This workbook for overcoming social anxiety and inhibition is available online for free from the Centre for Clinical Interventions:
Bank, S., Burgess, M., Sng, A., Summers, M., Campbell, B., & McEvoy, P. (2020). Stepping Out of Social Anxiety. Perth, Western Australia: Centre for Clinical Interventions.
--
Stepping Out of Social Anxiety - Table of Contents
Module 1: Understanding Social Anxiety
This module looks at the symptoms of social anxiety, and explains what causes and maintains social anxiety.
Module 2: Overcoming Negative Thinking
This module looks at the relationship between negative thinking and social anxiety, and introduces a strategy to challenge unhelpful thinking.
Module 3: Overcoming Avoidance
In this module you will learn how to avoidance keeps social anxiety going, and how to start approaching situations to challenge your fears.
Module 4: Behavioural Experiment Stepladders
This module looks at how you can begin going into social situations that you may have been avoiding using a structured, step-by-step approach.
This module explains what safety behaviours are, how they keep social anxiety going, and how to reduce your use of safety behaviours.
Module 6: The Role of Attention
This module describes how your attention can automatically focus in unhelpful ways that keep social anxiety going, and introduces a strategy to retrain your attention.
Module 7: How I Think I Appear to Others
In this module you will learn how to challenge unhelpful beliefs about how you appear to others by conducting behavioural experiments.
Module 8: Challenging Core Beliefs
Core beliefs are often at the root of unhelpful thoughts that are particularly difficult to change. This module looks at core beliefs and how to change them.
Module 9: Strengthening New Core Beliefs
In this module you will learn how to build conviction in new, more helpful core beliefs.
Module 10: Maintaining Your Gains and Dealing with Setbacks
This final module describes how to maintain gains and continue the progress that has been made throughout the previous modules.
Click the link above to download all modules in this workbook at once, as a zip file.
Module 1: Understanding Social Anxiety: Exercises
Negative Thoughts: Take a moment to write down some of the negative thoughts and images you have that make you feel anxious about social situations. What are some of the negative predictions you have about what others will think or how you will come across?
Avoidance: Take a moment to write down any social situations you avoid because of your fear of being judged negatively by others.
Safety Behaviors: What are some of the safety behaviours you use in social situations?
Self- and Environment-Focused Attention: When you are in a social situation and are feeling socially anxious, where is your attention focused?
How You Think You Appear To Others: How do you think you appear to others when you are feeling socially anxious? Are there any physical symptoms of your anxiety that you believe are obvious to others?
My Model of Social Anxiety
Module 2: Overcoming Negative Thinking: Exercises
Thought Challenging Record
Module 3: Overcoming Avoidance: Exercises
Behavioral Experiments
Module 4: Behavioral Experiment Stepladders: Exercises
Designing and completing Behavioural Experiment Stepladders
Module 5: Safety Behaviors: Exercises
Part 1: Identifying safety behaviors
When you can’t avoid a situation, what do you do to make yourself feel less anxious?
When you feel anxious in a social situation, what do you do to avoid attention?
When you feel anxious in a social situation, what do you do to come across better to others?
Are there situations that you have approached lots of times, but that you are still anxious about? What do you do in this situation to reduce your anxiety?
Part 2: Designing behavioral experiements and dropping safety behaviors
Module 6: The Role of Attention: Exercises
Where do you notice your attention is focused in social situations? Write down what you have noticed in the space provided below.
Module 7: How I Think I Appear to Others: Exercises
What thoughts or images come to mind about how you appear to others when you feel anxious? What personal physical signs of anxiety do you think are obvious to others (e.g., blushing, sweating, stuttering, shaking, mind blanks, “umms or ahhs”)? How do you imagine you are performing? Write your answers in the space provided below.
Consider what it would be like to find out that in fact, many of the anxiety symptoms you imagined were obvious are actually very mild (or unnoticeable) from other people’s perspective. What impact would that have on your expectations of negative judgement? What would this free you up to do differently when socialising or performing? Write your answers in the space provided below.
Module 8: Challenging Core Beliefs: Exercises
Module 9: Strengthening New Core Beliefs: Exercises