Psicologia: teoria e prática
Print version ISSN 1516-3687
Abstract
LOPES, Catarina de Castro; CARVALHO, Sónia Cortinhas and BARBOSA, Maria Raquel. Treatment of specific phobia through eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.1, pp.31-42. ISSN 1516-3687.
The specific phobia is characterized by a persistent and recurring fear that is excessive and irrational to a specific object or situation, triggering a strong anxiety reaction. Several studies have been conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and it has been proven to be a successful method for the treatment of specific phobias, anxiety, depression, trauma and somatic complaints. The case of this article describes the therapeutic work done with a forty-two years old’ woman that has phobia to dentures using the intervention of EMDR. At the end of the intervention, the patient lost the fear of prosthetics, no longer revealing responses of anxiety and discomfort and remained stable during the follow-up one month after the intervention. These results had an impact on improving their quality of life, in terms of her personal, social and professional life.
Keywords : specific phobia; case study; trauma; anxiety; eye movement.