CBT For Social Anxiety

CBT is a specialised therapy that focuses on helping people understand how specific patterns of thoughts, behaviours and feelings arise in response to social situations. You will discover how certain thinking or behaviour patterns you maintain, may be flawed and thus contribute to your social anxiety symptoms. You will also learn how these patterns can be changed to build positive feelings and the self-confidence to deal with the social situations you find difficult.

A CBT therapist will help you learn to recognise how particular elements of the thoughts and behaviours you maintain, actually feed your social anxiety. You may already be aware or completely unaware of these problematic patterns. A CBT therapist can help you gain the clarity to assess where useful changes can be made. They will work collaboratively with you to devise, a series of exercises and experiments that can help you begin to develop the skills you need to manage and cope with social situations much more effectively.

Exercises may take the form of written homework, for instance, some exercises can help you practice new ways of viewing previously stressful situations. For example, you may gain a more positive or realistic perspective on how others might view you. Experiments are also a common element of CBT therapy and these would be devised collaboratively with your CBT therapist. For example, you might want to test an experiment that involves engaging in a new strategy in a social situation to see what difference it makes. This aim is always to focus on testing strategies that will ultimately make you feel more comfortable and at ease.

After a course of good CBT therapy, many people will feel more confident in dealing with social situations.