Why I Became an EMDR Consultant — And What I Wish Every Therapist Was Trained to Do

By Linda Smith, MA, LMHC — , Directory of Operations, NWMHA

I didn't set out to become an EMDR consultant. I set out to get better at EMDR.

When I completed my basic training, I thought I understood the protocol. I had the manual. I had the theory. I had practiced with other trainees. I started seeing clients with EMDR and, by most measures, it seemed to be working.

Then I started consultation. And I realized how much I hadn't known.

What consultation revealed

My first consultation sessions were humbling in the best possible way. Presenting a case to an approved consultant and walking through what I'd done — describing my clinical decisions in real time, out loud, to someone who knew the protocol deeply — exposed gaps I hadn't been aware of.

I was moving too fast through the preparation phase. I was making assumptions about a client's window of tolerance that weren't backed by enough assessment. In some cases I was targeting memories in an order that made clinical sense to me but wasn't actually following the treatment plan protocol. Small things that, accumulated across sessions, meant my clients weren't getting the full benefit of what EMDR can offer.

None of this was catastrophic. But it was wrong. And I wouldn't have found it without someone looking at my work.

What I started seeing in consultation with other therapists

As I progress toward becoming an approved consultant myself, I began providing consultation to therapists working toward EMDRIA certification. What I heard in those sessions confirmed what I'd been seeing in a different form — through clients who came to our practice after EMDR elsewhere.

Therapists running bilateral stimulation continuously, for long sets, without pausing to process what emerged. Therapists who skipped resourcing because clients seemed stable. Therapists who ended sessions without closure because time ran out. Therapists who were applying the bilateral stimulation component of EMDR to trauma without the protocol that makes it safe — and not realizing that what they were doing wasn't complete treatment.

These weren't negligent clinicians. Most of them were thoughtful, caring therapists who genuinely wanted to help their clients. They had simply received a training that gave them the technique without the clinical judgment to deploy it correctly. And without consultation, there had been no opportunity to discover the gap.

Why the field has a problem

EMDR basic training is 5-6 days. Twenty hours of consultation are required for certification — but certification is optional. There is no mechanism that prevents a therapist from completing a training and practicing EMDR indefinitely without any further oversight or development.

For most therapy approaches, this might be an acceptable risk. EMDR is different. It's a structured protocol designed to access and reprocess traumatic material. Done correctly, it can produce meaningful change faster than almost any other approach. Done incorrectly — without proper preparation, without the correct sequencing, without closure — it can leave clients flooded, destabilized, and more reluctant to seek help in the future.

The gap between trained and competent is not trivial. And the field's current structure doesn't do enough to close it.

Why I pursued approval and what it required

Becoming an EMDRIA-approved consultant requires meeting standards that go significantly beyond basic certification. It requires a depth of clinical experience, a track record of consulting with other therapists, and a demonstrated understanding of the protocol sophisticated enough to identify errors in someone else's work.

I pursued it because I believed that the way to address the problem I was seeing wasn't to complain about it — it was to build something better. The training center at NWMHA exists because Kevin and I decided we wanted to train therapists the way we wish we had been trained: with intensive supervision, with ongoing consultation built into the model, and with a standard that asks not just "did you complete the protocol" but "did your client actually move."

If you're a therapist working toward EMDRIA certification and looking for consultation that takes your clinical development seriously — that's exactly what I do.

And if you're a client who has had EMDR before and it didn't feel right — I'd like you to know that what you experienced may not have been the full protocol. You deserve the real thing.

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