EMDR certification & why it matters
I’m happy to share that I’m officially EMDR Certified as of September 2022. This represents a lot of extra work and I’m proud to have this title! I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to explain why this might matter to you.
In order to begin practicing EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), you need to be a mental health professional and you need to take a 3- day course introducing you to the basics of EMDR. This includes practice as a client and a provider of EMDR. You can then use EMDR on more “simple” cases, such as a single event trauma with a client who doesn’t have a lot of trauma history.
To be able to say you have completed basic EMDR training, you need to attend a second 3-day training which focuses on more complex cases and application to other struggles beyond “trauma”. You also need to obtain 10 hours of consultation from an approved EMDR consultant. When these things are done, you can say you’ve completed basic training.
To become certified in EMDR, you also need:
2 years of experience as a mental health clinician
50 hours providing EMDR to at least 20 different clients
20 additional consultation hours (10 can be group, and at least 10 need to individual)
Then, you can apply. It definitely takes extra work, as you can see, but I think it’s important to look for a EMDR *Certified* clinician if you’re at all nervous about EMDR or have a trauma history. You can look at EMDRIA’s website to find providers who have completed basic training and providers who have gotten certified. It’s a great place to look (especially because plenty of people haven’t completed basic training but can still offer the modality). You can visit their website here.
Hopefully this helps explain why EMDR certification matters and why I decided to pursue it. EMDR is a powerful approach and I feel comfortable utilizing it because I’ve had a good amount of experience and because I know when to seek additional consultation and when to slow down or change our approach.
What remaining questions do you have about EMDR certification?
Ready to start your mental health journey?
