Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Veterans with PTSD

Time: 9:00pm-4:00pm

Location: Virtual

Instructor: Scott Michael, Ph.D.

CE credits: 6 CE's (pending)

Course Description:

Prolonged Exposure (PE) is cited as one of the primary evidence-based treatments for PTSD in the VA-DOD clinical practice guidelines. PE has strong evidence for treating PTSD in Veteran populations. Dr. Michael provides training on each stage of the protocol so participants receive an in-depth training on all elements of the protocol. Participants will learn how to implement effective exposure therapy techniques for PTSD. Additionally, they will receive training in Veteran-specific applications of PE.

 Objectives:

At the end of this training participants will be able to:

1. Describe emotional processing theory of PTSD
2. Discuss how to use effective exposure therapy techniques for PTSD
3. Identify veteran-specific trauma structures and describe how to address those using exposure techniques

References:

American Psychological Association (2025). Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of PTSD. https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline

Moshier, S. J., Mahoney, C. T., Bovin, M. J., Marx, B. P., & Schnurr, P. P. (2024). Session-level effects of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure on individual symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among US veterans. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 92(7), 422-431. doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000880

Schnurr, P. P., Chard, K. M., Ruzek, J. I., et al. (2022). Comparison of Prolonged Exposure vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among US veterans: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open, 5(1), e2136921. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.36921.