EMDR Certification

As an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, I offer consultation to EMDR trained therapists who want to become EMDRIA Certified in EMDR.

The focus of the EMDR Certification process is to support you to become more skillful and effective with your use of EMDR with your clients; and to help you to integrate EMDR more fully into your clinical practice. Common areas of focus in consultation for EMDR Certification include:

• Identifying and setting up effective targets
• Handling blocks to processing, defenses, and incomplete sessions
• Effectively preparing clients for EMDR processing
• Successfully utilizing EMDR Resourcing
• Effectively using cognitive interweaves
• Successfully using the floatback and future template
• Skillfully using ego state interventions
• Developing a deeper understanding of the EMDR 8 Phases, 3 Prongs, and AIP Model

One of the most important aspects of the EMDR Certification process entails learning how to facilitate efficient and effective trauma processing. To meet this goal, we explore topics such as: Knowing when to “stay out of the way” and when to get more involved in your client’s processing; handling forward associations; recognizing and containing new targets that emerge; recognizing when your client has reached the end of a channel and when to return to target; knowing how and when to increase or decrease activation during processing; tracking if your client is within their window of tolerance and steps to take if they are not; identifying when processing is complete.

While EMDR Therapy is most closely associated with treating PTSD, an important focus in consultation for EMDR Certification is learning to work with EMDR therapy to address a broad range of clinical issues. Examples include using EMDR to work with anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, addictions, grief, attachment trauma, chronic pain, early trauma, recent events, panic, and phobias. EMDR Therapy encompasses the Standard EMDR protocol as well as a variety of other protocols (e.g., FSAP, DeTur, Chronic Pain, Early Trauma, Imaginal Nurturing, Dyadic Resourcing). EMDR consultation can help you to understand the role of these protocols and how to determine when it could make sense to use one of them instead of the standard protocol.

The EMDR International Association’s Criteria for EMDR Certification includes a number of steps. One of the main steps is 20 hours of consultation (at least 10 hours are required to be individual consultation). I offer both individual and group consultation for EMDR certification. EMDRIA’s website explains the details of the Certification Criteria.

I offer EMDR consultation in-person as well as by phone or Zoom. If you have any questions about consultation for EMDRIA Certification, please feel free to contact me.