Breaking Free from Social Anxiety: A CBT Guide

By Rebecca, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist | rebeccacoxcbt.co.uk | cbtbournemouth.com |

Social anxiety can feel like an invisible barrier, leaving you feeling suffocated and isolated. The noise of doubts, memories and images, all trigger anxiety leading to withdrawl, avoidance, and diminishing self confidence. Recovery and change are possible. This post explains how CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) helps break that cycle with evidenced based protocols, giving you real usable tools and the confidence to try new things.

1. What Is Social Anxiety and Might Maintain It?

Social anxiety is chartroised by an intense fear of being judged, embarrassed, or scrutinised in social situations and can often come with a strong sense of shame. This fear often leads to an intense awareness of yourself, where your mind monitors every word, movement, and expression, making you feel uncomftoable, unsure, disconnected and more anxious. Then anxious about feeling anxious.

This inward focus, anxious predictions and anxiety symptoms can then lead to safety seeking behaviours such as avoiding eye contact or rehearsing your words. These safety seeking behaviours can feel really helpful at the time but can contribute to maintaining anxiety over time. Exactly how and why are things we can explore in CBT sessions together.

2. How CBT Helps: Practical Strategies That Work

Cognitive Restructuring helps you identify and challenge distorted thinking habits and assumptions such as "They'll think I'm stupid".

Exposure Practice and Behavioural Experiments involve gradual exposure to feared scenarios for example from saying hello to a stranger to speaking in public in front of peers. There is no prescribed plan for which to do when and these will always be individuialto you with your consent and decided togehter. You will not be forced to do things you do not wish to do in CBT nor will you engage in 'flooding'.

3. Self-Help Tools Backed by CBT Principles

• Psychology Tools has information on social anxiety and CBT treatment principles Psychology Tools.

• Get Self Help explains self-focused attention and avoidance cycles, and offers practical worksheets Get.gg - Getselfhelp.co.uk.

  
  

4. Will it work? and Why?

CBT targets the root causes of social anxiety, unhelpful thoughts and avoidance behaviors, and replaces these with evidence-based, confidence-building alternative actions.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If social anxiety is holding you back and you are looking for individual CBT sessions to support you, I offer personalised evidenced based CBT sessions in person in Dorset or online across the UK.

Book Online or email rebecca@rebeccacoxcbt.co.uk to book.

Let’s rewrite your social story, one kind, collaborative, courageous step at a time.