EMDR Consultant Training: The EMDRIA Pathway to Becoming a Consultant in Training
Most of us didn’t get into EMDR planning to eventually teach it. We got into it because we saw clients change in ways that other approaches hadn’t produced, and we wanted to get better at delivering that change reliably. But somewhere around year five or six of practice, a lot of clinicians notice a shift. Newer therapists start asking us questions after trainings. We catch ourselves explaining case conceptualization in a way that feels less like reciting the manual and more like translating it. That shift is usually the first sign that consultation — not just doing EMDR, but helping others do it well — might be the next chapter.
EMDRIA has a formal structure for that chapter, and it starts with becoming a Consultant in Training (CIT). If you’ve been searching for what EMDR consultant training actually involves, or trying to make sense of the EMDRIA consultant in training requirements before you commit time and money to the process, this article walks through where the CIT pathway fits, what EMDRIA expects of you, and how to think about whether it’s the right move for your career right now.
What Is EMDR Consultant Training Through EMDRIA?
A Consultant in Training is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist who has begun the formal process toward becoming a fully EMDRIA Approved Consultant™. It’s a distinct, recognized status — not an informal label you can claim on your own. Once you submit your CIT Declaration Form to EMDRIA and it’s accepted, you can begin providing consultation to other clinicians (typically those working toward EMDR certification or completing basic training) while receiving your own oversight on that work.
That oversight has a specific name in EMDRIA’s system: consultation of consultation. Essentially, a CIT doesn’t just consult independently and log hours — an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ reviews the CIT’s consultation practice, offers feedback on how they’re guiding consultees, and helps them develop the skill set specific to being a consultant rather than a treating clinician. Those are related skills, but they’re not identical. Explaining a concept to a room of clinicians who are still building competence is a different task than delivering EMDR to a client in front of you.
Consultants play a quality-control role for the field more broadly. New EMDR therapists rely on consultation to translate what they learned in basic training into safe, fidelity-adherent practice with actual clients. Without a robust consultant network, that translation gap would be much harder to close, and EMDRIA’s standards exist largely to make sure the clinicians providing that guidance are prepared to do it well.
Why Pursue EMDR Consultant Training?
There isn’t one right reason to pursue this, but a few come up consistently in conversations with clinicians who’ve made the jump.
Mentoring newer clinicians. Watching someone go from tentative and rule-bound with the protocol to confident and flexible is genuinely rewarding, and it’s a different kind of reward than client outcomes.
Deepening your own clinical expertise. Teaching forces precision. You’ll find gaps in your own understanding of the eight phases, or of how to handle blocked processing, the moment you have to explain them clearly to someone else.
Expanding leadership opportunities. Consultants often end up training basic training practicum groups, presenting at conferences, or contributing to regional EMDR communities in ways that extend well beyond one-on-one client work.
Contributing to the field’s growth. EMDR’s continued credibility depends on consistent, competent delivery. Every consultant helping a new therapist practice with fidelity is part of that.
Strengthening your own skills through the discipline of teaching. Consultation asks you to slow down and articulate your clinical reasoning out loud, which sharpens judgment in ways that solo practice sometimes doesn’t.
None of that means becoming a consultant is the obvious next step for every certified therapist. Plenty of excellent EMDR clinicians have no interest in consultation, and that’s a perfectly reasonable place to land. It requires a real time commitment, a comfort with being observed and critiqued on your consultation style, and an interest in supporting other people’s development rather than only your own clinical work. If that doesn’t sound appealing, your clinical practice doesn’t suffer for skipping this pathway.
What Are EMDRIA’s Consultant in Training Requirements?
This is the part where accuracy matters more than convenience, so treat what follows as a general orientation and confirm the specifics directly with EMDRIA before you plan around them — the organization has updated its Approved Consultant standards as recently as February 2026, and requirements can shift.
A few things are well established:
- EMDRIA Certification is a prerequisite. You cannot begin the process toward becoming a CIT, and specifically cannot start accruing consultation-of-consultation hours, until you are already an EMDRIA Certified Therapist. Certification isn’t optional groundwork here — it’s the entry point.
- An independent clinical license is required, consistent throughout the certification and consultant pathways, in the state, province, or country where you practice.
- A minimum clinical experience threshold applies at the full consultant stage. To move from Consultant in Training to EMDRIA Approved Consultant™™, applicants need to demonstrate substantial hands-on EMDR experience — well beyond what certification alone requires — along with at least one year of active experience as a CIT, measured from the date your CIT Declaration Form was completed.
- Consultation of consultation is required throughout your time as a CIT. You’ll receive structured oversight on your consultation work from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™™, not simply log hours on your own.
- Educational requirements have become more structured under EMDRIA’s revised Approved Consultant standards, which call for organized training programming for CITs rather than a purely self-directed process.
- There’s a formal application process for both the CIT Declaration Form and, later, the full Approved Consultant credential, submitted through EMDRIA’s online portal.
You have a multi-year window to complete the process — EMDRIA gives CITs an extended timeframe from the Declaration Form date to complete requirements and apply as a full consultant, rather than requiring completion on a fixed short timeline.
EMDRIA’s standards are detailed, and the organization has been actively revising them, including changes tied to survey data collected from consultants, CITs, and consultees between 2022 and 2025. Rather than working from a secondhand summary, review the official EMDRIA Consultant page directly for current eligibility requirements, fees, and application steps before you begin planning your timeline.
What Is the Roadmap From Basic Training to EMDR Consultant?
It helps to see the whole arc, even though the pace varies enormously from one clinician to the next.
- Complete EMDR Basic Training through an EMDRIA-approved program.
- Gain clinical experience using EMDR with clients, building the case volume and comfort with the protocol that certification requires.
- Become EMDRIA Certified Therapist™, which involves consultation hours, continuing education credits, and documentation of your clinical experience.
- Continue consultation and advanced education beyond certification, deepening clinical judgment and staying current with EMDR literature and technique.
- Submit the CIT Declaration Form to formally begin the Consultant in Training pathway.
- Provide consultation to other clinicians while receiving consultation of consultation from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™.
- Complete the full set of EMDRIA requirements for the Approved Consultant credential, then submit the consultant application.
- Become an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™, at which point you can supervise CITs and provide the full range of consultation independently.
This is a general progression, not a guaranteed timeline. Some clinicians move through certification and into the CIT pathway within a few years of finishing basic training; others take a decade or spend years in steady practice before consultation even crosses their mind. There’s no penalty for taking the slower route.
What Skills Make Strong EMDR Consultants?
Credentialing tells you someone met the requirements. It doesn’t fully capture what makes a consultant genuinely useful to the clinicians they’re guiding. A few qualities tend to separate the consultants people seek out from the ones they merely tolerate:
- Clinical judgment sharp enough to spot when a consultee’s case conceptualization is off track, not just when their technique is.
- Humility about the limits of your own experience — EMDR consultants who present every answer as settled fact tend to shut down the exact kind of clinical curiosity consultation is supposed to build.
- Curiosity, both about the cases in front of you and about your own blind spots as a clinician.
- Ethical decision-making, particularly around scope of practice, dual relationships, and knowing when a consultee needs a referral rather than more consultation.
- The ability to give constructive feedback without either softening it into uselessness or delivering it in a way that shuts a consultee down.
- A commitment to lifelong learning, since EMDR research and EMDRIA standards both continue to evolve, and a consultant who stopped updating their knowledge five years ago is doing their consultees a disservice.
Why Does Certification Matter for EMDR Consultant Training?
It’s tempting to think of certification as a formality on the way to something more interesting, but it’s doing real work. Certification demonstrates that you’ve moved past the basic-training stage of following the protocol carefully and into a stage of applied competence — you’ve used EMDR across a real range of client presentations and had that work reviewed by someone qualified to evaluate it.
It also builds the kind of clinical confidence that consultation depends on. A consultant fielding a question about dissociation, or a stuck reprocessing session, or ego-state work, needs a reservoir of applied experience to draw from — not just familiarity with the theory. Certification is where a lot of that reservoir gets built.
The consultation hours required for certification also give you additional, structured exposure to how experienced consultants think through cases, which is itself a preview of what consulting will eventually ask of you.
That said, certification is a milestone, not a guarantee. Being certified doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be accepted into or thrive in the Consultant in Training pathway — EMDRIA’s additional requirements for CIT status exist precisely because consulting draws on a further set of skills beyond strong clinical practice.
How Do I Find the Right Consultant Mentor?
If you do decide to pursue the CIT pathway, the consultant who provides your consultation of consultation matters more than it might initially seem. You’ll be working with this person closely, often for a year or more, and their consulting style — how directive they are, how they handle disagreement, how much structure they bring to sessions — will shape how you develop your own approach.
It’s worth taking the same care selecting a consultant mentor that you’d take selecting a therapy supervisor. Ask about their consulting philosophy, how they handle CITs who are struggling with a particular consultee relationship, and what their availability looks like. Our guide on how to find an EMDR consultant covers what to look for and the kinds of questions worth asking before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions About EMDR Consultant Training
How long does it take to become a Consultant in Training?
There’s no fixed timeline for reaching CIT status itself — it depends on how quickly you complete certification and decide to pursue consultation afterward. Once you’re a CIT, EMDRIA allows a multi-year window to complete the remaining requirements and apply for full Approved Consultant status, so the pace from there is largely up to you.
Do I need to be certified first?
Yes. EMDRIA Certification is a prerequisite for beginning the CIT pathway, and specifically for starting your consultation-of-consultation hours. There’s no way to skip certification and move directly into consulting.
Can I provide consultation before becoming an approved consultant?
Yes, but only within the bounds of CIT status. Once your CIT Declaration Form is accepted, you can provide consultation to other clinicians while receiving your own consultation of consultation. You can’t provide it as an EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ until you complete the full requirements and your application is approved.
Is becoming a consultant required to continue practicing EMDR?
Not at all. Plenty of highly skilled, certified EMDR therapists have no interest in consulting and continue to build strong clinical practices without it. The CIT pathway is for clinicians specifically drawn to mentoring and teaching, not a requirement for continued EMDR practice.
What Programs Does Scaling Up EMDR Offer for the EMDR Consultant Training Pathway?
Becoming an EMDRIA Consultant in Training is a meaningful professional milestone, and one worth taking seriously rather than rushing into. Certification is the foundation everything else is built on — it’s not a box to check quickly on the way to something else. From there, the CIT pathway asks for ongoing consultation, continued education, and real clinical mileage, layered with a new set of skills specific to guiding other clinicians rather than treating clients directly.
If becoming an EMDRIA Consultant is one of your long-term professional goals, the first step is becoming EMDRIA Certified. Explore Scaling Up’s EMDR Certification Program to build the clinical foundation, consultation experience, and confidence needed for the next stage of your professional journey.
