Welcome to the HAP UK & IRELAND (Humanitarian Assistance Programme) website.
We’re a charity affiliated to, though independent from, the EMDR UK & Ireland Association, set up to provide training in traumatology and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing) to local mental health professionals working with people in traumatised communities worldwide.
EMDR HAP was first set up in the USA, and volunteers have responded to calls for help all over the world including Oklahoma City, Israel, Northern Ireland, Turkey, Palestine, China and South Asia following the 2004 tsunami.
HAP Europe aims to provide a similar service with volunteers from many European countries. It now acts as an umbrella organisation for national HAP organisations, raising funds through workshops, charity runs and rides, and the sale of support material especially useful for therapists setting out in the use of EMDR in their practise.
Although HAP UK & Ireland has been in existence for a number of years and has had a representative co-opted onto the EMDR UK & Ireland Council, in 2009 it became an independent organisation with its own Constitution and Executive Committee.
We achieved charity status in November 2010. This will provide us with more opportunities to raise funds and expand the work we do.
For more information about HAP UK and Ireland, how to join, what we can do for you and how you might be able to contribute to our work, please do browse the website, join up using the Membership pages, or get in touch via the Contact Us page.
Registered Charity number 1138372