Eligibility follows EMDRIA’s Basic Training criteria. Eligibility is checked before enrollment.

Licensed professionals

Eligible clinicians include appropriately licensed medical doctors; psychiatric mental health advanced practice nurses with an MSN or higher; and licensed clinicians with a master’s degree in counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychiatry, social work, or a related mental health discipline.

Prelicensed professionals

Mental health clinicians with a master’s degree in counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychiatry, social work, or a related mental health discipline may qualify while actively pursuing full licensure through their state or provincial board and working under a licensed supervisor. This may include associate, intern, limited, provisional, temporary, or prelicensed credentials. A credential’s name alone does not establish eligibility; the degree, licensing track, and supervision must meet the criteria.

Graduate students

Students must be in a licensing-track master’s or doctoral program in counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, social work, or a related mental health discipline, have completed core coursework, and be in practicum or internship under a fully licensed mental health supervisor. First-year graduate students are not eligible. Provide a graduate transcript, practicum or internship details, and a supervisor letter with license information and number.

A substance-use or chemical-dependency license alone does not establish eligibility.

Read EMDRIA’s complete eligibility requirements. Submit documentation to the Sankofa Healing Studio Training Team.

Preparation before Part 1

Complete the two hours of assigned pre-work in Thinkific before November 13. Read Francine Shapiro’s Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures (third edition) and EMDRIA’s Guidelines for Virtual EMDR Therapy. The Shapiro textbook is purchased separately. Course instructions explain the preparation activities and required learning assessments.

Basic Training

The full Basic pathway comprises twenty hours of instruction, twenty hours of supervised practicum, and ten hours of consultation. All are required for completion; consultation is included in the Basic pathway tuition. Breaks and meals are excluded from learning hours.

Jacqui Johnson (she/her, we/us) is a somatic healing-justice art therapist, educator, trainer, and consultant, and the founder, Executive and Clinical Director of Sankofa Healing Studio in Philadelphia. Her work connects clinical knowledge with body experience, culture, creativity, relationship, and the conditions people are living within.

Her clinical and educational work spans complex trauma, race-based traumatic stress, sexual trauma, grief, perinatal mental health, incarceration and reentry, and structural oppression. She brings particular attention to Black communities and to women, trans, and nonbinary people whose experiences are too often overlooked. Art, play, storytelling, hip-hop, and somatic awareness inform her relational approach, with room for liberation, joy, and the many ways people make meaning.

Jacqui is an EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Consultant, a Board-Certified Art Therapist, and a Certified Perinatal Mental Health professional. She is also a trained birth worker, with a focus on support around pregnancy termination and loss. She provides supervision and consultation, teaches at the university level, and contributes to Art Therapy With Incarcerated Women.

Her teaching is guided by Context Before Conclusion™. She brings warmth, structure, and cultural accountability into the learning, inviting clinicians to ask thoughtful questions, understand the purpose behind a clinical decision, and carry their learning into relationships with care.

Jacqui Johnson, LPC, LPAT, ACS, ATCS℠, PMH-C.
EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Consultant.

We learn in relationship. We ask everyone to respect each other’s identity, lived experience, names, pronouns, and boundaries. Discrimination and efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity have no place in this training.

Sankofa Healing Studio provides equal access and reasonable accommodations for participants with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Accommodations include educational and learning support as well as disability access. If a different way of receiving information or participating would support your learning, contact admin@sankofahealingstudio.org. We can discuss written instructions, accessible materials, captioning, adjustments to assessment format or timing, sensory or movement needs, technology access, and venue access.

Tell us what would help and which part of the training needs attention. We will work with you to identify reasonable adjustments and confirm the arrangements in writing. You can raise a need before registration or as it becomes clear during training. We will consider the learning requirements and the support needed to participate in instruction, practicum, and consultation.

You may request support during registration. Please contact the team as early as possible when advance arrangements are needed. If a need arises unexpectedly or during training, contact faculty or the training team so we can discuss available support. We will consider requests individually; where further information is needed to identify an appropriate accommodation, the team will explain what is needed and how to provide it privately.

For a concern during training, you may ask faculty for immediate support, including concerns about practice partners, participation, or staff interactions. You may also submit a formal grievance directly without first discussing it with the person involved. Email admin@sankofahealingstudio.org with the training name, concern, and requested response. Omit identifying client information.

We acknowledge concerns within five business days and provide a written response within fifteen business days, or a progress update if more time is needed. If the concern involves the training lead, request an independent facilitator without direct involvement. You may request reconsideration and supply additional information. Raising a concern will not be used to penalize participation.

Learning in relationship

Respect names, pronouns, identity, lived experience and boundaries. Questions, reflective dialogue and thoughtful disagreement belong in the learning. Discrimination and sexual-orientation or gender-identity change efforts have no place in this training.

Activities may include writing, discussion, somatic attention, creative reflection, observation or teaching-case application. You do not have to disclose personal trauma or adopt a cultural or spiritual interpretation. Ask faculty about a participation adjustment that preserves the learning objective.

Confidentiality and materials

Use fictional or appropriately de-identified teaching cases for case discussion. Basic supervised practicum includes therapist, client, and observer roles using appropriately selected personal material with faculty support; a fictional case does not replace that experiential learning. You choose what to disclose and may raise a concern privately with faculty. Do not include client names, dates of birth, addresses or other identifiers in discussion, uploads, chat or correspondence. Do not record, photograph or screenshot teaching, demonstrations, experiential activities or consultation. Automated transcription and AI note-taking are prohibited. Do not share course files, participant stories, login credentials or meeting links, or upload protected training materials to AI tools without written permission.

Technology and support

For virtual participation, keep your camera on during live Basic Training outside breaks and use reliable internet, working audio/video, and a private setting. Do not participate while driving or from a public location. Test your Thinkific and meeting access in advance. Notify faculty promptly about a connection failure, access barrier or privacy concern. Connection loss and a lesson-complete tick do not establish attendance.

Read and acknowledge the participant agreement in Thinkific's Start Here section. Training records are used for administration, attendance, evaluation and certificate verification; the training-records privacy notice explains access and retention. Contact admin@sankofahealingstudio.org for support or a privacy concern.

Attendance and completion are verified separately for each component of the selected pathway. Basic Training requires 20 instructional hours, 20 supervised practicum hours, all 10 consultation hours, required assessments and evaluation.

Thinkific training materials are available for 12 months from the first training day. Teaching materials may release in sequence; purchased-course access does not itself establish attendance or completion. Live Basic Training, practicum, consultation, and advanced training recordings are not shared. Cultural preparation teaching will be recorded for registered participants unable to attend live; recordings do not replace required live attendance. Contact admin@sankofahealingstudio.org promptly about missed learning, access problems or completion records.

Complete the full Basic Training within twelve months of the initial start date. For this cohort, that is November 13, 2027. Contact the training team about extenuating circumstances and an individual completion plan. Assigned preparation, the required EMDRIA Learner Assessment, and evaluations are part of the completion process. Basic Training completion documents that you are EMDR-trained; EMDRIA certification is a separate process.

The full virtual-only pathway is $888. The Ghana immersion and eight additional advanced-training hours are separate offerings and are not included.

Request cancellation in writing at admin@sankofahealingstudio.org. At least fourteen days before training begins, tuition is refunded less a $75 administrative fee. Fewer than fourteen days before training begins, including nonattendance, no refund is provided. For this cohort, training begins November 13, 2026 and the fourteen-day deadline is October 30.

Virtual-only transfers carry no transfer fee, subject to availability and written confirmation. Any tuition increase for the replacement offering is payable. Transfers must take place within twelve months of the original registration. If Sankofa cancels or reschedules, choose a full tuition refund or transfer to the rescheduled offering.

Basic completion documents that you are EMDR-trained. EMDRIA certification and advanced EMDRIA Credits are separate. No separate licensing-board CE approval is represented.