Are you ready to live the life you want and do the things you love without being held hostage by fear?

Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a form of psychotherapy that helps you recover from traumatic events or experiences, as well as fears and phobias. The first step of PE will be learning tools to manage difficult emotions and reactions that will occur throughout the course of therapy. PE targets avoidance and fear to help you process the trauma and reduce symptoms such as avoidance behaviors and overwhelming emotions related to the trauma.

Over the course of PE therapy you will engage in both imaginal exposures, during which you will talk about your trauma in detail, and in vivo exposures, during which you will slowly expose yourself to avoided and feared stimuli. Imaginal exposures are done in session with the therapist checking in periodically on your distress level. In vivo exposures are often done outside of the therapy session using a hierarchy of feared stimuli to guide the process so that you can start with a less distressing stimulus and work your way up the list as you gain confidence in yourself.

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Over time, these exposure exercises teach the brain to no longer view the stimuli as dangerous so that fear is decreased and you can regain a sense of control over your life.

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It's important to note that PE therapy is a regimented therapy typically taking place over the course of eight to twelve sessions and is not a quick fix for trauma. It requires a trained therapist to guide the process, and it may take up to fifteen sessions to see full benefits.