Getting Past Your Past by Francine Shapiro: Key Ideas, Evidence and Cautions

Getting Past Your Past is a self-help book by Francine Shapiro, PhD, the originator of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy. A 2013 review in The Permanente Journal describes it as a book for professionals and lay readers alike. It explains why some reactions can feel far bigger than the moment that sets them off, and it offers techniques drawn from EMDR therapy for managing distress. It is a book based on ideas from EMDR therapy, not EMDR therapy itself.

Who Was Francine Shapiro?

Francine Shapiro, PhD, developed EMDR therapy. An obituary by Solomon and Maxfield in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research (2019) records that she introduced the method in 1989 with a randomised controlled trial. She died in June 2019, aged seventy-one.

Because Shapiro developed the therapy she writes about, the book describes EMDR from the inside rather than weighing the evidence, so this guide adds the research and the criticisms.

What Is Getting Past Your Past About?

Rodale first published the book in 2012, and Penguin Random House lists a 2013 paperback under its Rodale Books imprint. The book's central argument is that the past can keep shaping the present.

Reviewing the book in The Permanente Journal in 2013, social worker Susan Brown reads it the same way. In her account, Shapiro links reactions that flare up today to earlier distressing experiences that were never worked through. Brown says the book's self-help methods are borrowed from the preparation stage of EMDR therapy, where the goal is coping with distress, and that the book advises seeing a professional when symptoms are both serious and persistent (Brown, The Permanente Journal, 2013).

What Are the Key Ideas in Getting Past Your Past?

These are the ideas at the heart of the book, explained in our words rather than Shapiro's.

• →Old experiences can drive present reactions. The book rests on Shapiro's Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. In that model, when a disturbing experience is not fully worked through, the memory keeps the feelings, physical sensations and beliefs it had at the time. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) explains that memories stored this way can shape how a person sees and responds to things today (EMDRIA, AIP Model). On this view, a curt email from a manager can land with the weight of an older experience of being criticised.
• →A reaction can arrive without its context. In a 2012 interview with TIME about the book, Shapiro described how a trigger can bring back the feeling of an old experience without the picture that goes with it. The feeling then gets read as a reaction to the present. Our article on signs of unresolved trauma looks at how that can show up in daily life.
• →Tracing reactions back is part of the book. Brown describes the book guiding readers through ways to identify the earlier events that sit underneath their present symptoms, and the publisher frames the book around self-understanding.
• →The techniques are for steadying, not processing. As Brown's review notes, the self-help techniques come from EMDR's preparation phase. They are not the memory-processing work of EMDR therapy. Our article on the window of tolerance looks at why feeling steady can matter before working with difficult memories.

We have deliberately not described the book's exercises step by step. If they interest you, read them in the book itself, and if you are seeing a therapist, ask whether they suit your situation.

Is Getting Past Your Past the Same as EMDR Therapy?

No. It helps to be clear about what a book can and cannot do.

The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) describes EMDR as a structured, trauma-focused therapy with eight phases. It involves bilateral (side-to-side) stimulation, such as eye movements, taps or tones, and it addresses past events, present triggers and future functioning. ISTSS describes its effect on a person's own information processing as hypothesised (ISTSS, 2019).

Guidelines also tie EMDR to trained clinicians. England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) expects EMDR for adults to follow a validated treatment manual and to be provided by practitioners who have been trained and who receive continuing supervision (NICE guideline NG116, 2018). The World Health Organization's recommendations for adults and for children and adolescents both say trauma-focused CBT and EMDR belong only in settings where providers are trained and supervised (WHO, 2013).

A book can explain the thinking behind EMDR and describe ways to calm yourself. It cannot do the assessment, preparation, pacing and processing that happen with a clinician. We found no published trial that tested the book itself, and the evidence below is about EMDR delivered by clinicians.

What Does the Research Say About EMDR?

The guideline evidence below is about treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and guideline bodies weigh it differently. Here is what each one says:

• →ISTSS (2019). A Strong Recommendation for adults with PTSD, alongside cognitive processing therapy, cognitive therapy, trauma-focused CBT and prolonged exposure. EMDR is also strongly recommended for children and adolescents, alongside two forms of trauma-focused CBT (ISTSS, 2019, linked above).
• →World Health Organization (2013). The WHO lists trauma-focused CBT, EMDR and stress management as options to consider for adults with PTSD, as a standard recommendation. It rated the evidence for EMDR as moderate quality in adults and low quality in children and adolescents. It made no specific recommendation about EMDR in the first month after a potentially traumatic event, for adults or for young people (WHO, 2013, linked above).
• →NICE NG116 (2018). For adults with PTSD, or with PTSD symptoms that matter clinically, after a trauma that was not combat-related, NICE says EMDR should be offered once more than three months have passed, and considered between one and three months afterwards when the person prefers it. For young people aged seven to seventeen who come forward more than three months after a trauma, NICE treats EMDR as an option only when trauma-focused CBT has not helped or has not been taken up (NICE NG116, linked above).
• →American Psychological Association (2025). EMDRIA's summary of the guideline says it makes conditional recommendations involving EMDR (EMDRIA, 2025). A 2026 critique by EMDR researchers Lee, de Jongh, Farrell and colleagues describes the guideline as listing EMDR as a second-line treatment, behind cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure and trauma-focused CBT (Lee and colleagues, 2026, Journal of EMDR Practice and Research).

Put simply, all four bodies include EMDR as a treatment option for PTSD, with different levels of confidence and different conditions attached.

What Are the Criticisms of EMDR and the Book's Model?

EMDR has drawn real debate, and some of it bears directly on the ideas in the book.

• →Do the eye movements add anything? A meta-analysis of thirty-four studies by Davidson and Parker (2001, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology) found an effect for EMDR compared with no treatment, but no advantage over other exposure techniques and no added effect from the eye movements. A 2013 meta-analysis by Lee and Cuijpers pooled fifteen clinical trials and eleven laboratory studies done outside therapy. It found a moderate added effect of eye movements in the treatment studies and a large one in the laboratory studies. It also suggested that methodological problems in an earlier meta-analysis may have produced a type II error, meaning a real effect went undetected (Lee and Cuijpers, 2013, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry). Lee also led the 2026 critique of the APA guideline discussed in this guide. The question is not settled.
• →Are the guideline ratings right? In their 2026 critique, Lee and colleagues argue that the APA's 2025 guideline underrates EMDR. They say it stands apart from five other recent national and international guidelines, and that it relied on outdated reviews and lower-quality meta-analytic evidence. These authors research EMDR, so their critique is one side of a live disagreement, not a final verdict.
• →AIP is a working model. The idea that symptoms come from memories stored in an unprocessed form is a clinical framework for explaining symptoms and guiding treatment. ISTSS describes EMDR's effect on information processing as hypothesised, and authors who support the model have written that research applying it is still limited (Hase and colleagues, 2017, Frontiers in Psychology).

We are not taking a side in the eye-movement debate, and nothing here claims that EMDR works better or worse than other trauma therapies. For TEO's own overview of the approach, see our EMDR therapy page; our guide to The Body Keeps the Score looks at EMDR alongside other trauma treatments.

Who Is Getting Past Your Past For, and Who Should Read It With Support?

The book may suit:

• →Readers who want a plain-language account of the thinking behind EMDR from the person who developed it.
• →People who are deciding whether to try EMDR and want to understand the approach before a first appointment.
• →People already in EMDR therapy who want background reading between sessions. Let your therapist know what you are reading.

Consider reading it with a therapist's support, or setting it aside for now, if:

• →You experienced abuse or neglect in childhood, or repeated traumatic events rather than a single incident. Our guide to Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving looks at a book written for that readership.
• →You have spells of feeling unreal, detached from your body, or losing track of time.
• →Reading about memories brings on flashbacks, nightmares or distress that does not settle.
• →You are in crisis, or having thoughts of suicide. If so, call or text 9-8-8 (Canada, 24/7), or call 911 if you are in immediate danger.

The book's calming techniques, as Brown describes them, are for coping when old distress is stirred up, not for digging into what happened. Guidelines tie the memory-processing work of EMDR to trained, supervised clinicians.

How Do the Book's Ideas Relate to Therapy at TEO?

TEO Counselling is an online-only practice for clients in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Sessions at TEO do not follow the book or its exercises.

Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC, is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). He has Advanced EMDR training through an EMDRIA-approved programme. He works with clients in all six provinces, in English or Arabic, and is also trained in CBT for Trauma (Levels 1 and 2), Internal Family Systems (Levels 1 and 2), the Gottman Method (Levels 1 and 2) and DBT. Alison Shaji, MA, RCC #22608 (BCACC), is trained in EMDR, CBT, DBT, EFFT and the Gottman Method (Levels 1 and 2). She works with clients in British Columbia only, in English, Hindi or Malayalam.

EMDR is one option, not the only one. Depending on the clinician, trauma work at TEO can also draw on CBT for Trauma, Internal Family Systems or DBT with Mohamad, or on CBT or DBT with Alison. TEO does not offer every therapy named in the guidelines above. Our pages on trauma therapy and PTSD therapy describe that work. No particular result can be promised, whether from therapy or from a book.

Individual sessions are $150 for 60 minutes, and you do not need a referral. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation, by video or a scheduled phone call, booked online, where you can talk through whether EMDR fits your situation. Book a free consultation, or text (519) 760-5211 with a question first.

Is Getting Past Your Past Worth Reading?

If you want to understand how EMDR's developer explained trauma, memory and triggers, it can be a useful introduction. Going by Shapiro's own framing and Brown's review, two things stand out. It gives a plain account of how old experiences can colour present reactions, and it advises professional help throughout for serious and persistent symptoms.

Keep three things in mind as you read. The author is presenting her own model. ISTSS describes the mechanism that model proposes as hypothesised. And the techniques are for managing distress, not for processing trauma. If you decide to read it, try your public library or a local bookstore. We do not use affiliate links.

This guide is TEO Counselling's commentary on Getting Past Your Past, for general information. It is not a substitute for reading the book, or for professional help, assessment or treatment.