Since the first European training in 1994, development has been even faster. The current position is that although the USA retains the highest number of clinicians trained in EMDR by far, the rest of the world is beginning to catch up fast. In Europe over 500 British clinicians have now been trained at least to Level 1 standard, and the figure is probably slightly higher in Germany. Training programmes are active in France, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, and have taken off in Italy and Eastern Europe. EMDR Europe has developed to build the training programme and tailor it specifically to European needs.
Elsewhere training is particularly active in Australia, Canada and South America.
Humanitarian Assistance Programmes have provided trainings gratis in disaster areas such as Bangladesh and the former Yugoslavia. Here in the UK, a small group of Senior Facilitators and Executive Members have been working on plans to revise the current Level 1 and 2 organisation. Currently these have been organised from the beginning around two 2 day trainings called Level 1 and Level 2, with the Level 2 training restating some of the principals learnt at level 1, and teaching skills to work with more complex trauma cases. This structure has, however, been felt to be increasingly problematic for two main reasons. Firstly, it has become clear that many, trainees at the Level 2 training have not grasped some of the central principals of EMDR and have not had sufficient practice.