“What type of therapy is best for social anxiety?”
I am a 26 year old female. I want to know what type of therapy is best for social anxiety?
9 Answers
Psychotherapy improves symptoms in most people with social anxiety disorder. In therapy, you learn how to recognize and change negative thoughts about yourself and develop skills to help you gain confidence in social situations.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective type of psychotherapy for anxiety, and it can be equally effective when conducted individually or in groups.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective type of psychotherapy for anxiety, and it can be equally effective when conducted individually or in groups.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used effectively with social anxiety. There are several other effective programs that might also benefit you. It is very hard to say for sure until you meet a therapist and establish a rapport. Finding a therapist you can connect to is equally important to technique and theory.
Tracy C. Wilson, M. Ed., LPC
Tracy C. Wilson, M. Ed., LPC
Individual counseling.
Hi,
Thank you for your question. To help with social anxiety, it is important to understand what social anxiety is. Someone with social anxiety has fear about one or more social situations in which others will scrutinize them and fear that acting in a certain way or appearing anxious will lead to being negatively evaluated. Social situations almost always provoke anxiety or fear, which are avoided or endured with dread, and the anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the situation. A person with social anxiety will make negative predictions about what the experience will be like in a social situation and maintain core beliefs about themself that get in the way of successfully managing social situations. They will monitor their own
emotional, physical, and behavioral signs of anxiety to try to avoid showing anxiety, which actually makes their symptoms intensify. They assume other people notice, too, and judge them negatively without paying attention to those around them, so they can't collect data to disconfirm their assumptions such as positive or neutral facial expressions.
A short-term and highly effective treatment for social anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT explores and helps to resolve negative automatic thoughts and underlying core beliefs about the self, other people, and the world using structured activities and specific interventions. CBT also involves behavioral activation and development of new coping skills. CBT has been found to be one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety. CBT will help you to practice emotional acceptance of anxiety, restructure negative core beliefs by gathering
evidence to the contrary, train yourself to focus on external cues rather than internal sensations to interpret your performance more accurately, and develop more adaptive ways to evaluate your performance to reduce post-event processing. A CBT therapist will also likely develop an exposure hierarchy of feared situations and help you prevent social anxiety responses by starting with the lowest level and working up to the most feared social situation.
I hope this has been helpful!
Best,
Jenna Torres, PsyD
Thank you for your question. To help with social anxiety, it is important to understand what social anxiety is. Someone with social anxiety has fear about one or more social situations in which others will scrutinize them and fear that acting in a certain way or appearing anxious will lead to being negatively evaluated. Social situations almost always provoke anxiety or fear, which are avoided or endured with dread, and the anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the situation. A person with social anxiety will make negative predictions about what the experience will be like in a social situation and maintain core beliefs about themself that get in the way of successfully managing social situations. They will monitor their own
emotional, physical, and behavioral signs of anxiety to try to avoid showing anxiety, which actually makes their symptoms intensify. They assume other people notice, too, and judge them negatively without paying attention to those around them, so they can't collect data to disconfirm their assumptions such as positive or neutral facial expressions.
A short-term and highly effective treatment for social anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT explores and helps to resolve negative automatic thoughts and underlying core beliefs about the self, other people, and the world using structured activities and specific interventions. CBT also involves behavioral activation and development of new coping skills. CBT has been found to be one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety. CBT will help you to practice emotional acceptance of anxiety, restructure negative core beliefs by gathering
evidence to the contrary, train yourself to focus on external cues rather than internal sensations to interpret your performance more accurately, and develop more adaptive ways to evaluate your performance to reduce post-event processing. A CBT therapist will also likely develop an exposure hierarchy of feared situations and help you prevent social anxiety responses by starting with the lowest level and working up to the most feared social situation.
I hope this has been helpful!
Best,
Jenna Torres, PsyD
The evidence based treatment recommended for social anxiety is CBT, cognitive behavior therapy. Specifically, the treatment would involve “exposure” exercises to help you face feared situations. At the core of social anxiety is the fear about being judged by others or being embarrassed in social situations. It will be important to understand that even if your fears/feelings are intense in a given moment, that is not a cue that there is danger or something happening that you can’t handle! Feelings are not dangerous and they can’t hurt you. I wish you all the best.
Depending if you have already done a physical and started medication treatment, then the next step is therapy. Talk therapy online is best, not face to face. You might be comfortable in your own space, then work towards the trigger, and your online counselor can help.
Exposure therapy and social group therapy are both highly effective
Coping skill development, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and a step by step gradual exposure plan to socialization can be helpful to ease social anxiety.
Note this link...
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-is-cbt-used-to-treat-sad-3024945
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-is-cbt-used-to-treat-sad-3024945
