EMDR training is a structured professional program that teaches licensed mental health clinicians how to deliver Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. The standard program requires at least 50 hours of combined instruction, supervised practice, and consultation, and most clinicians complete the full process within about a year. If you’re a therapist considering adding EMDR to your practice, here’s what the training actually involves and what it takes to get there.
Who Can Enroll
EMDR training isn’t open to everyone. To qualify, you need a master’s degree or higher in a mental health field such as counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychiatry, or social work, and you must be licensed to practice through your state board. Pre-licensed clinicians can also enroll if they’re actively pursuing full licensure while working under a licensed supervisor.
Graduate students qualify too, but only if they’ve completed their core coursework and are in the practicum or internship phase of their program. First-year graduate students are not eligible. One notable exclusion: individuals who hold only a chemical dependency or substance abuse license don’t qualify, because those licenses generally don’t cover a mental health scope of practice.
How the Training Is Structured
EMDRIA-approved basic training programs must include at least 20 hours of instructional material, 20 hours of supervised practicum, and 10 hours of consultation. Most programs split this into two multi-day workshops, often called Weekend 1 and Weekend 2, each running three full days. Between and after these workshops, you complete consultation hours with an approved consultant.
The EMDR Institute, one of the major training providers, recommends allowing three to four months between the two weekends. That gap gives you time to start using the method with real clients, complete five hours of case consultation before the second workshop, then finish the remaining five consultation hours afterward. The entire process, from your first workshop day to your last consultation session, must be completed within one year.
Prices, formats, and schedules vary by training provider. Some programs are offered in person, others virtually, and overall costs differ enough between providers that EMDRIA doesn’t publish a standard range. Shopping around is worth it, but the key factor is making sure the program is EMDRIA-approved.
What You Actually Learn: The 8-Phase Protocol
The core of EMDR training centers on an eight-phase treatment protocol. This is the step-by-step framework clinicians follow with every client, and trainees learn each phase through lecture, demonstration, and hands-on practice with fellow trainees.
Phase 1, history taking and treatment planning, involves building a working relationship with the client, discussing what brought them to therapy, assessing their internal and external resources, and selecting which traumatic memories to target. Phase 2, preparation, is where the therapist explains the EMDR process, addresses concerns, and teaches the client specific coping techniques for managing emotional disturbance that may arise during sessions.
Phase 3, assessment, identifies the specific memory to reprocess along with the images, beliefs, feelings, and body sensations connected to it. The therapist establishes baseline measurements using two simple scales: one that rates how disturbing the memory feels, and another that rates how true a positive replacement belief feels. These measurements guide the rest of the session.
Phase 4, desensitization, is what most people picture when they think of EMDR. The client focuses on the traumatic memory while the therapist guides bilateral stimulation, typically side-to-side eye movements, sounds, or taps. This continues until the disturbance level drops to zero or near zero. New thoughts, images, and sensations often surface during this phase. Phase 5, installation, strengthens a positive belief the client wants to associate with the memory, reinforcing it until it feels completely true.
Phase 6, the body scan, asks the client to hold both the target memory and the new positive belief in mind while mentally scanning their body from head to toe. Any lingering physical tension or disturbance gets reprocessed. Phase 7, closure, brings the client back to a calm state at the end of every session, whether reprocessing is fully complete or not. Phase 8, reevaluation, opens each subsequent session by checking whether gains have held and deciding where to go next.
EMDR Trained vs. EMDRIA Certified
Completing basic training makes you an “EMDR Trained Clinician.” This is a meaningful credential, but it is not the same as certification. Many clinicians practice EMDR with only basic training, but those who want a higher-level distinction can pursue the EMDRIA Certified Therapist credential through a separate application process with additional requirements beyond the basic 50 hours.
The distinction matters if you’re building a specialty practice or want to signal advanced competence to referral sources. Being EMDR trained means you’ve learned the protocol and practiced it under supervision. Being certified means you’ve met a higher bar of clinical experience and oversight set by EMDRIA.
Specialty Training After the Basics
Once you’ve completed basic training, a range of advanced workshops let you apply EMDR to specific populations and conditions. Available specialty tracks include EMDR for kids and teens, complex trauma, attachment injuries, complicated grief, first responders, and addiction. These aren’t required to practice EMDR, but they deepen your skill set for the clinical populations you actually see.
Specialty workshops vary in length and format. They build on the eight-phase protocol you already know and teach adaptations for situations where standard EMDR needs to be modified, such as working with children who can’t articulate their distress the same way adults can, or clients whose trauma is layered across years rather than tied to a single event.
What to Look for in a Training Program
The most important factor is EMDRIA approval. Programs that aren’t approved by EMDRIA may not meet the minimum standards for hours, practicum quality, or instructor qualifications, and completing one could leave you unable to pursue certification later. EMDRIA maintains a searchable directory of approved training programs on its website.
Beyond accreditation, consider the format that fits your learning style and schedule. Some programs run as intensive weekends, others spread sessions across several weeks. Virtual options have expanded significantly, though the practicum component still requires real-time supervised practice with partners, even if it happens over video. The consultation hours are typically completed in small groups led by an approved consultant, and finding a consultant whose schedule aligns with yours can be the piece that takes the most planning.