The Top 5 Barriers to Becoming an EMDR Consultant

Read Time: 8 Minutes

Ask a room of EMDRIA Certified Therapists™ who has thought about becoming a consultant, and most hands go up. Ask who has actually declared Consultant in Training status, and most of those hands come back down.

The gap is rarely about ability. Certified therapists have already proven they can do the clinical work. What stops them is a handful of practical, predictable barriers that almost nobody talks about out loud, which is a shame, because every one of them has a way through.

We wrote a full guide on this, and this post covers the short version. If you want the complete breakdown with worksheets, download it here:

I'm getting the Top 5 Barriers Guide

Barrier 1: Finding Your Five Consultees

EMDRIA requires you to provide consultation to at least five consultees, for at least 15 hours total, before you can apply. Fair enough. But nobody hands you those five people.

This is the most common stall point we see, and the reasons are understandable. You are new to the role, so you have no referral pipeline. Advertising yourself as a consultant before you hold the credential feels premature. And the composition rule adds pressure: at least three of your five consultees must have fully completed an EMDRIA-approved Basic Training.

The way through

Consultees cluster around Basic Trainings, because every trainee needs consultation hours to finish. Position yourself near that pipeline and the problem mostly solves itself. Tell the consultant who guided your own certification that you have declared; they turn away consultees regularly and need somewhere to send them. Better still, train inside a program that runs its own Basic Training cohorts. Our Consultant Training pairs you with a dedicated group of Basic Training therapists from day one, so the search simply never happens.

Barrier 2: Feeling Like You Have No Business Evaluating Peers

Treating clients is one skill. Sitting across from a fellow clinician and assessing their fidelity to the protocol is a different one, and plenty of excellent therapists quietly assume they are not ready for it.

Here is the part worth internalizing: EMDRIA agrees that nobody starts ready, and built the credential around that fact. The 20 hours of consultation of consultation exist precisely because consulting is a skill you learn under supervision, the same way you once learned the protocol itself. You are not expected to arrive as a finished consultant. You are expected to arrive willing to be coached.

The way through

Watch before you lead. Shadowing an experienced consultant in a live consultation group does more for the imposter feeling than any pep talk, because you see that the job is asking good questions and holding the standard, not knowing everything. Our program builds shadowing into the structure, alongside a step-by-step Core Competencies checklist, so you always know what you are working on and what comes next.

Barrier 3: Doing the Whole Thing Alone

The pathway can take one to two years, sometimes longer. If you are in solo practice, that can mean a long stretch of consulting questions with nowhere to bring them. Who else is figuring out how to give hard feedback kindly? How do other CITs structure their groups, set their fees, handle a consultee who is struggling?

Isolation is quiet, which is why it gets underestimated. It rarely stops anyone outright. It just slows everything down and makes the credential feel heavier than it is.

The way through

Do not build alone. Inside our Consultant Network you get a monthly consultant connection space, a live gathering of consultants and CITs comparing notes on exactly the questions above, and a private consultant channel for the questions that come up between meetings.

Mentorship from multiple TTI faculty across different specialties means you are never limited to one perspective. The clinicians who move through the pathway fastest are almost always the ones who stopped treating it as a solo project.

Barrier 4: The Money Math

Becoming a consultant costs real money, and pretending otherwise would be strange coming from people who train consultants. Purchased separately at market rates, 20 hours of consultation of consultation adds up quickly, with individual hours commonly running well north of $100 each. Add the required EMDRIA Credits and the application fee, and the total is worth planning for.

The way through

First, run the math honestly in both directions. The 15 or more consultation hours you provide as a CIT are billable professional work, and consultation remains billable for the rest of your career. The credential is one of the few in our field that starts generating income while you are still earning it.

Second, bundled beats piecemeal. A structured program folds your consultation of consultation, materials, mentorship, and consultee access into one predictable cost. Ours is $3,600 total, with financing and flexible monthly payment plans, which is why many CITs find it costs less than assembling the same hours one invoice at a time.

Barrier 5: The Timeline Feels Like a Maze

EMDRIA updated its consultant standards in January 2026, and some of the new rules scare people off before they understand them. You cannot apply sooner than one year after declaring CIT status. You must finish within five years. No more than two consultation hours count in a single day. Hours completed before your declaration date count for nothing.

Read quickly, that sounds like a bureaucratic obstacle course. Read properly, it is the opposite: the rules assume you will build steadily, and they protect you from the temptation to cram.

The way through

Declare early, because the clock only starts working for you once the form is in. Then let the one-year minimum take the pressure off. You do not need to sprint, because sprinting is literally against the rules. A steady rhythm of consultees, consultation of consultation, and the two free required EMDRIA courses gets most CITs through comfortably inside two years. For the full requirements walkthrough, our guide on how to become an EMDRIA Approved Consultant covers every number in the 2026 standards.

The Five Barriers at a Glance

You Do Not Have to Clear These Alone

Every barrier on this list shrinks inside the right structure. That is the entire reason our EMDR Consultant Training exists: an EMDRIA-aligned, year-long Consultant in Training internship with your 20 hours of consultation (10 individual, 10 group), a dedicated consultee group, shadowing, faculty mentorship, and membership in our Consultant Network, all inside Shame-Free Spaces for Learning where you get to be real, make mistakes, and grow without performance pressure.

I'm ready to become an EMDR consultant

And if you want to sit with the barriers a little longer before deciding, take the full guide with you:

I'm getting the Top 5 Barriers Guide

FAQs

What stops most therapists from becoming EMDR consultants?

In our experience, rarely skill. The common blockers are practical: finding the five required consultees, uncertainty about evaluating peers, working through the pathway alone, cost, and confusion about EMDRIA's timeline rules. Each one has a workable answer, which is what this post covers.

How do CITs usually find their five consultees?

Through Basic Trainings, since every trainee needs consultation hours to complete their training. CITs either build relationships with training providers, receive referrals from their own former consultants, or join a consultant training program that includes a dedicated consultee group.

Is EMDR consultant training worth the cost?

That depends on your goals, so we will stick to the facts. The consultation hours you provide as a CIT are billable work; consultation remains billable after you credential, and bundled programs typically cost less than purchasing 20 consultation hours individually. Whether the leadership role itself appeals to you is the more important question, and only you can answer it.

Do I have to be EMDRIA Certified before starting the consultant pathway?

Yes. You must hold a current EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ credential before you can declare Consultant in Training status, and it must stay current throughout. Our full walkthrough of the 2026 requirements covers the complete sequence.

References

_{EMDR International Association. (2026). EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ standards. https://www.emdria.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/EMDRIA-Approved-Consultant-Standards.pdf}

_{EMDR International Association. (2026). EMDRIA Approved Consultant in Training™ FAQs. https://www.emdria.org/emdr-training/emdr-consultant-in-training/}