The course in basic EMDR which we at EMDR Focus unreservedly recommend is what’s recently been rebranded at Worcester University from MSc to PGCE, details here.

This one involves at least one year’s part-time training, and goes deep into psychotraumatology as well as the fundamentals of EMDR itself.

Otherwise, basic EMDR trainings run to just seven days spread mostly over three separate and spaced-out weekends, and here we recommend firstly the new training company Mindsync recently (2023) set up by our friend and colleague Caroline van Diest.

Matt Wesson is another good and close colleague, whose EMDR Academy comes highly recommended. His courses are booked out months in advance, so patience might be necessary.

Richard Mitchell runs EMDR Works, and is one of the EMDR world’s most respected and long-established trainers with whom both Mark and Jutta Brayne first learned their EMDR craft in the Noughties. Again, highly recommended.

Sandi Richmann has trained probably more EMDR practitioners in the UK than anyone else, and remains after nearly 30 years in the field one of EMDR Europe’s most influential figures. Her trainees speak highly of the quality of training.

Michael Paterson’s EMDR Masterclass took over the training mantle of the EMDR Institute in the UK, and, based in Northern Ireland and the North of England, has a superb supportive website. Again, solid training.

If colleagues would like to train up in EMDR at shorter notice and aren’t worried about accreditation in the longer term, the EMDR Centre London, although not endorsed by the EMDR Associations UK or Europe, offers perfectly serviceable training, though bear in mind here that you might find yourself working with colleagues less directly experienced in the field of mental health.

At EMDR Focus, we see EMDR as a powerful psychotherapy in its own right, and much more than a manualised treatment appropriate for use by those lacking personal and comprehensive training in either psychotherapy or counselling.

Anyone wishing to come on our own workshops will be expected therefore to have extensive personal experience and awareness of psychotherapy and trauma.

The EDMR Associations UK and Europe require anyone seeking accreditation with them to have done an officially-approved and -accredited basic training.

Note also that the Association will not accredit colleagues who have done basic trainings delivered from outside the UK, after a short period of cross-recognition , that now regrettably also includes trainings from Australia and New Zealand.