Social Anxiety Therapy and Treatment
Short and Simple List of Symptoms:
Intense fear or anxiety in anticipation of a social situation
Fear or self-consciousness that prevents one from behaving the way s/he wants
Preoccupation with bodily symptoms, such as: sweaty palms, weakness in knees, heart pounding, breathing difficulty
Avoidance of public speaking or other social circumstances
Although many people get nervous on occasion when facing certain situations, others may have a persistent Social Anxiety (also known as Social Phobia) that is disabling.When facing social situations, a person suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder may notice apprehension accompanied by physical signs of discomfort. Your body has learned to sound an alarm – warning of danger – as though your survival were at stake.
As a Social Anxiety sufferer, you have developed coping strategies to deal with your body’s overactive false alarm system. You may find that the only way you can socialize is to drown out your discomfort with alcohol, drugs or food. Unfortunately, this often creates an addictive relationship with these substances.
Often Social Anxiety develops during the transition to Kindergarten or Pre-school. Most children have some anxieties about these changes. If parents know how to respond in empathic, supportive and comforting ways, and patiently help the child to face the situations, the child generally outgrows these fears. If the parent ignores the needs, makes fun of or punishes the child for their fears or avoidance, they can get stuck in the system for years and even decades. Those experiences become a form of stress we call “small t trauma”. EMDR can help clients with these experiences to calm the memories and access the potential strengths they have had since the beginning, but haven’t been able to access.
Perhaps as a teen or an adult you have chosen to withdraw and avoid social situations. But avoidance is a temporary fix which makes this condition worse in the long run. It actually strengthens fear.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is helpful in making you aware of not just your fearful memories that got stuck, but your self-conscious critical inner voice and negative beliefs which are keeping you stuck.
In treatment with an EMDRIA-Certified EMDR Therapist or Counselor, you can safely reprocess and neutralize the experiences or traumas which initially produced these negative beliefs. You will also be helped to desensitize the current triggers which set off your false alarm system. This creates an atmosphere more conducive to developing new confidence and social strategies. The goal is for social connecting with others to become a more comfortable and even pleasurable experience.
EMDR clients overcoming social anxiety notice an emergence of a kinder, gentler view of others and of oneself as human beings who need not be perfect to be enjoyed, to feel appreciated and to be accepted. If this sounds appealing to you, we sincerely hope you will do yourself a big favor: pick up the phone to call one of our Social Anxiety specialists now.
