"CBT for Social anxiety"

I have known that I have some form of social anxiety for a long time, but it is only in 2022 that I decided to do something about it. I'd first completed a basic general-anxiety course with IAPT, and then began a specialist 1-to-1 social anxiety course with Sita, a trainee CB therapist.

In short, that course has helped me change my view of myself for the absolute better, and may well have changed my life, for which I am extremely grateful to Sita.

In 12 or so sessions, I have learned an awful lot about social anxiety and how a person responds to it. Sita and I have touched on a lot of important topics, from my early experiences with social anxiety to my current safety behaviors, my misconceptions about human interaction, and my negative self-image. What I enjoyed the most about that early stage was how, even though it was strictly speaking outside of the focus of the class, Sita had encouraged me to use a Positive Log to show to myself that there are plenty of reasons to be happy with myself, my progress in life and its current direction. This episode made me feel seen and supported in a holistic way. It has also made further work easier as I could focus on making progress with social anxiety as opposed to wasting energy on self-doubt and self-criticism.

Then came the middle section, where Sita showed me the value and importance of focus, and ran helpful exercises to demonstrate that social anxiety is often a consequence of fixating on oneself and one's own thoughts as opposed to the actual social situation. Already somewhat familiar with meditation and other attention-related practices, I was pleased to find a similar technique be used in CBT which made me trust the process more. At the same time, being reminded about the power of the focus was very helpful, since stopping to self-focus is of great help in a variety of situations. In parallel, we have examined a number of so-called "cognitive errors" which were very curious to say the least, and made me more aware of my own thinking. Half the time the cause for anxiety lay in these acquired thinking patterns, and so once you have put a name to the situation, the struggle with social anxiety became a whole lot easier.

In the final section, Sita had put me in the driving seat, tailoring the further therapy experience to my particular context - at the time, I have just started a new job. We would agree on several behavioural experiments for me to do each week, on which I would report in advance of our sessions. I found it great that targeted in this way were my particular fears and difficulties; I was free to both identify problems as well as propose solutions. Thanks to these "tests" in all senses of the word, I have both found the self-confidence I did not know I had as well as learned a method to dispel new fears as and when they come. This was, of course, extremely valuable.

All in all, CBT with Sita left me very pleased and was a huge relief. Always a friendly ear, Sita operated as the situation required, sometimes with more gentleness, sometimes a bit more strict. At all times she had been understanding, involved, and interested. She even answered some questions I had that related to neighboring therapy fields which I thought was super helpful. Therefore, I can only recommend her as a therapist and wish her every professional success.