Francine Shapiro

Francine Shapiro (February 18, 1948 – June 16, 2019) was an American psychologist and educator who originated and developed eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a controversial form of psychotherapy for resolving the symptoms of traumatic and other disturbing life experiences.

In 1987, she had an experience walking through a park that led to the 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 conducted additional research and published a randomized controlled study with trauma victims. After further research and elaboration of the methodology, she published a textbook in 1995 detailing the eight phases of this form of psychotherapy. The text is now in its third edition.

In more recent years, EMDR has been categorized as a form of purple hat therapy and pseudoscience. Provided by Wikipedia