I am often asked to refer family or client’s partners to another EMDR therapist that I would recommend (this is a conflict of interest for therapists).
This is how I as a Accredited EMDR Practitioner would check credentials when I need to find one for my family members. There are no gaurentees but at least this gives you a good chance of getting someone who has good experience.
In Australia, EMDR therapists are graded by the EMDR Association of Australia (EMDRAA) according to there training and experience.
Step 1 – Goto EMDRAA Find a Therapist and Accept Terms (Alternatively click on EMDRAA.org and close down any promotional popup, select it from the Menu (top ribbon) and accept their disclaimer)
Step 2 – Enter your post code
IF NO RESULT – TRY SAME SEARCH AGAIN! You must select one of the drop down options otherwise no result.
The resulting list will start with the Accredited Trainers/Consultants/Practitioners (most experienced) and then Members within the radius you specified
(Look at the little blue labels 
). Scroll down to find someone close to you. However….
Step 3 – Check for these three things (if possible)
Check 1. Availability
Are they Accepting new clients?
Check 2. Experience
Are they an Accredited Practitioner or an Accredited Consultant? 
If they are a Member – do some more research (see below) as there is no guarantee of experience.
3. Regulation/ Rebates
Do they offer a Medicare Rebate? This means that your practitioner is regulated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). You may thus be eligible to receive a rebate on some of your session fees that include Medicare acceptable strategies.
Examples of 2021 rebates for a 50+ minute session are – Clinical Psychologist ($129.55), Psychologist ($88.25) or Occupational Therapist/Social Worker ($77.80) see MBS Online . Note that most therapists do not bulk bill (They charge more than the Medicare rebate).
To be eligible to receive psychological services under Medicare, a person must be referred by his or her GP and in some instances by another medical specialist.
Note that some EMDR Members are highly experienced, others do the training and rarely use it and its hard to know the difference.
To do more research to find a good EMDR therapist
- Check their website.
- Call them up and ask them what therapeutic modalities they mainly practice.
- Ask them how often they use EMDR.
There are 3 grades.
1. EMDR Member (Basic)
The person is a trained EMDR practitioner. They would have:
- Completed the EMDR Basic training by a recognised EMDRAA Trainer (20 hours of Training),
- 10 hours of consultation with an EMDRAA Approved Consultant,
- 20 hours of practice.
If your therapist has obtained either of the next two Accreditation grades they will have gone through an additional rigorous evaluation program
2. EMDR Accredited Practitioner (Awesome)
The person is a Member AND has met additional requirements of supervision and experience. They would have
- Completed the EMDR Basic training by a recognised EMDRAA Trainer (20 hours of Training),
- 20 hours of consultation with an EMDRAA Approved Consultant. Which includes witnessing the applicants EMDR clinical work either through DVD or in-vivo
- They are members of the EMDRAA
- The EMDRAA Consultant needs to have directly witnessed the applicant’s EMDR work either through the use of video/DVD or In Vivo
- They would have completed at a minimum 50 EMDR Sessions (my personal experiences is that usually Accredited Practitioners have completed 200 plus hours if they use EMDR as their main therapy by the time they apply).
- They would have treated with EMDR a minimum of 25 clients (my personal experiences is that usually Accredited Practitioners have treated 75 plus clients if they use EMDR as their main therapy by the time they apply).
- They require two references, one from an EMDRAA Consultant and the second from a person who can comment upon their professional practice and standing.
3. Accredited Consultant (Stellar)
This means the person is an Accredited Practitioner AND has additional experience and skills to be approved by EMDR Australia to provide supervision to other therapists.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Desne Doman
Clinical Psychologist MAPS
EMDR Accredited Practitioner.