Effective exposure therapy isn't about just jumping into the stuff we have been running from. It's about going gradually. If all you can do for now is talk around it, that's ok - you are still approaching it from a distance.
It's like someone working through a fear of flying from a plane crash with exposure therapy. Having them take flight after flight while overwhelmingly anxious or dissociated doesn't do anything to change a fear of flying. But starting off someplace small, like imagining buying a plane ticket, not even going to buy the ticket, but just beginning to expose the brain to a small amount of it, and keep at least one foot in this present moment while remembering the past (not dissociating) is where exposure therapy would start. Then once that was doable without overwhelming symptoms, then the person would get a little close to the feared thing.
Talking around it or talking in vague terms sounds like you are doing exactly what you need to be doing at this point. As you begin to be able to be more more grounded doing that, you'll be able to say a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more.
You're doing good work
