EMDR Therapy Quarterly

Research skills webinars

The first of our planned research skills webinars took place in early January 2025. Beverly Coghlan and Anthea Sutton ran an interactive session on critically appraising research. The discussion around ‘how we can tell that a piece of research is sound’ was valuable, and we introduced formal methods of quality assessment, such as the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Beverly has written about the session in more detail, please see her reflections here.

The Scientific and Research Committee (SRC) plans to run additional webinars in 2025 on essential research skills. These will be advertised on the Association CPD events webpage, so please look out for them there. If there are any research webinar topics you would find useful, please let us know at a.sutton@emdrassociation.org.uk

Advice on funding applications

As well as the webinar programme to promote research skills, the SRC aims to disseminate useful information to help members get involved in and develop research. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds the Research Support Service to support researchers to develop applications for national, peer-reviewed research programmes. This covers all NIHR programmes and UK research councils, as well as national health and care charities. For further details on the type of support available, please see the NIHR Research Support Service website here.

Public involvement in research

Public involvement in research means actively engaging people from outside the research community, such as patients, community members or the general public, to contribute to the design, conduct and dissemination of research. Collaboration with these groups helps to ensure that research addresses real-world needs, improves relevance and can lead to more meaningful outcomes. If you have any opportunities for the public to get involved in your research, you can add these free of charge to the People in Research website.

Ongoing research

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have begun a ‘Target Therapies’ project evaluating digital and talking therapies using real-world data, including EMDR versus trauma-focused CBT for posttraumatic stress disorder. Further details about the project can be found here.

EMDR UK annual conference

We have now finalised the posters that will be displayed at the annual conference in March. We have an exciting array of topics, and the poster authors will be available to chat during the refreshment and lunch breaks, so if you are attending, please do come and see them. The posters can be viewed electronically by online delegates. Poster abstracts will be published in the conference brochure in due course.

In addition, members of the SRC will be presenting an update on our work on Day One (Friday 21st March) during the lunch break, which is between 12.30 and 13.00. Please see the conference programme. We hope to see many of you there.

Anthea Sutton is the Academic and Research Liaison for EMDR UK.