The 20-Hour EMDR Consultation Requirement, Explained (and How to Actually Use Your Hours Wisely)
TL;DR
EMDRIA certification requires 20 hours of consultation post-basic-training: at least 10 must be individual, all completed within 5 years, with an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ who documents and endorses your hours. Most therapists treat this as a box to check. The smarter move: budget your hours across a 12–18 month timeline, track documentation from hour one, and choose your individual/group mix based on where your clinical growth edges actually are. Below is the step-by-step plan and where to get support if you want it.
If you're a high-achieving therapist who color-codes your CEU tracker, I already know what's tripping you up here. It's not the what: you know you need 20 hours. It's the how: how to sequence it, document it correctly, and not let it drag out for three years because "I'll get to it eventually."
Let's fix that!
What EMDRIA Actually Requires
Per EMDRIA's own certification criteria, the consultation requirement breaks down like this:
20 total hours, completed after you finish your EMDR basic training (hours completed between Part 1 and Part 2 of training don't count)
At least 10 of those hours must be individual consultation - the remaining 10 can be group
All 20 hours must be completed within the last 5 years of your application date
Your consultation must come from either an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ or EMDRIA Approved Consultant-In-Training; not just any supervisor or colleague
An EMDRIA Approved Consultant-In-Training can provide 15 out of 20 hours required for certification. 5 of the 20 hours must be completed with an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™, and can only be individual hours.
Your consultant must provide written documentation of your hours (specifying individual vs. group) and a letter of recommendation. The letter of recommendation must come from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™.
That last point is where a surprising number of applications stall. So let's talk strategy, not just definitions.
Mistake #1: Waiting to "Feel Ready" to Start
Here's the encouraging-but-blunt truth: you don't need to feel like an EMDR expert to start consultation.
You need to have finished basic training. That's it. The clinicians who wait 18 months to "get more reps in first" before booking their first consultation session are the same ones scrambling at year four wondering if their early hours still count.
The fix: Book your first consultation session within 30 days of finishing training. Momentum compounds - clinical confidence and paperwork alike.
Mistake #2: Not Tracking Documentation as You Go
You will not remember, two years from now, whether that March 2024 session was individual or group. Neither will your consultant, necessarily - especially if you've worked with more than one.
The fix: Keep a simple running log (spreadsheet is fine) with date, consultant name, individual/group designation, and topic covered. When it's time to request your consultant's letter, you hand them a document instead of asking them to reconstruct two years of memory. This matters even more if you switch consultants mid-process: EMDRIA only requires a formal letter of recommendation from one of them if you can't get one from each, but they still want documentation of hours from every consultant you worked with. Clean records make that handoff painless instead of a scramble.
Mistake #3: Treating the Individual/Group Split as an Afterthought
This is the part most "just get it done" advice skips. The 10-individual/10-group split isn't arbitrary and how you use it matters.
Individual consultation is where you bring your hardest, messiest, most stuck cases. It's the space for real clinical vulnerability: the client who dissociated unexpectedly, the case conceptualization you're not confident in, the moment you froze mid-session. This is where your actual skill develops.
Group consultation is where you build pattern recognition - watching how other clinicians conceptualize cases, hearing questions you wouldn't have thought to ask, and normalizing that everyone gets stuck sometimes. It's also often more affordable and more available, which matters for EMDR consultation for licensure hours if you're building this alongside full licensure requirements.
The strategic move: Don't front-load all your individual hours early "to get comfortable" or all your group hours late "because it's cheaper." Interleave them. Bring a genuinely difficult case to individual consultation while you're getting broader exposure in group. That's how EMDR trained therapists become confident EMDR clinicians - not just certified ones.
One practical note if you work with more than one consultant over time: EMDRIA wants to see documentation of hours from each of them, and ideally a letter of recommendation from each. If that's not feasible, at least one EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ must formally recommend you for certification. That consultant also needs to confirm you've met the individual-hours minimum: 10 individual hours if all your consultation was with Approved Consultants, or 5 individual hours if the remaining 15 hours were completed with a Consultant-in-Training (CIT). Either way, keep clean records from every consultant you work with, so nothing gets lost in the handoff.
Mistake #4: No Timeline, No Deadline, No Momentum
EMDRIA doesn't impose a time limit to start certification, but your 20 hours must fall within a 5-year window.
Translation: give yourself an internal deadline anyway.
A realistic budget:
Months 1–3: Start individual consultation immediately after training; 1 hour every 2-4 weeks
Months 3–9: Add monthly group consultation; continue individual sessions
Months 9–15: You should be closing in on your 20 hours. Request your documentation letter as you approach the finish line, not after
This pace gets you certification-ready in about 15–18 months while still practicing EMDR confidently with real clients, not rushing to hit a number.
Finding the Right EMDRIA Approved Consultant
If you're searching "EMDRIA Approved Consultant near me" and coming up short, remember: consultation doesn't have to be in-person. Most EMDRIA Approved Consultants™ offer sessions via Zoom, which massively widens your options - and often makes it easier to find a consultant whose specialty or style actually matches your growth edges.
The Bottom Line
The 20-hour consultation requirement isn't a hurdle to survive. It's the single best-structured opportunity you'll have to become a genuinely skilled EMDR clinician before you're certified as one. Budget it intentionally, document it religiously, and choose your individual/group mix like it matters. Because it does.
Ready to Start (or Finish) Your Consultation Hours?
If you're ready to stop guessing and start building real EMDR consultation hours toward certification with a consultant who treats your growth as the point, not just the paperwork, I'd love to work with you! Schedule your first consultation session and build a plan that actually gets you certified.
Are you EMDR trained but stuck spinning your wheels on the certification requirements?
Your 20 consultation hours can either check a box or genuinely sharpen you as a clinician. I'll help you do the latter. Schedule your first consultation session and let's build your certification plan together.
About the author
Angelica De Anda, LMHC, EMDR Certified Therapist, EMDRIA Approvied Consultant-In Training, is a licensed therapist with over 15 years of experience supporting clients across Washington. She specializes in trauma, anxiety, burnout, and EMDR intensives. Her work focuses on supporting high-achieving women, BIPOC individuals, professionals, and therapists.
Angelica utilizes evidence-based approaches including EMDR, CBT, somatic interventions, nervous system-focused strategies, and trauma-informed care. She helps clients process painful experiences, reduce anxiety and stress, strengthen emotional regulation, and feel more grounded and connected to themselves.
At Eastside EMDR Therapy, she provides compassionate, culturally responsive care through in-person therapy in Kirkland and virtual sessions across Washington State.
