🧭 Choosing and Working With a Therapist
Imagine hiring a professional to whom you must disclose your most difficult experiences and allow access to your most vulnerable material. The choice matters more than it does for most professional relationships.
What to Look For
- EMDR training: Look for a therapist trained in EMDR through an EMDRIA-approved (or equivalent national body) training programme. “Familiar with EMDR” is not the same as trained.
- Trauma specialisation: General therapists can be excellent. But complex trauma, developmental trauma, and dissociative presentations require specific expertise. Ask directly about their experience with presentations like yours.
- The relationship: Research consistently shows that therapeutic alliance — the quality of the working relationship — predicts outcome more strongly than technique. You should feel safe enough to be honest, and respected enough to disagree.
- Transparency: A good trauma therapist will explain what they are doing and why. They will not push you faster than your system can tolerate. They will adjust when something is not working.
Questions to Ask
- What is your EMDR training and how long have you been practising it?
- What presentations do you specialise in?
- How do you approach complex or developmental trauma?
- What happens in a typical EMDR session with you?
- How will we know if this approach is or is not working?
You are interviewing them as much as they are assessing you. A therapist who is uncomfortable with these questions is telling you something important.