Prolonged Exposure Therapy Skills: A Step-By-Step Approach
Prolonged exposure is not hard to learn. It is structured, repetitive, and the worksheets already exist. If you can run CBT you can follow the protocol. The difficulty sits somewhere else: PE is painful for the client, and a client who agrees to it, gets three sessions in and then walks away is worse off than when they arrived, because the avoidance has just been reinforced.
Jennifer Sweeton trained in prolonged exposure inside the VA system and now uses it in private practice, and she is direct about where those two settings part company. Classic PE holds that unless a client is extremely unstable they will be fine. Her own position is more cautious, and she separates the two all the way through, so you can see what the protocol says and where she does it differently.
The course covers the emotional processing theory PE rests on, memory reconsolidation and why repeated recall actually shifts a memory, PTSD assessment and diagnosis, and the brain changes exposure work is aiming at. From there it moves through the protocol session by session, including the trauma interview, choosing the index trauma, the in vivo hierarchy, imaginal exposure and hot spots. Sweeton also places PE next to EMDR, CPT and somatic approaches, so you can tell when it is the right choice and when it is not.
You’ll walk away with
- A clear read on which clients suit PE and which are better served by EMDR, CPT or somatic work, based on which symptoms are actually driving the presentation
- Language for the conversation where you explain why this will feel worse before it feels better, without overpromising an outcome
- The emotional processing theory behind PE, and how its two steps map onto memory reconsolidation
- A plain explanation of why repeated recall changes a memory, which you can give a client without the jargon
- A way to choose the index trauma when a client brings many, and a realistic view of when processing one generalises to the others and when it will not
- The difference between in vivo and imaginal exposure, and how the between-session homework carries most of the work
- A method for finding the hot spots inside a memory and working with them directly
- A readiness check covering distress tolerance, existing coping skills, current safety and any competing diagnosis likely to get in the way
- The contraindications, including active suicidal ideation with intent or plan, coping limited to drinking, cutting or dissociating, current psychosis, ongoing danger, and a trauma less than a month old
- Knowledge of where the established PE assessment tools, worksheets and video demonstrations live, so you are not rebuilding materials that already exist
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 11 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Outline:
- Introduction to Prolonged Exposure
- PE in a nutshell
- PE and the Emotional Processing Theory
- Who PE was designed for
- Research supporting PE as an evidence-based therapy for PTSD
- Risks and contraindications
- Diagnosing PTSD and other trauma- or stressor-related disorders
- DSM-5 criteria
- Cultural considerations
- Brain science of trauma and exposure therapy
- Amygdala
- Hippocampus
- Insula
- Cortical areas
- Assessment/screening tools
- Primary Care PTSD Screen
- PCL-5
- IES-R
- CAPS-5
- Trauma Treatment Roadmap
- Bottom-up vs top-down approaches
- Stabilisation and grounding
- Where PE fits into the roadmap
- Preparing for PE
- Assessing for readiness
- Motivational interviewing techniques
- Psychoeducation about trauma processing
- Therapeutic alliance
- PE: Session 1 step-by-step
- Psychoeducation about PE
- Trauma interview
- Identifying the index trauma
- Breathing retraining technique
- PE: Session 2 step-by-step
- Common reactions to trauma
- Psychoeducation about in vivo exposure
- In vivo exposure fear hierarchy
- Homework assignments related to in vivo exposure
- PE: Exposure sessions 3+ step-by-step
- Imaginal exposure to the traumatic event: step-by-step
- SUDS, symptom monitoring, and stabilization
- Managing hot spots
- Processing of the exposure
- In vivo exposure progress
- PE: Final session
- Final assessment
- Progress review
- Relapse prevention
- Determining next steps in therapy
- PE modifications
- Extending session length and/or increasing/decreasing frequency
- TBI
- Moral injury
- Other modifications
- Integrating PE with other treatment modalities
- EMDR
- Cognitive Processing Therapy
- Other cognitive behavioural approaches
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Trauma survivors whose PTSD symptoms resist traditional therapy approaches - and clinicians struggling to understand how neuroscience can enhance treatment - may need more than generic trauma protocols to help create lasting healing. Jennifer Sweeton has spent her career bridging cutting-edge neuroscience research with practical clinical application, becoming an internationally recognised expert who has revolutionised how practitioners understand and treat trauma through brain-based interventions.
As a Stanford-educated clinical and forensic psychologist with doctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine and a master's degree in affective neuroscience, Dr. Sweeton represents the pinnacle of scientific rigor applied to trauma treatment. Her Amazon #1 bestselling book Trauma Treatment Toolbox and recognition by Shortform as one of the "100 Best Trauma Books of All Time" demonstrate her ability to translate complex neuroscience into practical tools. Her recent completion of her JD from the University of Missouri-Kansas City adds crucial legal expertise to her forensic psychology practice, making her uniquely qualified for complex cases involving legal proceedings.
Dr. Sweeton's expertise spans PTSD treatment, the neuroscience of mental health, forensic assessment, women's issues, anxiety disorders, and legal aspects of mental health. Her approach integrates evidence-based trauma therapies with cutting-edge understanding of neuroplasticity and brain-based healing. She is the developer of Neural Desensitisation and Integration Training (NDIT), an evidence-informed modular psychotherapy for PTSD that specifically targets neuroplasticity in key brain regions. Her specialisation includes complex trauma presentations, forensic evaluations for legal proceedings, and cases where standard trauma treatments have been ineffective.
What sets her training apart is rigorous science combined with practical application. As a world-renowned trauma treatment expert, Sweeton doesn't just teach trauma techniques - she shows practitioners how specific interventions create measurable changes in brain structure and function. Her experience training over 60,000 mental health professionals worldwide demonstrates her exceptional ability to make neuroscience accessible to practicing clinicians.
For your practice, expect to gain brain-based trauma interventions, specific techniques for treatment-resistant PTSD, and forensic assessment skills for legal cases. Her approach particularly benefits clinicians wanting to integrate neuroscience into their trauma work, those dealing with complex forensic cases, or practitioners seeking advanced training in evidence-based PTSD treatment.
Quick Win: Sweeton's "neural pathway mapping" technique helps clients understand how trauma affects specific brain regions - helping to reduce shame and increase treatment engagement by showing that PTSD symptoms reflect brain changes, not personal weakness.
Qualifications
- PsyD, Clinical Psychology, PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium, 2012
- MS, Clinical Psychology, PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium, 2010
- MA, Personality Psychology (Affective Neuroscience), Stanford University, 2007
- BS, Cognitive Psychology, University of Kansas, 2004
- JD, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2025
- Licensed Clinical & Forensic Psychologist
- Training: Stanford University School of Medicine, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, National Center for PTSD
Authored Publications
- Traumatic Stress Recovery Workbook (2025)
- Trauma Treatment Toolbox (Amazon #1 bestseller, Shortform's "100 Best Trauma Books of All Time")
- Eight Key Brain Areas of Mental Health and Illness
- Train Your Brain Card Deck: 100 Techniques to Heal Trauma and Build Resiliency
- Multiple book chapters and professional publications
Leadership & Teaching
- Founder/Co-owner, Kansas City Mental Health Associates (group private practice)
- Former President, Greater Kansas City Psychological Association & Oklahoma Psychological Association
- Adjunct Faculty, University of Kansas School of Medicine & University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
- Developer, Neural Desensitisation and Integration Training (NDIT) for PTSD
Professional Experience
- Director of Behavioral Health, Clinton Service Unit, Indian Health Service, 2015–2016
- Telemental Health Psychologist, Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, 2013–2015
- Combat Stress Recovery Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center/Oklahoma City VA, 2012–2013
Training & Speaking
- Trained over 60,000 mental health professionals internationally
- Keynote speaker, trainer, and workshop leader worldwide
- Sought-after expert for legal, corporate, government, and community education events
- Developer of continuing education programs serving 50,000+ licensed mental health providers
Ready to integrate cutting-edge neuroscience with trauma treatment? Discover how Dr. Sweeton's brain-based interventions can transform your ability to help trauma survivors achieve lasting recovery through evidence-based approaches that target specific neural pathways.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 9
- Topics 0
- Duration 11 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English