Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) refers to highly vontroversial therapy for trauma survivors in which a client attends to the image of the trauma, thoughts about the trauma, and the physical sensations of anxiety aroused by the trauma while the therapist quickly moves a finger back and forth in front of the client's eyes to elicit a series of repeated, rapid, jerky, side-to-side eye movements ("saccades").
Lexicon of Psychology - Terms, Treatments, Biographies,