Edna Foa, whose exposure therapy made PTSD treatable, dies at 88
The Haifa-born Penn psychologist developed prolonged exposure therapy and trained therapists worldwide, making PTSD and OCD conditions people can recover from.
Edna B. Foa, the Israeli-born clinical psychologist whose research transformed the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, died on 24 March 2026 at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. She was 88. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the cause was complications of pneumonia; eJewishPhilanthropy, which reported her death on 27 March, quoted colleagues who called her a giant of the field.
Foa was born in Haifa in December 1937, studied psychology at Bar-Ilan University and completed graduate degrees at the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri. From 1971 she worked at Temple University and the Medical College of Pennsylvania, founding the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at Temple in 1979. She moved to the University of Pennsylvania's psychiatry department in 1998, where she directed the centre for decades.
Her best-known contribution is prolonged exposure therapy, a structured form of cognitive behavioural therapy she developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Over roughly nine to twelve sessions, patients gradually and safely revisit traumatic memories and situations they have been avoiding, learning that they can tolerate them and taking back control of their lives. At a time when many clinicians believed that talking about trauma would harm patients, Foa showed in rigorous trials that the method could bring lasting relief to most of those treated. She also made exposure and response prevention, a related technique for OCD, practical to deliver around the world.
Foa trained generations of therapists in the United States, Israel and elsewhere; Israeli trauma specialists who learned from her during the Second Intifada went on to build national programmes of their own. Her honours included lifetime achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and in 2010 Time magazine named her one of the world's 100 most influential people.
“There's so many people in the world whose lives have been improved by what she did.”
Prolonged exposure is now one of the most widely recommended treatments for PTSD, used for military veterans, survivors of assault, disaster and terror, and many others. By turning a chronic, often disabling condition into one that most patients can overcome, Foa's work has given millions of people a realistic path to recovery.
Sources
- Edna Foa, whose revolutionary therapy offered hope to those suffering PTSD, dies at 88eJewishPhilanthropy, March 27, 2026
- Edna B. Foa, celebrated pioneering psychologist and longtime Penn professor, has died at 88The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 2026
Summarised in our own words from the reporting above.
Tikkun olam, today. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.