Criterion 6 Continued Professional Development
EMDR Training
6.1 Describe a CPD activity, relevant to your area of practice that you have undertaken in the 12
months before applying for accreditation. 900
Level 1 and 2 EMDR accredited basic training
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing. Originally developed by Francine
Shapiro an American Psychologist in the late 1980s. It was originally used to treat people with
traumatic memories such as PTSD. The therapy consists of 8 phases, during which the client recalls
a traumatic memory/picture, while bilateral stimulation: eye movement, hand tapping or audio
stimulation, is applied as directed by the counsellor. The aim of this therapy is for clients, who
suffer from debilitating behaviours such as anxiety and stress to be able to desensitise and process
the memories effectively so as they no longer are triggering
EMDR posits that, traumatic memories are not stored in the usual way in the brain and get stuck,
stopping the brain from processing the information properly. These unprocessed traumas cause
the client psychological distress. It’s believed that remembering the thoughts and the bodily
sensations while performing bilateral stimulation allows the brain to process the memories
correctly and integrate their bodily sensations, thus reducing or eliminating the traumatic effect of
them.
Phase 1 during therapy is history taking, where the therapist uses active listening skills hear what
issues are affecting the client. The therapist can also take note on the prevailing thoughts and
feelings associated with the traumatic materials. It also where the therapeutic relationship and
trust is established. Phase 2 is preparation and assessment where suitable targets are chosen,
which can be clustered if many have the same theme. These are put into a treatment plan with
the targets being organised into past present and future. This stage is also where the therapist
resources the client with coping, self-soothing and stabilising strategies and techniques to help
them in the following phases. It is during phases 3-6 that the therapist targets each traumatic
memory from the treatment plan. For each target the counsellor will ask for the worst part of it, a
negative cognition associated with it, feelings and where in the body it is felt. The client will be
asked to scale how distressing the target it, using SUD; Subjective Unit of Distress. A positive
cognition will also be identified along with the VOC; validity of cognition. The, therapist will then
have the client go through a round of bilateral stimulation holding the thought, negative cognition
and bodily sensation together. Once finished the therapist asks for any insights from the client:
thoughts, feelings, images, memories that came up. The client will focus on any new material that
comes up until the target material SUDs are 1 or 0. Stage 7 is installation of the positive cognition
along with bilateral stimulation until the VOC is a 7. Stage 8 is a body scan and closing
As well as full EMDR protocol, EMDR lends itself to integration, such as the resources to teach
clients self-soothing techniques which are beneficial inside the session and for their everyday lives
for stabilising purposes. Eg Calm place, Protective figures, light stream where clients can self
soothe and find a safe place to go to should feelings, intrusive thoughts memories become too
overwhelming.
6.2 Provide the reason(s) for choosing the activity.
1. It is evidence based, empirically supported and WHO approved for dealing with trauma
and PTSD.
2. EMDR is an AIP theoretical approach, which I can use integratively with clients
3. EMDR addresses the experiences that contribute to clinical conditions to bring them to a
robust state of psychological health
6.3 Show how the activity has influenced your practice.
Using Cully and Bond (2010) framework for therapy, EMDRs AIP theoretical approach can be
integrated into integrative therapy.
EMDR has influenced how I work with clients with trauma and PTSD. EMDR has influenced the
way that I work with trauma. I have found that the approach allows clients to de-sensitise the
trauma to allow them to process what has happened and in turn has had a big impact on their
self-esteem and self-worth. Clients do not have to keep retelling traumatic stories, only have a
memory/feeling of is traumatic issue that they can picture and work with. This has allowed
quicker processing of trauma. EMDR, importantly gives client s effective control of the details of
their story and provides resolution. EMDR lends itself to working online, which was particularly
salient during COVID. Use bilateral tapping and sounds, works well as an alternative to eye
tracking, which can be difficult to follow with computer lag.
Shapiro, F . and Forest, M. (1997) EMDR, Basic Books
Van de Kolk, B. (2014), The Body Keeps a Score, Brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma.
Penguin Books.
Culley and Bond (2010) Integrative skills in practice