Grievance Policy

The EMDR Institute is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists. The EMDR Institute will comply with all legal and ethical responsibilities to be non-discriminatory in promotional activities, program content and in the treatment of program participants. The monitoring and assessment of compliance with these standards will be the responsibility of the CE Administrator, the Program Director and the EMDR Institute Advisory Committee.

While The EMDR Institute goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues which come to the attention of the training and office staff which require intervention and/or action on the part of the CE Director. This procedural description serves as a guideline for handling such grievances.

Policy 1. When a participant, either orally or in written format, files a grievance and expects action on the complaint, the following actions will be taken. If the grievance concerns a speaker, the content presented by the speaker, or the style of presentation, the individual filing the grievance will be asked to put his/her comments in written format. The CE Chair will then pass on the comments to the speaker, assuring the confidentiality of the grieved individual.

Policy 2. If the grievance concerns a workshop offering, its content, level of presentation, or the facilities in which the workshop was offered, the convention chair will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, the convention chair will:

a) attempt to move the participant to another workshop or
b) provide a credit for a subsequent year's workshop or
c) provide a partial or full refund of the workshop fee.

Actions 2b and 2c will require a written note, documenting the grievance, for record keeping purposes. The note need not be signed by the grieved individual.

Policy 3. If the grievance concerns The EMDR Institute CE program, in a specific regard, the CE Administrator will attempt to arbitrate.

Contact name(s)*: Roberta (Robbie) Dunton
Email(s): rdunton@emdr.com
Telephone number(s): 831-761-1040
Address: EMDR Institute PO Box 750 Watsonville CA 95077

*Please ensure that an alternative name is listed if the contact person listed is also an instructor.