The Twickenham Therapy Centre

Social Anxiety Disorder

SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER

Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interaction with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of self-consciousness, judgment, evaluation, and inferiority.

Put another way, social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression.

If a person usually becomes anxious in social situations, but seems fine when they are alone, then "social anxiety" may be the problem.

Social anxiety disorder (formerly termed "social phobia") is a much more common problem than past estimates have led us to believe. Millions of people all over the world suffer from this devastating and traumatic problem every day, either from a specific social anxiety or from a more generalized social anxiety.

Symptoms

People with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in the following situations:

Being introduced to other people

Being teased or criticized

Being the centre of attention

Being watched while doing something

Meeting people in authority ("important people")

Most social encounters, especially with strangers

Going around the room (or table) in a circle and having to say something

Interpersonal relationships, whether friendships or romantic

This list is certainly not a complete list of symptoms -- other feelings have been associated with social anxiety as well.

Social Anxiety Therapy Groups

Peter and his wife (who attended an intensive CBT course in the United States run by Dr Thomas Richards, one of the world’s leading experts in Social Anxiety) have been running successful therapy groups for over 5 years.
The groups are run solely for sufferers of Social Anxiety as this has been proven to be the best method.

A Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach, based on Dr Richard’s therapy course is used as, again, this has been shown to be most effective.

Individuals will be accepted for group therapy only after their suitability is established at a one-to-one session and groups normally last for 15 weeks and are currently held on Monday and Wednesday evenings in the Twickenham Therapy Centre. Additional daytime groups may be organised in other locations.

If you feel that you may suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder, contact us for an initial assessment and further details

Call or text 0781 1395 868

For further details on Social Anxiety Therapy go to www.socialanxietyUK.com

One of Our Clients

Joanna suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder and had always avoided promotion as she didn’t want to be put in the spotlight. Nevertheless, she had to present to a group of colleagues at work on a monthly basis and she was finding this increasingly difficult.

She enrolled for a Social Anxiety CBT group and made great progress over the next few months, but her newfound confidence was not matched by her life skills as she had spent her life avoiding many of the routine challenges of normal life.

She moved over to one-to-one coaching and, within a few weeks had gained promotion, had ended a long-term relationship which had been going nowhere but which she had not been able to terminate for fear of what “people” would think, and had moved away from her mother, who she realised may have been a cause of her social anxiety problems. She is now in a new relationship and feels fully able to cope with life’s challenges.

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