EMDR Therapy Training 2024
EMDR Therapy training designed to meet the needs of New Zealand’s mental health practitioners. This comprehensive training is aligned with the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and tailored to New Zealand’s unique culture and environment.
We are proud to be offering Aotearoa New Zealand’s first University-based postgraduate training in EMDR Therapy. It comprises:
In 2024 – Special Topic 1: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (PSME455)
PSME455 is a 30-point paper studied part-time over one year. It covers the internationally recognised EMDR Therapy Basic Training curriculum (Parts 1 & 2), with some expansion of the topics and with increased contact time for the lectures and practicums. Taught through flexible distance learning, the recorded live interactive lectures can be watched repeatedly as and when suits you. The PSME455 course will include online lectures plus two block courses of 2 and a half days each, held in Wellington. It will use a cyclical teaching approach with theory informing practice and practice informing theory.
PSME455 paper information page
In 2024 – Special Topic 2: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
PSME 456 is is a 30-point paper studied part-time over one year. It covers advanced EMDR Therapy including its application in complex PTSD and additional conditions including addictions, attachment trauma, dissociation, recent traumatic events such as earthquakes, and advanced EMDR Therapy for children. It builds on the EMDR Therapy Special Topic 1 training to ensure mental health practitioners are upskilled in EMDR Therapy for an array of complex problems and to work towards Accredited Practitioner status in EMDR Therapy.
ELIGIBILITY for Special Topic 2. PSME455 or completion of an EMDR Therapy Basic Training accredited by EMDRNZ are pre-requisites for Special Topic 2.
Note that the stand-alone Special topic papers can be credited to a qualification at a later stage.
Offerings from 2025
We plan to offer the above two papers as the components of a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences endorsed in EMDR.
Why study EMDR Therapy through Otago?
Our comprehensive EMDR Therapy training is designed to meet the needs of New Zealand’s mental health practitioners. It is aligned with the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and tailored to New Zealand’s unique culture and environment.
It will have practical application and enable practitioners from a range of health disciplines to achieve more meaningful clinical outcomes for users of mental health services in our society.
The comprehensive training will carry the strength of a university-accredited programme, including an assessed measure of competence through practical assignments, block course attendance and passing of an examination.
The course is both practical and applied, so participants develop skills that enable them to use EMDR Therapy in their workplace. Initially establishing a firm theoretical knowledge base, it shows how EMDR Therapy is used as a framework for assessing and gaining understanding of a patient’s psychological distress, and then formulating and implementing an intervention based on that conceptualisation.
Who is it taught by?
This training is taught by experienced EMDR educator, Dr Tom Flewett, a Wellington-based psychiatrist with 40 years of clinical and teaching expertise.
In his practice, Dr Flewett uses EMDR therapy widely, with patients presenting with a broad range of mental health conditions including anxiety, addictions and psychotic disorders in which a trauma component is common. Having found EMDR Therapy to be so helpful for his patients, Dr Flewett is keen to train as many clinicians as possible to become skilled EMDR Therapists.
For 2024, the Special Topic 1 teaching team will also include experienced clinical psychologist and EMDR Trainer, MaryAnn Stevens.
Special Topic 2 will be taught by Dr Tom Flewett with specialist input from MaryAnn Stevens, Astrid Katzur and Dr Allister Bush
Dr Tom Flewett and other practitioners talk about using EMDRHow is it taught?
The PSME455 and PSME 456 courses will include online lectures plus two block courses of 2 and a half days each, held in Wellington. It will use a cyclical teaching approach with theory informing practice and practice informing theory.
Taught through flexible distance learning, the recorded live interactive lectures can be watched repeatedly as and when suits you.
Students will be expected to complete 80 hours of EMDR therapy with clients by the end of the year. Each block course will be followed up with supervision and consultation.
Who can apply?
This course is open to mental health practitioners including:
- Psychiatrists
- Psychologists
- Psychotherapists
- Nurses
- Social Workers
- Occupational Therapists
- Counsellors
- Art Therapists
EMDR therapy is a complex, structured therapy. The training is intensive, and for acceptance into this programme you may be asked to provide a CV and transcripts of your relevant academic study.
What does it cost?
Tuition fees for 2024 will not be finalised until November 2023.
The fee for PSME455 in 2024 is expected to be approximately $3010. This is an indicative fee only based on equivalent postgraduate Health Science papers in 2023.
How to apply?
Applications will not be open for these 2 papers until August 2023. If you would like to register your interest in either of these papers, please contact emdr.uow@otago.ac.nz and we will add your name to the list of interested clinicians.
Once applications open, to apply to study PSME455 or PSME 456 (Special Topic: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing 1 or 2) in 2024, you will need to complete the following steps:
- Go to the Postgraduate Certificate of Proficiency (COP) qualifications page.
- In the "Ready to enrol?" box, choose 'Postgraduate Certificate of Proficiency (COP), Wellington, 2023'.
- Log in or create an account.
- Complete and submit your application. The University may contact you if further information is required.
- You will be made an offer of a place in the COP. You need to accept this to be able to select the paper.
- When you do accept, please email emdr.uow@otago.ac.nz for information on how to select the paper.
- Once you have selected the paper, the department will then handle any verification required.
- You will then be approved for the paper and will need to complete the usual university enrolment processes.
Contact details
Email emdr.uow@otago.ac.nz
EMDR Course Director
Dr Tom Flewett
Department of Psychological Medicine
University of Otago, Wellington