Shapiro, Francine

Francine Shapiro (1948– ), the creator of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, was born in Brooklyn, New York. A major motivating factor in Shapiro’s development was the death of her 9-year-old sister when Shapiro was 17 years of age. It caused a ripple effect throughout the rest of her life, especially when Shapiro later conceptualized it as a stress-related condition. This loss became one of the major incentives for her investigations into psychoneuroimmunology, which later evolved into the development of EMDR therapy. Through the advent of EMDR therapy, the field was introduced to a new understanding of psychopathology and rapid healing called the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.

Shapiro’s early interest was English literature, and she earned her B.A. and M.A. at Brooklyn College ...