EMDR costs

I am happy to announce that I am now an EMDR therapist, something I have wanted to become since first qualifying as a counsellor. It has taken a lot of time, money, and hard work to get here, working firstly towards BACP accreditation and then finding an EMDR Europe approved course, signing up to and embarking on the course….. that said I am so, so, glad I did. I have found it such an interesting therapy and already I have seen it help clients with anxiety, low self-confidence and those who have had loved ones die in traumatic circumstances.

One of my main aims in doing EMDR training was to be able to offer it at a more reasonable and affordable rate for people because, unfortunately, to access it there are often either lengthy waiting lists or high costs involved. A lovely idea but I soon realised there are a lot of overheads involved! Thanks to EMDR being an NHS and NICE approved therapy, costs involved seem to be astronomical, initial training, supervision, membership body costs (not to mention the extra cost of being accredited), equipment, ongoing training… it all adds up.

Looking at the costs I could see my idea of making it more affordable drifting away, as much as I want to make it more accessible I also need to make sure I am at least covering my costs. After much wrangling with figures as I could stand (and those who know me know how bad I am at figures!) I settled on the same cost as I charge for counselling – a bit more if the session is longer, but also to offer it through my employed work and the EAP’s I work for – so some people can access it for free/low cost. Not the ideal I initially had in mind, but maybe one day I will set up the counselling charity in Chorley I dream about, offering free/low cost counselling and EMDR to the local people, maybe just a pipe dream but you never know I may one day actually manage it!

What do you think about EMDR? (you can read more about what it is and how it helps here) and what do you think about the costs of accessing it in general? I would be really interested to hear your thoughts