The Counselling Academy

WHEN?:  Week of: 10th to 18th October 2026.

WHERE?: - Berber Retreat House, Oulad Brahim, Agadir - Morocco 

Join us for our residential training retreat in Morocco.

Are you ready to become a certified EMDR practitioner and bring transformative trauma treatment into your practice whilst surrounded by the Anti-Atlas mountains?

We are so excited to announce our Live EMDR training in Morocco, an hour East of Agadir in our village of Oulad Brahim.  

We use real clients for our Live events so it's INTENSE!!  For you, and the client, BUT! sooooooooo magical, empowering and life changing!! Not just for the client but for the therapist witnessing and delivering the magic of EMDR.

You do NOT have to be part of any Voluntary Membership Club or be Accredited to learn EMDR or to attend our training!

You will receive our comprehensive Part 1 (Protocol/Theory) online 2 weeks before the event. This is to ensure you arrive with the Protocol fresh in your mind. The Live Training counts for a big chunk of Part 2 (Practice & Supervision) in 4 full days.

We now include a brand new set of EMDRKit Pulsators (worth £290), a canvas bag, an EMDR specific Note Pad and a Counselling Academy Pen making this event even better value for money!

Once you have completed the 4 day training you will have some further online modules to complete before submitting one case study (your first client when you return to work) and having a 30 minute supervision call. You will then gain assess to Part 3 which is all the Advanced stuff! (it's a lot of learning, so needs to be spread in this way)
You will leave the Live Training with an attendance certificate to allow you to practice, your Diploma certificate will arrive in the post once you have completed the online Part 3 modules. This Diploma can literally be completed in weeks rather than months and years.

The week residential allows for down time and some cultural experiences - the training runs from Monday to Thursday. Feel free to extend your stay before or after (or both) at £50 a night (inc meals)

This unique training event is designed for counsellors who want to introduce EMDR into their work and fast-track their training which will leave them fully competent and confident to incorporate EMDR into their work immediately. You'll practice on real clients bought in especially for this training, with real issues that are common to our therapy room and that EMDR can help with, so no need to produce all the case studies (6) needed for the EMDR online training version, this event gives you hands-on experience, on hand guidance and supervision and will boost your confidence to incorporate EMDR into your practice immediately.

Why This Training event is Different:

• You don’t need to be part of any membership club or accredited by voluntary organisations to access this training! Here at The Counselling Academy, we believe in inclusivity and making advanced training accessible to ALL qualified working counsellors and mental health workers.
• We do require that you hold a minimum of a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling or above - OR equivalent, OR someone who has a wealth of work experience in a Counselling environment as our courses focus on building specialist skills, not on covering the basics, we can also train other health professional in EMDR,  please contact us directly.
• We also require that you have completed at least 100 supervised Client hours or equivalent in your profession before considering this training.
• I will personally demonstrate a live EMDR session with a volunteer to show how easy and powerful the process is. You will also practice with a peer before you work within a small group with a client on Day 2&3.
• By using real clients with real issues as replacement case studies, you’ll leave fully competent and ready to use EMDR in your practice. You will be peer supervised and guided by the trainer with de-briefing sessions during the practice so this training event accelerates your learning and the certification process as opposed to the online only version.
• Insurance companies (i.e. Holistic etc) accept The Counselling Academy CPD's and Diploma's for Counsellors.

What's Included in the training:

• Part 1: You’ll learn the complete EMDR protocol, as developed by Francine Shapiro and used in clinical practice for over 30 years. Our step-by-step Online self paced training will ensure you're confident in the 8 phases of EMDR.
• Part 2: Live practice sessions using real-life clients providing you with the experience and supervision you need to gain your Diploma quickly.
• Lifetime access to our Facebook support group, exclusive to students, where you’ll get peer support, peer supervision groups and ongoing peer supervision opportunities.
• Plus, enjoy a provided for lunch and socialising/networking with peers for 4 days 

Why Choose Our Course?

• We’re passionate about equality in the counselling profession, and we actively challenge the elitist gatekeeping often seen in EMDR training. This course is based on my own extensive experience with EMDR since 2019, offering a comprehensive toolkit for any counsellor. 
• No other EMDR training facilitates learning like we do.  This course is not only unique in its delivery style but contains so much more content then any other EMDR course out there where you have to constantly pay for extra material that we include as standard!
• You’ll have lifetime access to all course materials, ensuring you can return and refresh your knowledge whenever you need to.
• As an extra bonus we now include how to incorporate Breathwork to ensure you are looked after, after an intensive 2 days client practice and see the benefit of breathwork to your client after EMDR.
• You will also have access to Part 3 as soon as you complete the remaining online module of Part 2 (about 5 hrs) upon returning home, submit your first client case study that you use EMDR on and have a 30 min supervision call.
• Whether you're part of a membership club or not, this training is for every mental health practitioner or counsellor looking to grow their practice and incorporate EMDR into their work.

Please read our information on our main 'Online Version' EMDR course HERE which explains more about why you do not need to be a member of a voluntary membership club to learn this modality.

Don't miss this opportunity to become fully certified to practice in just 4 days, surrounded by like-minded professionals and secure settings. Return home with the confidence to integrate EMDR into your client work immediately. 

We do ask, that before you book a place on this event that you yourself, are able to regulate your emotions, reactions and responses on the training event, as it's a very intense 4 days. The nature of the subject means it can bring up lots of 'light bulb' moments about your own life and trauma you've not fully processed yet - as talking therapy will only help so far!

From previous events we have witnessed some reactions that were not expected from working therapists embarking on trauma healing training which takes up time from the rest of the group and the trainer. You will also get to practice with a peer which means you will need to find a subject to personally work on and process.

If in doubt or for further questions give Esjai a shout on WhatsApp - +44 7966 409894