Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)", posted December 1, 2007. Dr. Van Nuys interviews Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., the founder of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy or EMDR. EMDR is a very new form of therapy, dating back only to 1987. It is related to Systematic Desensitization, a technique drawn from behavior therapy, but represents an expansion or evolution of that earlier technique such that EMDR is now a quite distinct therepeutic approach. According to EMDR, emotional problems as well as disturbing beliefs are caused by the activation of old, disturbing memories, and if you can reprocess those memories so as to make them less troubling and disturbing, you will reduce or eliminate the emotional problems and beliefs they cause. Reprocessing of disturbing memories occurs while patients access their memories while engaged in eye-movement and similar reprocessing techniques.