EMDR certification — how many supervised client hours did your consultant require before signing off?
I'm a licensed therapist working toward EMDR certification through EMDRIA and I'm trying to plan my timeline realistically. I finished my basic training last fall — 20 hours across two weekends — and I've been seeing clients since January. The requirements list 50 client sessions and at least 10 consultation hours, but it feels like some consultants expect more than the minimum before they'll sign the attestation.
The consultation piece is what's confusing me. I'm paying $150 per hour for individual sessions and $60 per person for group. I've been doing mostly group to keep costs down, but my consultant has hinted she'd like to see more individual work before she's comfortable signing off. I'm at about 6 individual hours and 8 group hours right now.
Has anyone had their consultant push back on the minimum or ask for significantly more than 10 total hours? I have $2,800 already invested and I'm trying to budget what's left. I figure 4-6 more individual hours should get me there but I'm not sure.
The $150 per hour individual rate is pretty standard. I'd aim for at least 8-10 individual hours if you can swing it. Group consultation is good for breadth but individual is where you get targeted feedback on your protocol fidelity.
Some consultants are stricter than others. Mine required 12 hours minimum even though EMDRIA says 10. Just ask yours directly what her threshold is rather than guessing — most are upfront when you ask plainly.
My consultant signed off right at 10 hours but I had 60+ client sessions completed by that point. The session volume matters a lot — more cases means more diverse presentation experience and that shows in how you discuss cases during consultation.
I finished certification last year and my total costs came out to about $3,400 including training, all consultation, and the EMDRIA application fee. Budget for that range and you'll be close to reality.
I actually failed my first attempt so I can speak to this. My consultant signed off after my 50 sessions but I rushed into it and wasn't ready. The consultation calls were technically done but I hadn't really internalized the protocol — I was just going through the motions. Second time around I slowed down, asked my consultant to do a few extra calls beyond the minimum, and we specifically worked through cases where I'd fumbled the resourcing phase. That made a huge difference.
The thing nobody tells you is that the 10 consultation hours can feel like a checkbox if you're not intentional about them. Don't just report what happened in sessions — bring your stuck cases, the messy ones where you weren't sure what to do next. My consultant didn't require more than the standard 10 the second time, but the quality of those hours was completely different. If you're already seeing clients since January you're probably in good shape, just make sure you're actually using the consultation time and not just logging it.
Honestly I almost quit around the 30-session mark. My consultant kept flagging things I hadn't caught and I started wondering if I'd ever be "ready" in her eyes. It wasn't imposter syndrome exactly, more like I genuinely questioned whether I was improving at all between sessions. What turned it around was when she told me she wasn't looking for perfection, she was looking for self-awareness and growth. Once I heard that I stopped trying to perform and just focused on the actual work.
I ended up needing 12 consultation hours before she signed off, a couple more than the minimum. Didn't feel arbitrary once I understood what she was actually tracking though. If you're feeling stuck right now, don't read that as a sign you're failing. Some consultants are just thorough and it's worth it once you get to the other side.
I just got signed off last month after about 14 months post-training, so this is fresh. My consultant required all 50 sessions but was pretty flexible on the consultation hours -- I did 10 group and 10 individual, which she said was the bare minimum she'd accept. The thing that honestly made the biggest difference wasn't the session count though. It was starting consultation early, like within the first month of seeing clients. I waited almost three months before booking my first consult and she could tell I'd been reinforcing some sloppy habits without realizing it.
If you're just getting started with clients now, I'd say don't wait until you feel "ready" for consultation. You won't feel ready. Just book it and let your consultant catch things before they calcify. That one shift cut down how long I needed before she felt confident signing off.
Not directly related to the supervised hours question, but I'm in a weird spot where I'm prepping for the ABV at the same time as working through my EMDR consultation requirements and honestly the time management is brutal. I just hit a 74 on a practice set from abv/questions/goodwill intangible asset valuation which felt like a win since I was stuck in the low 60s for weeks. Planning to sit the actual exam in October if I can get my hours squared away by September.
To your question though -- my consultant required all 50 sessions documented before she'd even look at my log, and she was pretty strict about variety in presenting issues. You might want to ask yours upfront what they need to see, because I assumed mine would be more flexible and it wasn't.