Have you completed your training in EMDR therapy and been finding your feet in practicing the model? You might be considering training and thinking about doing your EMDR Accreditation. Do you want to know what the next step is? Be ahead of the game, you know your destination, so get your journey mapped out before you set off! Read on to find out more.
1. Standard EMDR training needs to be completed a minimum of 12 months before applying for EMDR Accreditation.
You can apply to become an Accredited EMDR Practitioner a minimum of 12 months after completing EMDR training. Make sure you have trained with an Accredited training company (do be careful about this as some training courses are not accredited by either EMDR Europe or EMDRIA and this prevents you from being able to proceed towards accreditation.) You can have a look here to find the training regulated by EMDR Europe. Check that the training company you trained with are on this list. For example, the training company Mindsync EMDR Training that I have set up with my colleague Caroline van Diest is on this list.
However, 12 months is really quick, it took me around 4 years before I felt ready for my EMDR Accreditation. I had however been on maternity leave for 12 months, returned to work part time and I was working in secondary care services so client work tended to be lengthy interventions. In reality, as the Accreditation is competency based, you will need to develop and show these competencies to your supervisor. In my experience it is more likely that it takes longer than 12 months to get there.
EMDR Europe oversee the Accreditation process click here to find out more about the competencies that you need to develop for EMDR Accreditation. And to get access to a FREE webinar that I have delivered please click here “Top Tips for EMDR Accreditation”
2. You will need to be supervised by an EMDR Accredited Consultant/Supervisor.
You need to be supervised by an Approved EMDR Consultant either by EMDRIA or EMDR Europe (depending on where you live and which EMDR association regulates that country). This can be either 1-1 or in a group setting. EMDR Consultant supervisors have developed competencies in guiding you through this process. They have knowledge and skills in what you need to be know to become accredited. Supervisors will have demonstrated their expertise in EMDR as they progressed through the Consultancy process.
Supervision hours are set at a minimum of 20 hours and need to be from an Accredited EMDR Consultant. Standard training includes 10 of these hours. In most situations I find therapists have had much more that the minimum supervision, I know I had. I think I was at least 20 hours in before I even started thinking about the accreditation process.
25 clients need to be seen for EMDR therapy and you need to have completed at least 50 hours of EMDR therapy. This can be one of the hardest things. I found it hard to get to the 25 clients but had completed the number of hours very quickly. At the time I would see most of my clients for more than 20 sessions so it was really easy to get the sessions in but I did not have a high turnover of clients.
3. Accreditation is competency based.
Evidence of your competencies need to be demonstrated to your supervisor. They need to observe your work either in person or via recorded sessions. It’s often been a block for many people. It can be hard to get round the technology. For me, I have had to work hard to get through a mindset block and a fear that this would be the moment when everyone realised I wasn’t doing EMDR the ‘right’ way. I also had to work through hating seeing myself on video!! It was awful initially watching it back and my initial preoccupation is always on how I look and sound 😂😂. I find I am my own worst critique and I’ll always criticise those things first, I’m sure I don’t look or sound like that!
Keep things super simple
Often therapists I work with over complicate this, I alway always emphasize the importance of keeping it simple. As a supervisor I need to know that you know the basics of the 8 phases of treatment as Shapiro created it. For extra help around looking at your competencies for Accreditation you can purchase my downloadable workbook by clicking here. This will give you some more ideas about how you can demonstrate your competencies to your supervisor. But the part I love most about the workbook is the quiz where you will get to test your EMDR knowledge. Not only that it gives explanations for each answer so you can go deeper in your EMDR knowledge.
I find many people get stuck with adding to the standard protocol and focusing more on other EMDR protocols or adaptions without fully appreciating the standard protocol. What I emphasize time and time again is grow your competence in the standard protocol first and then use this as a space to explore further from. This sounds very similar to creating a secure base in attachment therapy to me!!
Help and support around EMDR Accreditation
If you want to develop more clarity about the accreditation process, you can purchase my little workbook which lays out for you the expectations of what you need to achieve to be eligible for EMDR Accreditation. It also suggests some exercises to help you on your journey. Please find this here. It’s a workbook that I wish would have been available for me as I was on this journey!!
Who am I?
Hi, my name is Dr Hannah Bryan and I am a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and a Europe Approved EMDR Consultant and Facilitator. In 2006 I trained as an EMDR therapist. I have been an EMDR Consultant since 2014 and an EMDR Facilitator since 2019.
I am extremely passionate about helping clinicians improve their knowledge and skills in EMDR so that they improve their confidence and practice it more with their clients and more clients recover and heal from the traumas they have experienced.
0 Comments