About Mary Clare de Echevarría

Welcome to the ‘About Me’ page of my website.

I am a British citizen of Irish, Scottish and Spanish Basque ethnicity, and have been practising as a psychotherapist since 1997, then as a supervisor then EMDR consultant since 2002. For 13 years, I was a training supervisor and experiential group facilitator at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (CCPE) in London, where the freedom we were given as facilitators allowed me to pilot ways of teaching integrative psychotherapy for complex developmental trauma. Before that, I had taught my own courses and workshops, including a one-year foundation course in counselling and psychotherapy, and in 2016, I gave back all my teaching contracts to focus on writing and teaching my own courses again.

A former linguist and teacher (and professional dancer) with an MA from the University of Oxford and a PGCE from the Institute of Education, London, I have postgraduate diplomas in psychotherapy and supervision, a postgraduate certificate in dreamwork, and EMDR Europe/EMDRIA consultant certification. I speak French and Spanish (though not quite fluently enough to conduct an entire therapy in these languages), and some Levantine Arabic.

I learned to work with developmental trauma and dissociative disorders ‘from the bottom up’ – through my own experience of healing and integration through psychotherapy and EMDR. Practising yoga, and the many skilled teachers from whom I learned, showed me the power of working with the body to heal complex trauma. At the same time, I was reading everything I could find on trauma, dissociation, and up-to-date approaches to psychotherapy, from foundational texts to the most recent developments, and immersing myself in courses and seminars, mostly in person.

For those who would like this information, you’ll find below a list of significant courses that have shaped my practice and continue to inform the way I work.

Psychotherapy is evolving rapidly, guided by neuroscience, ongoing research and liberation psychology, and I continue to develop my work through reading, consultation with colleagues, practising yoga, and attending courses and conferences.

Core training and essential advanced EMDR courses

  • Bessel van der Kolk – Intensive Trauma Treatment; The Body Keeps the Score
  • Deborah Korn – Working with Complex Trauma: Optimal Integration of Treatment Models
  • Sarah Schlote – Fundamentals of Somatic Experiencing
  • EMDR Europe – Standard Accredited Training and Consultant Training
  • Jamie Marich, The Institute for Creative Mindfulness – EMDR ‘Deluxe Training’
  • Laurel Parnell – Attachment-Focused EMDR
  • Mark Brayne – Attachment-Informed EMDR
  • Arun Mansukhani – EMDR in Intimate Relationships
  • Dolores Mosquera – The Progressive Approach to EMDR; Working with Personality Disorders; Working with Intimate Partner Violence
  • Manuela Spadoni – Attachment to the Perpetrator; Love Addiction
  • Jim Knipe – EMDR Toolbox; Tools for CPTSD
  • Anabel Gonzalez – EMDR and Emotional Processing: Working with Emotionally Disconnected Patients
  • Jamie Marich – EMDR Phase 2.5: Imperatives for Teaching Distress Tolerance
  • Deborah Korn – EMDR for Complex Trauma; Fostering Resilience in Complex Trauma Survivors
  • Raquel Carvalho Hoersting – A Developmental Model for EMDR Therapy Supervision

Further advanced EMDR courses

  • Michael Hase – Treating Depression
  • Arne Hofmann – EMDR in the Treatment of Depression
  • Luca Ostacoli – The Treatment of Neglect at the Core of Depression and New Techniques in Working with Depression
  • Benedikt Amann – Treating Bipolar Disorder
  • Susanne Leutner – EMDR, Ego States and Resilience
  • Ignacio Jarero – The AIP Theoretical Model and Expanding the Understanding of Resilience
  • Gabriela Segura – From Resilience to Post-Traumatic Growth with EMDR
  • Santiago Jácome, Belén Romá, Glenda Villamarín, Iván Maldonado and Rolando Mena – Tools to Develop Post-Traumatic Growth with EMDR Therapy
  • Christiaan Vinkers – The Integration of Psychological and Biological Determinants of Stress and Trauma and New Interventions
  • María José Pucciarelli and Santiago Harnecker – Beyond Phase 1: Target Development in Dissociative Patients
  • Sarah Dominguez – Understanding EMDR Therapy as a Transdiagnostic Approach
  • Santiago Jácome and Belén Romá – Extended Preparation and Stabilisation in EMDR Therapy
  • Sandra Paulsen – Intensive EMDR; Moral Injury: The Many Faces of the Alienation of the Spirit and the Self; Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma: Strategies for the successful treatment of complex structural dissociation with EMDR
  • Ann Potter – Restructuring Personality and Attachment Patterns by Integrating Ego State Therapy and EMDR
  • Lisa Wright – Using EMDR to Alter Sexual Interest Towards Children
  • Alexandra Dent – Mindfulness-Based EMDR
  • Millia Begum – Medication and EMDR
  • Justin Havens – Dream Completion and Flash Techniques
  • Thomas Zimmerman – Four Blinks Version of Flash: An Open Approach to Trauma Reprocessing
  • Ad de Jong and Susie Mathijssen – Online EMDR 2.0
  • Mona Zaghrout – Using EMDR in Different Cultures During Ongoing Conflict
  • Ignacio Jarero and Kelly Smith Dent – Treating Clients with Early Intervention and Prolonged Adverse Experiences
  • Isabel Fernandez – The Gold Standard of EMDR Early Intervention (EI) Response
  • Isabel Fernandes and Giada Maslavaric – Early Psychological Response and EMDR
  • Shiraz Farrand – The Group Traumatic Episode Protocol (G-TEP)
  • Roy Kiesling – Critical Incident Desensitisation Protocols
  • Gary Quinn and Steve Beatty – The Immediate Stabilisation Procedure (ISP)
  • Elan Shapiro – The Flash Technique Group Protocol (Flash-TEP)
  • Karsten Böhm – EMDR in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Patients
  • Amal Wartalska – Beyond Individual Pain: Using EMDR to Process Socially Inflicted Trauma and Foster Systemic Wellness
  • Consultants’ Training Days with Olivier Piedfort-Marin, Deany Laliotis, Robin Logie

Further significant non-EMDR courses

  • Taigh Mor Foundation – What is Sleep and Why Does it Matter?; Sleep Therapeutics; Sleep Deprivation, Sleep and Traumatic Experiences
  • Boris Cyrulnik – The Biological and Cultural Narrative of Resilience
  • Jamie Marich – Trauma-Informed Yoga Nidra for Clinical Professionals
  • Jamie Marich – Process Not Perfection: Remote Application of Expressive Arts Strategies
  • Juliette Lau – Trauma and Migratory Grief
  • David Archer – RAP Strategies: Afri-Centric Psychotherapy and Racial Trauma Recovery
  • Janina Fisher and Deborah Chatman-Finley – Waking Up to Racial Trauma
  • Samah Jabr – Reconceptualization of Mental Health in the Context of Palestine
  • Middle East Trauma – From War and Its Impact on Eating Disorders
  • Palestinian Mental Health Professionals Network – Examining Our Roles by Listening to Palestinian Psychologists with a Ground Perspective
  • Haneen Sabbah – Cultural Stories and Mysticism of Gaza
  • Stephen Porges – A Polyvagal Perspective on Resilience
  • Bessel van der Kolk – Steering Ourselves and Our Clients Through New and Developing Traumas
  • Yousef Hammash, Mughira Al Sharif, Abeer Abdallah – The Psychological Impact of Journalistic Reporting in Conflict Zones
  • Mamoun Mobayed, Sarah Sease, Neha Qazi, Yaseen Aslam – Diagnose or Understand? Rethinking the Conceptualization of Trauma in the MENA Region
  • Maisa Ziadni – Healing Chronic Pain
  • Nadeen Almubarak, Wala’a Farahat – Ethical Care Beyond Western Norms: Narrative Practices for Culturally Relevant and Trauma-Aware Care
  • Natali Santos Lewis – Healing the Soul: A Depth Psychological Approach to Trauma and Spirituality
  • Madonna Yanni, Natalia Gomez Carlier, Keith O’Malley Farrell – Unspoken Wounds: Rethinking Trauma Healing in Healthcare
  • Deemah Salem – Silence Behind Closed Doors: Giving a Voice to Vaginismus in the Middle East
  • Tala Alsoleiman – Menopause as a period of trauma activation
  • Mamoun Mobayed, Muttaman Mohammad, Samah Jabr – Mental Health Crisis Intervention in the MENA Region
  • Gabor Maté – Compassion Fatigue: Caring for Ourselves While Caring for Others