Edna Foa and Prolonged Exposure: A Short Course for Learners

Edna Foa was a clinical psychologist who developed prolonged exposure therapy in the 1980s. This structured treatment uses imaginal exposure, when patients recount traumatic memories, and in vivo exposure, when patients approach safe situations they had been avoiding. She directed the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania and trained clinicians worldwide. In 2010 she was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people.

Foa died on March 24, 2026, at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia from complications of pneumonia. She was 88 years old. In the early 1990s she tested prolonged exposure with rape survivors and published manuals that were later translated into nine languages. Over decades, her work has been adopted in many clinics and by some veterans’ programs, and studies have shown prolonged exposure to be an effective treatment for PTSD.

She began her academic career at Temple University and the Medical College of Pennsylvania before joining Penn in 1998; she stopped working full time in 2023 but lectured after that. Her honors included major awards from the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.