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Thomas A. Richards was born in a university town
in the midwest and moved
with his family to Phoenix when he was in grade school. He graduated
from high school in Phoenix, and attended several colleges during the next four
years, finally graduating, with honors, from Bethany College, a small liberal arts college in California.
"Because of my social anxiety, college was a nightmare for me", Dr.
Richards commented. "I found I couldn't attend the university to
which I had been accepted because of my social fears. So, I transferred to a very small college in which I thought I
could at least function."
After college graduation, Dr. Richards took a
fifth year of college classes at Arizona State University to obtain his state teaching certificate, and taught
students at the upper elementary, junior high and high school levels, both in
California and Arizona. Later, he moved into administrative
positions within the field of education, and was executive director of two
private schools in the Phoenix area.
Social anxiety continued to be a major problem for him, however, and many career and
personal opportunities were lost because of this.
After an attempted career in real estate and
insurance, Dr. Richards enrolled and was accepted in graduate school at
the University of Iowa. He later transferred to
Arizona State University in Tempe and received both his M.A. and Ph.D. there,
with a concentration in life-span human developmental psychology. His master's thesis
involved community college retention, and his doctoral
dissertation concerned the role of verbal feedback in fostering intrinsic motivation in individuals.
After receiving his doctoral degree, Dr. Richards served as professor, instructor, and
department chair of psychology in colleges and universities in Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas,
finally leaving academics in the early 1990s to open a private clinical
psychological practice in
Phoenix. During this time he won several awards for teaching and academic excellence
and was chosen outstanding professor of the year.
In 1994, due to Dr. Richards' special (and
personal) interests in anxiety disorders,
his psychological practice "narrowed" to become an anxiety clinic.
The practice gradually shifted into an anxiety clinic , and Dr. Richards became
its principal psychologist and director. The Anxiety Clinic of Arizona
treated the specific anxiety disorders of (a) panic, (b) generalized anxiety,
and (c) social anxiety disorder. In a short time, ACA became a very busy institution, treating people
from all walks of life and from throughout the world.
It was in this practice that the first individual therapy and
the first cognitive-behavioral therapy groups for social anxiety were formed.
These groups have continued, uninterrupted, to
this day.
In 1995, it became apparent that the internet was
the wave of the future, and so Dr. Richards spent time learning how to get information
about anxiety out on the internet. The first major website to appear was The Anxiety
Network in 1995, which detailed three of the major anxiety disorders: panic
disorder, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety disorder. The Anxiety
Network is still in operation to this day.
The social-anxiety-network soon followed, but the
major thrust came when the clinic limited its scope once again and began to
exclusively see people with social anxiety
disorder.
In January 1999, after much discussion, the Anxiety Clinic of Arizona
was christened The Social Anxiety Institute to more accurately portray the clinic's
new direction and mission. The Social Anxiety Institute now focuses on people with social anxiety disorder
and
has continuously operating therapy groups for people who live in the area, and
several intensive therapy groups for people from around the world.
These "international" groups began spontaneously
when a young man drove his brother across the continent for social anxiety
therapy and group help. (Note: this was done without the knowledge of Dr.
Richards, who felt at the time that it was not possible to effectively treat
social anxiety in a shorter time frame.) Because intensive therapy
was needed, the word was disseminated that we needed a group of social anxiety
people from outside the area so that we could focus more precisely and more
quickly on the therapy concerning social anxiety disorder via use of a group.
The concern on Dr. Richards' part was alleviated
when the audio therapy series was completed. Currently, the Social Anxiety
Institute has recorded the principal cognitive (rational) therapy needed to
begin overcoming social anxiety. With the use of the cognitive audio
series, the international intensive groups have been shown to be life-changing
and effective.
At present, The Social Anxiety Institute hosts a local
all-day Saturday and Sunday program, an evening therapy group, a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral therapy program,
and an international therapy outreach through the cognitive-behavioral intensive
sessions that are held several times a year. The Social Anxiety Institute Mailing List,
which currently has over 12,000 subscribers, and the
best-selling audio series "Overcoming Social Anxiety: Step By Step"
also come from the mission of the Social Anxiety Institute.
Several dozens of people with social anxiety have moved to Phoenix
temporarily to take part in the local comprehensive cognitive-behavioral sessions held
at SAI. This project is continuing to grow and more people are making the
decision to move to within range of the Social Anxiety Institute to receive
appropriate and effective treatment.
The mission of SAI is to increase awareness of
social anxiety disorder, to continue to provide new and effective treatment for
social anxiety, and to use any method or medium available to reach more people
who are affected by this debilitating anxiety disorder.
The Social Anxiety Institute offered the first
programs in an attempt to provide comprehensive therapy. The program at
SAI involves extensive cognitive (rational) explanation and ties in directly to the many
behavioral exercises done as part of the therapy. This emphasis on extra
time and additional activities set the SAI program apart from other programs, and has produced
far-reaching, permanent results in the lives of people.
Dr. Richards continues to direct these programs.
In addition, the SAI outreach is under his direction. He has written
dozens of articles, the entire contents of this web site, the "Overcoming Social
Anxiety: Step by Step" audio series and workbook, and is President of the Social Phobia/Social
Anxiety Association, a non-profit organization.
In addition, he continues to speak on the subject of social anxiety throughout
the United States, in large and small cities alike, almost always to people with
social anxiety and their families. However, because he is running the activities of
all the groups mentioned above, it is hard to get out of the Phoenix area to
speak.
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