Psychological treatment of social phobia

Social phobia is described and defined. The stages of cognitive–behaviour therapy (CBT) for social phobia are outlined. These include drawing out an idiosyncratic model of the patient’s social anxiety, reducing the use of safety behaviours and self-focused attention, correcting patients’ overly negative self-impressions, testing out social fears and planning for the future. Techniques that are particularly useful in CBT for social phobia (video feedback, behavioural experiments, surveys) are highlighted.