Hey there,

Have you wondered about getting EMDRIA certified?

If so, I think you might find this useful.

I’ve noticed there’s two major issues with the EMDR community, and it's keeping therapists stuck between basic training and certification.

First Issue:

Most therapists finish their EMDR training excited to work toward certification. They know the next step is finding a consultant for the required 20 hours of supervision, so they pull up the EMDRIA directory and start clicking through profiles.

Three hours later, they've emailed a dozen consultants.

Half never respond.

The ones who do are either fully booked until next year or charge rates they can't afford. The one consultant who seems like a good fit gets back to them three weeks later to say they just filled their last opening.

So you start over.

Even more frustrating, you probably weren't looking for something complicated in the first place. All you want is someone who’s specialized in your population, has a consultation style that matched how you learn, charges a reasonable rate, and has availability.

But, unfortunately, there’s no way to figure any of that out without cold-emailing strangers and hoping someone responds.
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​Second Issue:​
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A lot of therapists go right back to their trainer to start consultation toward certification. Trainers have cornered the market here.
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It makes sense. Instead of going through the hassle of the first issue, why not go with the person you already know from the basic training process?
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I’ve seen this play out over and over though…. In order to present themselves as a niche, a lot of trainers will modify the standard protocol, or overemphasize a certain aspect of what they do, and that will bleed into their consultation as well.
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They will ‘build’ therapists who do EMDR just like they do, which sometimes means at the expense of actually learning all of the foundations of the standard protocol.
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They will omit future templates (a key part of the protocol that can help prevent future relapse). They will over-emphasize resourcing (at the expense of the client’s healing potential). They will prioritize other protocols like flash, EMDR 2.0 or substance abuse protocols (at the expense of the consultees foundational skills).

I’ve consulted with consultees who have had each of those above examples as their foundation before starting with me (after giving up on a previous consultant).

Unfortunately this second issue is very common and can really hamper a therapists progress in the foundational skills that EMDRIA designed the whole Certification for. It also creates real challenges for consultants who aren’t trainers, because there is no easy way for would-be consultees to find them among the masses on the EMDRIA directory.

If any of that sounds familiar, keep reading…

The Current System Is Broken

The current EMDRIA directory serves an important purpose. It lists therapists and approved consultants by state and gives you their contact information. It’s a great way for clients and therapists to verify a provider's credentials with EMDRIA.

But the issue (and the one Helicon is working to solve), is that it doesn't solve the problem of matching therapists with the right consultant at the right time (and it shouldn’t… EMDRIA should be focused on safeguarding high standards for providers and therapy seekers).

Today, when you're looking for a consultant, you need to know several things before you reach out.

You need to know:

• If they specialize in the populations you work with (complex trauma, eating disorders, first responders, whatever your clinical focus is).
• If their consultation style matches your learning needs (directive and structured versus collaborative and exploratory).
• What they charge, when they're available, and whether they have openings

But the EMDRIA directory doesn’t exist for that.

You have to email each consultant individually, explain what you're looking for, ask about their approach and rates and availability, and wait to hear back.

Sometimes they respond quickly.

Sometimes it takes two weeks.

And sometimes, you never hear back because they're full and aren't taking new consultees.

Now, you're left cold-emailing strangers and hoping one of them turns out to be available, affordable, and a good match (and that’s on top of managing a caseload, dealing with insurance panels, and the hundred of other things you're already doing).

Then there's the tracking problem.

EMDRIA Certification application requires 20 hours of consultation (ten individual, ten group minimum), 50 clinical sessions using EMDR, etc. But unfortunately, there's no centralized system for tracking your progress.

Instead, you're maintaining your own spreadsheet, hoping you're logging everything correctly and worrying you'll miss something when you submit your application. Comparing notes with what your consultant is tracking on their spreadsheet and sorting out who missed what.

Your consultant is also tracking manually on their end, which means if you need to switch consultants for any reason (i.e. they retire, you relocate, your schedules don't align, it's not a good fit), you're starting over with record-keeping and hoping nothing gets lost.

To top it all off, you probably can't tell if a consultant's approach works for you until you've already committed to several sessions. By then you've paid for 3 or 4 hours and invested time building the relationship (or in one horror-story, paid up front for all 20 hours to discover the consultant was AWOL and not giving refunds).

And if their style doesn't match your needs (too hands-off when you wanted structure, too directive when you wanted exploration), you're stuck choosing between staying with someone who isn't quite right or starting the whole search over again.

The whole process is inefficient.

And to be honest, it means a lot of therapists who complete basic training never end up pursuing certification because the logistics feel overwhelming on top of everything else they're managing.

So if the coordination problem is this obvious, why hasn't anyone built a solution?

The reason we started Helicon is because we kept hearing the same frustrations from EMDR therapists around the country.

Therapists (particularly those fresh out of basic training or mid-process after losing a consultant) would spend weeks finding a consultant, then realize months later there were better matches they didn't know about. Or they'd finish certification and wish they'd had visibility into who specialized in their clinical focus from the beginning.

That’s why, at Helicon, we're building infrastructure to solve the coordination problem.

We're preparing to transition to a beta launch for early users, validating our first two core features with a small group of EMDRIA approved consultants and therapists:

Consultant matching and progress tracking.

Consultant Matching: Instead of just names and contact info, every consultant on Helicon has a detailed profile showing everything you need to know before reaching out. You can see:

• Their clinical specialties (complex trauma, dissociation, eating disorders, addiction, performance work with first responders).
• Their consultation approach and how they structure sessions
• What they charge per hour, when they're available, and whether they have current openings.

All of that is visible upfront. And you can get very granular with your search filters to find the right person for you.

So instead of contacting fifteen people hoping one works out, you're looking at 3 or 4 consultants who already match your clinical focus, learning style, budget, and schedule.

You submit a request to connect with them, and they are notified to approve or deny it. If approved, you're matched in the system and proceed.

Progress Tracking: After each consultation session, the consultant can log the time and flag which core competencies were demonstrated in session. You can see:

• How many individual hours you've completed
• How many group hours
• What core competencies you’ve shown in consultation and which still need to be demonstrated
• And what's left before you're eligible to apply to EMDRIA

Your consultant also sees the same dashboard, so you're both working from the same information.

Then if you need to switch consultants, your progress stays with you. The hours and documentation transfer over, and your new consultant can see exactly where you left off.

That's what exists today in pilot.

It solves the two biggest problems therapists told us about: finding the right consultant without all the headaches, and tracking progress without the clunkiness (or sometimes awkward conversations).

So what does this workflow look like in practice?

Here's how your first month on the Helicon platform would look:

1. You onboard to the platform by uploading copy of your license (safeguards for only licensed therapists), completing subscription details (Consultee level required for these features), and getting admin approval from license review.
2. Use Helicon’s Smart Consultation Matching tool in the Consult Hub to search for consultants who meet your specific needs using granular search filters.
3. You can see their full profiles, rates, specialties, and availability.
4. You send a connection request right on the platform.
5. They respond within a couple days to confirm and you start messaging to coordinate schedule and logistics.

After each consultation session, the consultant logs the session in Helicon. Then as you progress, you can track which competency areas the consultant has noted, and can ensure you are presenting cases that demonstrate all areas adequately..

When you've completed all requirements, the consultant can use Helicon to generate a letter of recommendation for you to include with your EMDRIA application.

Eventually we want to add community features, a private therapist directory for marketing your services to aligned clients, and other pathways for professional advancement. But we're not there yet. Right now we're focused on matching and tracking.

What to Know Before You Apply

Please keep in mind, Helicon is not a replacement for EMDRIA.

You still apply to them for certification. Helicon is just infrastructure that makes finding consultants and tracking progress easier. We aim to streamline the process for you so you can focus on building your skills without the headaches.

This is not a shortcut to certification requirements.

You still need 20 hours of consultation and 50 EMDR sessions. We make the logistics easier and speed up the coordination process, but we don't change the requirements.

This is not a complete ecosystem yet.

Community features, a client-facing directory, and other features are on the roadmap but not built. Right now we're focused on matching and tracking.

Interested in Checking Out Helicon?

If you're working toward certification and you're tired of the inefficiency and uncertainty of the current system, you can apply to join the waitlist to be first in line when we launch the beta version.

We're looking for people who would benefit from what we’ve laid out here and are willing to help provide feedback as we continue to build great features that support the EMDR therapist journey.

​>>> Apply to join the waitlist.

EMDRIA certification is valuable, the training is thorough, the consultation deepens your skills, and the credential matters. But getting there shouldn't require months of lost time searching, manual tracking, and hoping you don't miss something important.

We're building Helicon to fix that.

We're starting with matching and tracking and building toward community, marketing, and professional growth. Even in this early stage, we're aiming to solve those frustrating coordination problems that keep therapists stuck when they could be making progress and leveling up their career.

If that sounds helpful to you, we'd love to have you.
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Until next time,
Chris

PS- check out our recent thesis diving into the larger mission and vision behind Helicon here.

Thanks for reading Helicon's EMDR Therapist Weekly, where we aim to provide a weekly dose of insights, tools, and opportunities for EMDR therapists; designed to support your growth, sharpen your practice, and connect you with what's next.

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​If you're not already subscribed, subscribe here. You can also click here to learn about what Helicon is building, or apply to join our waitlist for early access if you're an EMDR provider and want to connect with others on the same path.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only. This is not legal or clinical advice and we make no guarantees about the outcomes or results from information shared in this document. Proceed at your own risk and discretion.