| These are some general questions to ask potential
psychologists or therapists you are considering seeing. These questions
may help you assess how much they understand about social anxiety
and its treatment.
1. "How much of
your practice is geared toward people with social anxiety (social phobia)?"
Try not to ask
"yes" and "no" questions.
2. "I have
been told that my problem is social anxiety, but I am not sure. Can you explain
to me what the
major symptoms of social anxiety are?"
Make them tell you what the symptoms are so that you can check to see if they
generally understand the disorder.
Then,
because research has been clear that cognitive-behavioral therapy is the only
effective method of overcoming social anxiety, ask:
3. "What
does changing
cognitions
mean?"
4.
"How do you do this?"
5. "Do you have a GROUP operating for people with
social anxiety?"
Any therapist who sees people with social anxiety is going
to be running a CBT if they are serious, and if they really
understand how to help people overcome social anxiety.
If
they say you are going to "talk" about it, wait a minute.
Talking
about anxiety over and over again only reinforces anxiety and may depress us further.
There is no solution to the problem if you "talk" about it every
week. You need some good, concrete solutions to all the practical problems
that social anxiety causes in your daily life.
Your
therapist should have specific methods, techniques, and strategies all written
down (printed) on paper that explain what to practice and why (the rationale
behind it or how it will make you better over time).
For example, we have over
100 handouts at the Social Anxiety Institute that we use with our social anxiety people -- every week we
move forward, learn new methods of dealing with social anxiety, and gradually put
these methods into practice, so that, over time, they are permanent changes the brain makes.
A potential therapist
should also have
a behavioral therapy group in operation.
You will probably begin
with a group of 6-8 people with social anxiety and you will work on the activities (such as making introductions around the room, speaking in a small group, etc.)
that cause anxiety, but only in a structured, step by step manner, so that your successes
can build up gradually.
Our local group
therapy day -- we use an all-day Saturday approach -- is one of my favorite days
of the week, because even though I know people
are a little anxious, they will be making progress and moving closer to
their goal of overcoming social anxiety.
Everyone here who has
"graduated from" the comprehensive CBT group(s) has moved
up and forward with life. Some people have entered college or returned to college,
others have taken a job, or a
new job, whereas others have accepted a promotion to a level that fits their
capabilities.
This not only
happened to me, it
happened to hundreds of others who have come through SAI as well.
Sometimes the going is rough, but if you find the right therapist, and stick with
it, you will get better over time. Then, you can systematically and gradually overcome the whole thing.
The only hindrance to
this is that we need more therapists who know
what to do. The research is abundant, but the clinicians are few.
- Thomas A.
Richards, Ph.D.,
Psychologist
|
