What is shyness/social anxiety?
Shyness is in part simply a temperamental quality–something we are more or less born with. There are strengths associated with shyness; for instance, we often find increased empathy, concern for others, altruism, and conscientiousness among shy persons. However, chronic shyness can involve excessive concern about negative evaluation and/or an avoidance of participation in social situations that would otherwise be pleasurable or important to one’s professional or personal growth. Discomfort and non-participation can become severe enough to interfere with the pursuit of one’s goals. A person may become isolated, dissatisfied, and sometimes depressed. How does treatment for shyness/social anxiety work? We primarily work from Dr. Henderson’s Social Fitness model, which is based on a cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and an interpersonal model at the Shyness Clinic. This CBT model has been shown to be an effective treatment for social anxiety in a number of controlled research trials. Dr. Henders
