Social Anxiety Therapy and Counseling in California

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center offers evidence-based therapy for Social Anxiety. Our approach to therapy for social anxiety is compassionate, practical and goal-oriented and will help you make positive changes in your life. Our Center Director, Laura Johnson, LMFT, LPCC, has worked with hundreds of clients with social anxiety and is a specialist in this area. We serve people anywhere in the San Jose/Silicon Valley and anywhere in California Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Orange County and anywhere in California.

We are a regional center of the National Social Anxiety Center | Silicon Valley. The National Social Anxiety Center is a prestigious group of centers around the country offering evidence-based social anxiety treatment by certified cognitive therapists.

What is Social Anxiety?

Social anxiety disorder is a strong fear of being judged or evaluated by others and worry about what others are thinking if you. Social anxiety is characterized by a fear of embarrassment, criticism or rejection that causes you to feel extremely insecure in social situations and think you are not competent or likeable or as good as other people. Most people have felt anxious or embarrassed at one time or another in a social situation. For example, meeting new people or giving a speech can make anyone nervous. If you have social anxiety disorder, your fear can be so strong that it gets in the way of going to work or school or doing other everyday things. You may worry for days or weeks before attending a social event and ruminate excessively about what you said or did afterwards, or avoid social situations completely.

Social anxiety can be very specific to a certain situation or it may occur across many types of social situations. Examples of situations where social anxiety might be present include parties and social events, talking with a group of people, speaking up at work meetings, giving a speech, raising your hand in a classroom, being called on unexpectedly to answer a question, talking to authority figures, making calls, and a variety of other social situations.

Social anxiety can manifest itself in different ways. We treat all types of social anxiety  including:

• Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Type
• Public Speaking Anxiety
• Work-Related Social and Performance Anxiety
• Selective Mutism
• Performance Anxiety
• Dating Anxiety
• Fear of Showing Symptoms of Social Anxiety
• Fear of Eating in Public
• Fear of Writing in Public
• Shy Bladder Syndrome
• Avoidant Personality

We also work with issues related or often confused with social anxiety including:

• Shyness
• Introversion
• High Sensitivity aka the “Highly Sensitive Person”
• Social Communication Difficulties

Symptoms of Social Anxiety

• Feeling extremely self-conscious and/or embarrassed in front of other people
• Feeling very anxious about being with other people and having a hard time thinking of what to say when you are with another person or a group of people
• Being very afraid other people with judge you negatively
• Worrying for days, or even weeks, in advance of a social event
• Avoiding social situations and events due to social concerns
• Having a hard time making and/or keeping friends
• Blushing, sweating or trembling when you are around other people
• Feeling nauseous or sick to your stomach when you are with other people
• Having extreme physical reactions or other severe anxiety or panic symptoms when you are with other people or thinking about going to a social event

Do you have social anxiety? Click here to take a quiz to find out.

Cognitive Behavioral Model of Social Anxiety

In the cognitive behavioral model of social anxiety, social anxiety is maintained by the following:

• Beliefs that you are inadequate compared to other people, that you don’t have the appropriate skills and/or that other people will judge you harshly.
• A belief that the anxiety symptoms you experience in social situations are intolerable.
• Behaviors that make you feel safe in the short term but prevent you from learning. Safety behaviors can include avoidance, drinking alcohol, arriving early or leaving late, bringing a friend and many others.

Cognitive Behavior Treatment of Social Anxiety

The goal of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is to help you have new learning experiences to change the beliefs and behaviors that are maintaining your social anxiety. The main components of cognitive behavior therapy for social anxiety are:

• Education: education about how social anxiety starts and is maintained.
• Assessment: identifying the thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that are maintaining your social anxiety today and developing a hierarchy of feared social situations.
• Skills Training: teaching you new social skills, gaining new coping skills and eliminating safety behaviors.
• Exposure: exposing yourself in a gradual manner to feared social situations so you can practice new responses.
• Cognitive Restructuring: forming new beliefs about your ability to cope with social situations.

How to Get Help for Social Anxiety in San Jose and California

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center provides therapy and counseling for X anxiety in San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Orange County, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Roseville, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Los Altos and anywhere in California through our Online Video Program. Click to send an email  for more information on how we can help you manage X anxiety.

Silicon Valley Communities We Serve

Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley offers evidence-based therapy for Anxiety and OCD near the following Silicon Valley/San Jose communities:

San Jose Therapy Counseling • Saratoga Therapy Counseling • Los Gatos Therapy Counseling • Monte Sereno Therapy Counseling • Cupertino Therapy Counseling • Campbell Therapy Counseling • Mountain View Therapy Counseling • Los Altos Therapy Counseling • Sunnyvale Therapy Counseling • Santa Clara Therapy Counseling

CBT Online Video Therapy

CBT Online Video Therapy for anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) offered in all the above locations as well as the following California communities:

San Francisco Therapy Counseling • Sacramento Valley Therapy Counseling • Carmel CA Therapy Counseling • Santa Cruz Therapy Counseling •
Monterey Therapy Counseling • Los Angeles Therapy Counseling • San Diego Therapy Counseling • Orange County Therapy Counseling

CONTACT US
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