No. Once you have completed an EMDR Training, you are considered an EMDR trained clinician. EMDR Certification requires additional levels of continuing education and consultation in EMDR and is a separate process. View the Certification criteria here.
Certification is a voluntary process. It is a pathway through which individual therapists may wish to pursue further training. Certification is not required in order for a clinician to practice EMDR therapy. If you are trained, then you can use EMDR therapy under your license. EMDR Certification is an option that many therapists have wanted because of Managed Care concerns and hospital privileges. The EMDR Certification model is patterned after the certification models of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAFMT) Approved Supervisor training.
Yes. You must be fully licensed by your state licensing board for independent, private practice (e.g. LMFT, LPC, LICSW, Psychologist, M.D., APRN). That being said, you can start completing the certification requirements while working towards obtaining your full licensure. You just wouldn’t be able to submit your application until you are fully licensed.
There is no time limit from when you complete your EMDR Training to when you decide to apply for EMDR Certification. You will want to keep track of all your documents while completing the requirements, so you have them all when you submit your EMDR Certification application.
Regarding the consultation hours: The 20 hours of consultation must have been completed within the last 5 years. If you continue to receive consultation hours for over a 5 year period, then as long as the EMDR Consultant is able to explain in the letter of documentation when the consultation started and ended (e.g. 2013-2022) and if/when long breaks in consultation occurred that will be acceptable. We understand that clinicians may stop consultation and then restart again but we cannot accept consultation hours that were completed 5 or more years ago.
There is no required minimum amount of time to complete the Certification Application process. Every clinician has a different pace and attitude they take toward becoming EMDR Certified. We do expect all requirements (except EMDR basic training completion & licensure) to have been completed within the last 5 years. Clinicians are eligible to begin working toward certification once they have completed the EMDR Training.
The Certification application process is completely online now! You can start the application here.
If you can, combine the documents into one PDF for each requirement. If you can’t however, no worries. Upload the documents that you can and pay the application fee. Then you will email the additional documents to sfrazier@emdria.org, and we will upload the remaining documents for you.
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Incorrect EMDR Training certificate of completion. Please contact your EMDR Training Provider to make sure you have the correct certificate of completion for a minimum of 50 hours of credit.
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Internship or Associate level license designations. You must be fully, independently licensed to practice in your state or country of residence.
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Lack of notarization.
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Lack of clear designation of individual vs. group attained consultation. Remember 10 of the 20 required hours for certification must be individual consultation.
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Lack of clear recommendation from an Approved Consultant.
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Incorrect fee.
Your application may take up to 3-5 weeks to be processed once we have all of the required documents. If you submit an incomplete application, it may take longer. Please plan accordingly.
You will receive an email notifying you of your new status, how to download your certificate, and the next steps.
We will reach out to you via email if your application is incomplete or if we have any questions. We only keep incomplete applications up to a year within our AMS system. After a year, your incomplete application will be deleted and you will need to complete the online Certification application process again.
Yes. You will need to renew your EMDR Certification every two years. You can view our EMDRIA Credential Renewal page here.
Yes. You should start receiving your renewal email notices approximately 3 months prior to the expiration date of your Certified Therapist term. You can view our EMDRIA Credential Renewal page here.
If you wish to pursue becoming an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, please view the Approved Consultant requirements. EMDRIA Approved Consultants provide consultation to other clinicians choosing to become Certified.
No. Contact your EMDR Training Provider to obtain your certificate of completion if you do not have one. If you know the name of your EMDR Training Provider, you can find them here.
The certificate of completion issued to you directly from your EMDR Training Provider is accepted as proof of EMDR Training completion for the EMDR Certification Application. This certificate attests to your completion of EMDRIA's minimum EMDR Training guidelines. We will NOT accept trainee record logs, or the CE certificates. Please contact your EMDR Training Provider if you need a copy of your completion certificate.
The date of completion listed on your EMDR Training certificate indicates when you finished the course (20 hours lecture, 20 hours small group practice and 10 hours of consultation). This certificate is issued directly to you from your EMDR Training Provider.
The photocopy of your license to practice independently as a mental health professional should include a date of expiration to show that it’s current. If it does not include a date, please use the verification website for your licensure to look up your license and print the page showing the expiration date. Proof of your license to practice independently as a mental health professional should include: full name, license type (e.g. LMFT, LPC, LICSW, Psychologist, M.D., APRN), and expiration date. If it does not include a date, please use the verification website for your licensure to look up your license and print the page showing the expiration date.
Two years experience is defined as: At least the equivalent of 2 years full-time post-graduate clinical experience in your mental health field of licensure. The two years experience in your field of license can be before you obtain your full licensure. You just wouldn’t be able to submit your certification application until you obtained your full licensure.
You can write or type out the statement “I have at least 2 years experience in my field of license as a mental health professional and have conducted at least 50 EMDR sessions with at least 25 clients” on a piece of paper, sign that piece of paper and have it notarized. The notary is verifying that you have attested this statement to be true. Common places that provide notaries are banks, courthouses, and public libraries.
No. Please do not provide any confidential records or case information. We only require the notarized document stating that you have ‘at least 2 years experience in your field of license’ and that you have ‘conducted at least 50 EMDR sessions with at least 25 clients'.
No. Only consultation hours received AFTER completion of an EMDRIA Approved Training program can be applied toward Certification. This date of completion is on your EMDR Training completion certificate.
Consultation does not hold the same legal liability as supervision. In supervisory relationships, a clinical supervisor can be held liable for the clinical actions of their supervisee. In a consultant relationship, a consultant does not bear legal liability for the consultee. A consultee may enter into a contractual agreement with a consultant in which professional feedback is given to the consultee in an area agreed upon by both parties (ie: EMDR). You can read more about consultation in our Consultation Packet here.
You can use our Find an EMDR Therapist directory to search for EMDR Consultants. Consultation does not have to be conducted in person and many EMDR Consultants offer consultation by phone, zoom, skype and other synchronous (real-time) formats.
The 20 hours of consultation must have been completed within the last 5 years. If you continue to receive consultation hours for over a 5 year period, then as long as the EMDR Consultant is able to explain in the letter of documentation when the consultation started and ended (e.g. 2013-2022) and if/when long breaks in consultation occurred that will be acceptable. We understand that clinicians may stop consultation and then restart again but we cannot accept consultation hours that concluded 5 or more years ago.
Yes. Requirements #4 and #5 can be combined into one document as long as the EMDR Consultant documents the number of hours provided, the time frame these hours were provided, whether they were individual or group hours, and their recommendation/endorsement of your application.
If you received consultation from more than one EMDR Consultant, we want to see documentation of the consultation hours and the consultant should be able to address your use of EMDR with clients. We would like to see a recommendation from each consultant you worked with, but if that's not possible then at least one EMDR Consultant must be able to recommend you for Certification.
- The letter should include an evaluation statement from the EMDR Consultant recommending approval of your Certification application.
- The letter should include the exact number of hours of consultation toward certification that you received from the EMDR Consultant.
- The letter should explicitly state whether the hours were individual or group hours and state how many of each if you received both.
It is preferred that you find a professional that can speak to your use of EMDR, however if this is not possible, you may use other mental health professionals that can speak to your ethics in practice as well as your professional character in your mental health field. Please note, we will need to see two peer recommendation letters. We want to see letters from peers that aren’t in a supervisory role (AC or CIT) to you, but from a peer standpoint that can speak to you and your professional character from that perspective.
Yes. We want to see letters from peers that aren’t in a supervisory role (AC or CIT) to you, but from a peer standpoint that can speak to you and your professional character from that perspective.
To find continuing education opportunities, you can view the Continuing Education tab on our website. Please visit our Continuing Education page to see what is available.
No. EMDRIA Credits (continuing education in EMDR) are designed to build upon the EMDR Training.
No. The application fee will not be refunded if your Certification application gets denied or if it gets deleted after a year of being incomplete.