[9] to learn what was being taught formally in the field of psychology. Her discovery of the effects of eye movements in 1987 and subsequent development of procedures to utilize them in clinical practice became the basis of her dissertation, which entailed a randomized study with participants suffering from trauma. She received her PhD degree in 1988 and her dissertation research was published in the Journal of Traumatic Studies in 1989,[10] followed by an invited article that was published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.[11] She has since devoted herself to the development and research of EMDR.[12]
Dr. Shapiro is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, Executive Director of the EMDR Institute, Watsonville, CA, and founder and President Emeritus of the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs, a non-profit organization that coordinates disaster response and pro bono trainings worldwide. The organization is a recipient of the 2011 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Sarah Haley Memorial Award for Clinical Excellence. Dr. Shapiro was designated as one of the “Cadre of Experts” of the American Psychological Association & Canadian Psychological Association Joint Initiative on Ethnopolitical Warfare, and has served as advisor to a wide variety of trauma treatment and outreach organizations and journals. She has been an invited speaker at psychology conferences and universities worldwide [13] and has written and co-authored more than 60 journal articles, chapters, and books about EMDR, [14] including the primary text Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols and Procedures. [15] She is a licensed clinical psychologist currently residing in Northern California.