We would like to welcome you to the Social Anxiety Institute website.  

The Social Anxiety Institute, and its websites, exist to help, support, and encourage people to overcome social anxiety. 

Currently, I work with people who have social anxiety disorder exclusively.  My interest in social anxiety comes naturally because I had this disorder myself up until about 1990.  

In my very worst "socially anxious" years, there was no help, no therapy, and indeed, no name, for this devastating anxiety disorder. 

So, without knowing any better, I did everything in my life the wrong way.  

As I (very) gradually recovered and moved into the clinical field, it became apparent there was very little help for what I had suffered from all my life, "social phobia", as it was being called then.

This is the genesis and the context for the development of The Social Anxiety Institute.  

We welcome you to our pages, invite you to download and print information (for your own personal use), and encourage you to take part in our therapy programs, whether locally or through our international CCBT (therapy) groups. 

An alternative to people who cannot find appropriate help for overcoming social anxiety may be the audio therapy series, which was introduced in October 2000.  There is an active group of people using the series to help them recover from social anxiety, as the audio therapy series is now in its fourth edition.  

You are also welcome to join the free Social Anxiety Institute Mailing List, which comes out periodically.

Our goal at SAI is to encourage you to receive appropriate help for social anxiety so that you can go on to lead a life that is free from the misery, pain, and restrictions that social anxiety produces. 

Sincerely yours,

Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D.,
Psychologist/Director, Social Anxiety Institute

A Personal Note About Overcoming Social Anxiety

A Brief Biographical Sketch of Dr. Thomas A. Richards