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Frequently Asked Questions

About

Emetophobia is the fear of vomiting or vomit.

Bia is your step-by-step guide to overcoming phobia and taking your life back. Based on researched techniques, get started in just a few minutes, learn new skills, and track your progress.

You deserve a life free from phobia. Bia is free to try. A subscription is required to unlock your full journey.

How It Works

Learn the how and why of your phobia. Your phobia is not your fault.
Personalize your journey and set your goals.
Learn researched techniques for overcoming emetophobia.
Practice new skills in a safe environment.
Track your progress on lessons, exercises, and major milestones.
No tricks, traps, or surprises of any kind.
Vomiting is never required or asked. Vomiting is not required to recover from emetophobia.

See the Research

Get Started

Bia is your place to learn and practice. Just like a musician practices at home before they play on stage, Bia helps you practice for life. Start today, progress at your own pace, and conquer your emetophobia.

Team

William Schaller, Founder

Hello, my name is Willy, founder of Bia. I suffered from emetophobia for most of my life and know first hand the misery and loneliness it can cause. During my recovery I built a tool to track my progress and help me practice. Over four years this tool transformed into Bia, now used by people around the world. I'm happy to share I have recovered from emetophobia and I believe you can too.

Elizabeth Arenare, Strategy Advisor

My name is Elizabeth Arenare, and I am a healthcare operations professional with a background in psychology research. Being properly diagnosed with emetophobia in my 20s and working through treatment has been empowering and transformative for me. I have since developed a passion for leveraging both my professional and personal experiences to contribute to emetophobia research and treatment.

Nancy Lagunas, Clinical Advisor

Nancy Lagunas is an AMFT practicing at the Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco. She has a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a Minor in Child Development from Cal Poly SLO and a Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology from San Francisco State University. Nancy has experience as a registered behavioral technician, clinical researcher, and as an individual, group, and family therapist.

Ira Hays, Clinical Advisor

Mr. Ira Hays is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a distinguished career in mental health and education, specializing in anxiety disorders, including school phobia, emetophobia, agoraphobia and OCD. As the Director at Center For Wellness's Intensive Outpatient Program in NJ, he leads a team of licensed therapists and interns delivering evidence-based treatments. Mr. Hays owns a private practice, Hays Health and Wellness, and is an Adjunct Professor at Monmouth University. Mr. Hays uses an empathetic approach and evidence-based interventions to empower his clients to conquer challenges and lead fulfilling lives.

Joe Antrim, Software Developer

Joe is double majoring in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. Joe is a passionate builder. From terrariums to woodworking to software, you will find him busy bringing ideas to life in all mediums.

Bia is partnered with The Emetophobia Institute to advance our mission to raise awareness, provide training, and improve treatment for Emetophobia.

Advisory Board

Dr. David Russ, Psychologist

Dr. David Russ is a licensed Psychologist with over 35 years of experience, specializing in the treatment of clients with emetophobia. He is president, co-founder of the Carolina Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC and the author of "Emetophobia: The Ultimate Kids' Guide," co-author of “Emetophobia: Understanding and Treating Fear of Vomiting in Children and Adults,” and has taught at various graduate counseling programs. He specializes in evidence-based treatment for adults, teens and children with anxiety disorders.

Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge, Psychologist

Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge is a New York and Hawaii licensed Clinical Psychologist in private practice, who specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). With over fifteen years of experience, she is an expert in the treatment of Emetophobia, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, OCD, and other anxiety disorders. Dr. Berssenbrugge is the founder of TheEmotionsWheel.com and author of "Beyond the Blush: A CBT Approach to Overcoming Social Anxiety." In addition to her clinical work, she provides supervision to graduate students and early career psychologists.

Jaime Roche, LCSW

Jaime Roche is a therapist, parent coach, and author. She specializes in treating anxiety, OCD and specific fears/phobias. Jaime is the author of Tummy Troubles, a children's book about emetophobia, helping kids and parents understand and overcome phobia.

Jacob Reiter, Psychiatrist

Jacob Reiter is a product leader in psychiatric digital health technology. Previously, he led Product for psychiatry at Verily-Google Life Sciences across digital biomarkers and real world evidence. By training he is a computational psychiatry research scientist and led work at Stanford Psychiatry. He also sits on a number of national public-private partnership committees.

Kaitlyn Peters, LPCC

Kaitlyn Peters is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC#13782) practicing in California. Kaitlyn owns a private practice where she specializes in treating individuals with emetophobia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, utilizing Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help her clients break free from their fears. Kaitlyn also pulls from her personal experiences with emetophobia and OCD to connect with her clients and show them that recovery is possible—and that they absolutely can do this!

Mission

Our mission at Bia is to help you overcome phobia by providing a safe place to learn and practice researched recovery techniques.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it possible to overcome emetophobia?

Yes. Research shows, recovery from phobia is possible. You don't have to settle for life with phobia.

What does it mean to overcome a phobia?

Imagine a life where phobia does not influence your decisions. Where you can go where you want, eat what you want, and do what you want without anxiety, or fear.

Is Bia a replacement for therapy?

No. Bia is a personalized guided tool for learning about and practicing exposure. It can be used with, or without, the aide of a therapist, but Bia does not replace the use of a traditional therapist.

I am nervous to try it.

We built Bia to lower the barrier to the path of recovery. Bia never tricks, traps, or forces you in any way. The journey is built of small, incremental steps. You control the pace and order of your journey.

How long does it take?

Individual sessions on Bia are short and take 5 to 15 minutes. Bia builds a personalized step-by-step journey based on your unique needs, so completing the full journey is different for everyone. Typically, a journey includes over 55 exercises and 19 lessons across 9 milestones.

How much does it cost?

Bia is free to try. A subscription is required to unlock your full journey.

Subscriptions help pay for the development of Bia including server costs, content and software development, translation efforts to support more languages, and more. New features and content are added regularly.

Does it use AI?

Is Bia researched?

Bia is based on researched techniques, but is itself not researched. Read more about the research here. We are actively seeking academic partnerships to research the effectiveness of Bia. Please contact us with any research interest.

What do you do with my data?

Bia never shares your data with third parties. You can view and delete your data at anytime. Good privacy is simple, you own your data.

I have another question.

Please, contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Other resources.

Here are some other resources that might be helpful: