Imagine Recovery's Prolonged Exposure Series

• Day 1: Thursday, October 2, 8:30am - 5pm
• Day 2: Friday, October 3, 8:30am - 5pm
• Day 3: Thursday, November 6, 8:30am - 5pm
• Day 4: Friday, November 7, 8:30am - 4pm

• October 2nd & 3rd + November 6th & 7th:
  • 734 Nashville Ave, New Orleans, LA 70115

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can keep individuals trapped in cycles of fear and avoidance—but Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) offers a proven path to lasting recovery. Developed by Dr. Edna Foa here at the CTSA, PE is a gold-standard treatment for PTSD, backed by decades of research, clinical application, and real-world success. The American Psychological Association (APA) and Department of Defense (DoD) have designated PE as a first-line treatment in its 2025 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of PTSD in Adults, reaffirming its exceptional efficacy in helping individuals reclaim their lives.

This intensive workshop provides expert-led training in PE from a certified trainer at the very center where PE was created, ensuring the highest level of expertise in trauma-focused care and equipping clinicians with the skills to help patients process traumatic memories in a structured, evidence-based way.  This is an excellent training for any clinician wishing to incorporate the most established evidence based treatment for PTSD into their practice. Further, the presenter, Eric Schmidt, is a Linehan Board Certified Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) clinician and is trained in DBT-PE.  Given this, as a desirable bonus, this training will address how to incorporate PE into DBT practice. 

The PE workshop is taught with a combination of techniques and materials: lectures supported by PowerPoint slides, demonstration of therapy procedures and patient response via DVD segments of therapists conducting PE, role-play practices by participants with observation and feedback by trainers, and frequent Q & A exchanges. Participants are given a binder that contains handouts of all PowerPoint slides that are shown in the workshop, assessment materials, PE Session Checklists, Adherence and Competence Rating Scales, and a Dateline DVD. 

The workshop begins with a half day of lecture with the aid of PowerPoint presentation focused on the diagnosis and prevalence of PTSD, the theory underlying PE and the evidence supporting its efficacy and effectiveness in both civilian and veteran populations. This presentation is followed by a discussion of recommended assessment procedures and guidelines for deciding whether a patient is a good candidate for PE.  An overview of a “standard” course of PE follows, providing a general description of how sessions are structured and when the different components of the therapy are introduced. This is followed by detailed instruction of how to implement the treatment session by session.  The overall rationale for PE and how it is presented to the patient is described and discussed. The different components of PE are presented in the order in which they are introduced in the treatment, and participants practice each of the treatment components in role-plays with their partners. 

The different components of PE and their implementation are taught in the first two and a half days. The last day and a half of the workshop is devoted to discussion of how to tailor treatment to the individual patient in order to optimize treatment response and how to manage common issues like patients’ struggles with their tendency to avoid distressing trauma related thoughts and situations, and difficulties with emotional engagement during exposure.