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Using Advances From Cognitive Behavioral Models of Anxiety to Guide Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder
Author(s) -
Narr Rachel K.,
Teachman Bethany A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22450
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , social anxiety , cognition , cognitive behavioral therapy , clinical psychology , affect (linguistics) , meaning (existential) , psychotherapist , anxiety disorder , cognitive therapy , psychiatry , communication
This case features an adult male with moderate social anxiety disorder and mild depressive symptoms who showed an initial positive response to an earlier experience of cognitive behavior therapy, but then relapsed when he started avoiding social situations again because of continuing beliefs that experiencing anxiety was unacceptable. His treatment at our clinic focused on shifting unhelpful thinking about the likelihood and consequences of becoming anxious and reengaging in avoided social situations so he could learn to tolerate negative affect and uncertainty. The treatment approach draws from cognitive behavioral models of social anxiety and highlights advances in clinical science, especially recent work on the causal role of interpretation biases (the tendency to assign negative or threatening meaning to ambiguous situations) in the maintenance and reduction of anxiety.