Intervento EMDR di gruppo per la riduzione dello stress percepito in genitori con figli disabili. Studio di efficacia

Severe disabilities in children can cause high levels of stress within families and scientific literature reports a few studies about using EMDR group interventions for reducing parents/caregiver’s stress. This research, based on a pre-post study design, aims to verify a) the effectiveness of the EMDR-IGTP in reducing perceived stress and b) to demonstrate the effectiveness of EMDR-IGPT in reducing some psychopathologic caregivers’ symptoms. The participants consisted of 15 parents with severely disabled children who underwent 10 sessions of 90 – 100 min each, on a fortnightly basis, administered by two trained EMDR therapists with a specific training in this protocol and a health professional educator. Before starting the first session, the PSS (Stress Perception Scale) and the SCL-90 (Symptoms Checklist-90) were administered, with respect of the anonymity, by the same two trained therapist who conducted the 10 sessions. At the end of the 10 sessions, seven days post-treatment, the same scales were administered along with a satisfaction questionnaire. The results demonstrated an important improvement of the caregivers’ stress, and a significant decrease of the parents’ worries as emerged from the anonymous satisfaction questionnaire.