What EMDRIA Certification Consultation Hours Actually Require

Most of the confusion around EMDR Certification isn't about whether you're a good enough clinician. It's about the mechanics: how many hours, from whom, in what format, by when. Get one of those details wrong and you can end up with hours that don't count, a letter that doesn't satisfy the requirement, or a timeline that runs longer than it needed to. Here's what EMDRIA actually specifies, and how to use the requirement well instead of just running out the clock on it.

The full certification checklist, briefly

To apply for EMDRIA Certified Therapist status, you need:

1. Completion of an EMDRIA Approved EMDR Basic Training

2. A current, independent mental health license

3. A notarized statement confirming at least two years of experience in your licensure field, and at least 50 EMDR sessions with a minimum of 25 clients

4. 20 hours of consultation from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant

5. A letter of recommendation from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant (not a CIT) addressing your clinical use of EMDR

6. Two peer or colleague recommendation letters (your consultant doesn't count toward these)

7. 12 hours of EMDRIA Credits, completed after basic training

8. Agreement to EMDRIA's policies

The application fee is $150 for EMDRIA members and $350 for non-members, and review typically takes 3 to 5 weeks. The credential is granted for two years and renews from there.

The consultation hours requirement, in detail

This is the piece most people have questions about, so it's worth unpacking:

• All 20 hours must be EMDR-focused and completed after you finished basic training. Consultation hours built into the training itself don't count.

• At least 10 of the 20 hours must be individual. The rest can be individual, group, or a mix.

• Consultation groups are capped at 8 participants. That ratio exists so group hours still mean something.

• Hours must fall within the five years before you apply. If your consultation happened further back than that, EMDRIA will review the situation case by case, but don't assume older hours will automatically count.

• If you work with more than one consultant, you need documentation from each one, specifying start dates, total hours, and the individual/group breakdown.

• A Consultant-in-Training (CIT) can provide up to 15 of your 20 hours. The remaining 5 hours, and your required consultant recommendation letter, must come from a fully credentialed EMDRIA Approved Consultant.

That last point trips people up more than any other, so it's worth planning around from day one rather than discovering it near the end. If you're working with a CIT for the bulk of your hours, confirm early who will provide your final 5 hours and your letter, so you're not scrambling to find an Approved Consultant six months before you want to submit.

Using the hours well, not just logging them

Twenty hours is enough time to actually develop as a clinician if you use it deliberately. A few ways to get more out of it than a stack of signed documentation:

• Bring real stuck cases, not your cleanest ones. Consultation is more useful when it's stress-tested against the case that's actually giving you trouble.

• Track your own patterns across sessions. If you notice the same kind of block recurring across different clients, that's worth naming to your consultant directly rather than treating each occurrence as a one-off.

• Ask for the case conceptualization discussion, not just the technique fix. A consultant who only hands you an interweave to try isn't building your clinical judgment the way one who walks through your case formulation is.

• Keep your own documentation as you go. Dates, hours, individual versus group, and consultant name. Reconstructing this from memory a year later is harder than it needs to be.

Where I fit into this

I'm an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and a Consultant-in-Training, working under an EMDRIA Approved Consultant on my own path toward full Approved Consultant status. I can provide up to 15 of your 20 required hours; the remaining 5 and your consultant recommendation letter will need to come from a fully credentialed Approved Consultant, which is worth factoring into your timeline from the start.

If you're ready to start logging hours, or want to talk through how to structure your consultation so it actually builds your skills along the way, let's talk.

Source: EMDR International Association (EMDRIA), "EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ Application," emdria.org.