What Is Expected Of The Delegate?
Working With Your Own Clients
It is very important to stress that ALL delegates must have access to 3 suitable clients during the training. You should have at least one in mind to begin using EMDR with straight after your Part 1 training. This is so you can begin using EMDR therapy over the training parts and receive clinical supervision from the trainers on these cases during the training days.
The delegate is asked to work with at least 3 clients by the end of Part 4. This has to include clearing / treating 1 trauma / distressing memory per client. This way the delegate can experience all the phases of the protocol with each of these 3 clients. Your certificate will be withheld if you do not work with your 3 clients by the time you get to Part 4, and your clinical supervision hours will not count if you do not bring a clinical supervision question.
3 clients is the absolute minimum acceptable to gain the necessary experience of the model. The more clients you can work with will really help embed the approach within your therapy toolbox before completing the training. Delegates who struggle to work with 3 clients also have a much higher chance of not continue using EMDR therapy post-training.
If you only work with children these should be adolescents and emotionally mature older children. This is generic training and modifications to adapt to working with children will not be covered in the basic training, therefore, please make sure you choose clients that you will be able to deliver the standard protocol. It is then good practise and highly recommended that you then attend an EMDR Accredited Child Training following your basic accredited training if you regularly work with this client group.
Some delegates find that they work with only complex trauma clients or young children. This can often be a clear barrier when choosing your clients during the training. We do strongly recommend that you start with the most simple clients possible whilst you are a trainee. However, if you only work with complex cases then we will support you as best we can if making modifications because, like any psychotherapy training, you cannot complete the course without using it in your clinical practice.
We strongly advise you to consider this point and make suitable arrangements for accessing clients before booking, because it is the most important aspect of the training.
Clinical Supervision
Our EMDR training includes 10 hours of group clinical supervision from an EMDR consultant.
In Part 1 we provide 2 hours group supervision to help commence your EMDR clinical work as soon as possible following the training.
There are often questions regarding working with clients and you must bring them to Clinical supervision time on Part 2 (4 hours) and Part 4 (4 hours). The below clinical supervision instructions are very important, please read the following:
- If you do not present a client that you have processed a memory with during the clinical supervision time in Parts 2 and 4 then this cannot count towards your supervision hours. As such you will not meet the course completion criteria as set by EMDR Europe.
- If you have not achieved this and want to continue with the course or complete it you must arrange your own clinical supervision hours from an EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant at your own expense.
- If you did not get to processing by the time of Part 2, then you would need to source 4 hours extra supervision from an EMDR Consultant. If you still have not moved to processing with your clients by Part 4 then you would need to source 8 hours EMDR consultant supervision. This can be group or individual but has to be with an EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant and involve discussing all phases of the 8 Phase EMDR Therapy protocol during these hours.
- If you have commenced into the trauma confrontation phases with your 3 clients (minimum) during the training parts, then you do not have to source additional supervision but many delegates find this useful. We discuss this during each part of the training, along with recommendations post-training.
There are no written assessments during the training, but full course participation is required. This is taking part in practicals, where you will work on some of your own personal memories and practice delivering EMDR to a partner/triad.
An important point we want to stress to delegates is that we strongly encourage you to find an EMDR Consultant to supervise you once you have finished the training. If you work with complex cases we would encourage you to find an EMDR Consultant during the training
Practical Sessions: Own Memories
The delegate must prepare your own personal memories to work on during the practicums.
These practicals are an essential part of the whole training. However, we ask you to choose your memories carefully. This is so that you get a real experience of EMDR on your own material, but also that the material is manageable for you to work on within a training environment amongst others delegates. Sometimes old memories have more emotional charge than we first expect when we do EMDR. We strongly advise you think about this carefully before you attend this course, as there won’t be much time to consider this at length during the course.
You are expected to prepare for Part 1:
You must prepare a minimum of 2 memories of your own personal material - you CANNOT role play this. These memories should be at a current subjective unit of distress (SUD) level of around 4-5 out of 10 (where 0 is neutral and 10 is the highest distress 3 is too low, and 7 is too high). It should be an old distressing life event that still holds some emotional charge. Avoid memories that involve close family members and please not a current anxiety or phobia (save this for Part 3).
Examples are RTAs, accidents, injuries, illnesses, school experiences including mid bullying, bad clinical experiences, memories of problems at work (managerial conflicts), death of pets, past relationship difficulties (as long as not too serious), negative comments from colleagues/ friends, social humiliation memories, childbirth difficulties etc. These are examples and not exhaustive. Avoid memories that involve close family members and please not a current anxiety or phobia (save this for Part 3).
Delegates often bring memories related to their CBT/professional training, challenges such as recording for tape review, giving presentations, or stressful job interviews. Additionally, if relevant, childbirth trauma with a positive outcome could be explored. Often, as you progress through the training and engage in your first EMDR practicum session, more memories become apparent for training scenarios.
Supervised Live experience is one of the most important and rewarding parts of the training.
You are expected to prepare for Part 3:
There will be 2 practical sessions during your Part 3.
You will work on another memory / issue that will be utilising an EMDR protocol of your choice, which is chosen during the training.
These memories should be at a current subjective unit of distress (SUD) level of around 4-5 out of 10 (where 0 is neutral and 10 is the highest distress 3 is too low, and 7 is too high). It should be an old distressing life event that still holds some emotional charge.
Health considerations
Please do get in touch with us if you are pregnant. This is because you work on some of your own memories during the course which may increase your emotions and you may find upsetting or cause distress. We sometimes have delegates that are pregnant and attend the course. We advise those that they do so purely at their own risk because they will still have to work on their own material during the course as an essential part of the training. If they still attend we then advise them to work with easier / safer memories.
Please also inform the trainer prior to the training if you suffer with vertigo, inner ear problems, migraines or epilepsy.
Our EMDR Accredited training is an intense, but hugely rewarding, course so please prepare the above to help you make the most of your training experience.
The EMDR Academy reserve the right to remove you from the course and refund your fees for remaining parts if they deem that you are not suitable for the training.
Working with Children
The C&A committee would like to confirm the recommendations around standard training, Child and Adolescent training and subsequent work with Children and Adolescents (C&A).
Therapists in standard EMDR training should ideally gain experience using the standard protocol with adults initially. Following standard EMDR training experienced C&A therapists can work with children and young people with a developmental and chronological age above 15, with specialist EMDR clinical supervision. This should be provided by a C&A EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant, or an EMDR Europe Senior accredited C&A practitioner who is working towards Consultancy and in receipt of EMDR supervision of their supervision from an EMDR Europe Accredited C&A Consultant.
Where this is it not possible due to lack of availability, this supervision should be from a generic EMDR Accredited consultant who has attended C&A training level 1 & 2 and has appropriate experience working with EMDR C&A across the age range. Supervisors should not be supervising outside of the age range of their clinical experience.
Regarding training, it is desirable and highly recommended that trainees attend a Level 1 EMDR Europe Accredited Child and Adolescent Training course after gaining experience of using the Standard Protocol with at least 3 appropriate adult clients and receiving supervision as part of the EMDR standard training.
Guidance for working with children and adolescents in the UK
C&A Committee
EMDR UK. (June 2024