Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

Abstract

Living with a disability in Cameroonian families and the contribution of EMDR Psychotherapy

Reine Flore BOUYAP

In Cameroon, the number of disabled people is estimated at nearly 2,910,000. This means that more than 5% of the population suffers from at least one handicap (BUCREP). These alarming figures lead us to look into the issue of children's disabilities and their impact on the health of their parents. As part of our activities in clinical psychology with parents of children living with disabilities, we found that several of them presented various forms of somatic-dominant psychopathology related to their child's disability. The symptoms retained are characterized for the most part by: avoidance, reviviscences, neurovegetative signs and negative thoughts. We therefore wondered how to take care of these suffering parents. To answer this question, we passed the PCL-5 to parents whose speech brought out the experience with their different child as traumatic. From this evaluation, therapeutic projects with EMDR were put in place. Using a reading of seven clinical cases followed in Yaoundé, we were able to verify that EMDR psychotherapy is a useful care tool for the care of parents of different suffering children. From the first session, 04 parents saw their VoC go up to 7 and their SOUTH go down to 2 and the other 03 gradually saw theirs go up until the sixth session.

Received Date: 2020-09-18