Evidence-based treatment for social anxiety and fear of social situations.
About This Service
It is not shyness. It is the constant fear that every room you walk into is judging you. It’s the exhaustion of living that way.
Social Anxiety Disorder goes far beyond feeling nervous before a presentation or awkward at a party. It is an intense, persistent fear of social situations in which you might be judged, embarrassed, humiliated, or seen as inadequate. It is a fear so powerful that it shapes major life decisions: which jobs to apply for, which invitations to decline, which relationships to avoid, and which parts of yourself to keep permanently hidden.
For women in India, social anxiety has an additional layer of complexity. We live in a culture where social performance, conformity, and approval are heavily emphasised. In society, a woman is constantly evaluated on how she speaks, how she behaves, whether she is likeable, whether she fits, and thus, the fear of negative social evaluation finds particularly fertile ground. Many women with social anxiety have been told they are “too shy,” “too quiet,” or “need to come out of their shell,” as though the solution were simply a matter of trying harder.
This therapy is for women whose fear of judgment, scrutiny, or humiliation is limiting their life in meaningful ways. This therapy is for women who are ready to stop organising their world around avoidance.
Symptoms and Concerns We Address
What social anxiety looks and feels like:
FEAR OF JUDGEMENT
Intense anxiety about what others think of you – replaying interactions, assuming the worst, and anticipating humiliation
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
Fear of speaking in groups, giving presentations, eating or writing in front of others, or any situation involving visible performance
AVOIDANCE
Declining invitations, avoiding conversations, staying silent in groups -your life gradually shrinks as a result
POST-EVENT PROCESSING
Spending hours after social interactions replaying what you said, what you should have said, and what others must have thought
PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS
Blushing, sweating, trembling, racing heart, or stumbling over words – and having the fear of these symptoms being noticed and judged
DIFFICULTY AT WORK
Not speaking up in meetings, avoiding new colleagues, struggling to assert yourself or contribute visibly in professional settings
RELATIONSHIP LIMITATIONS
Difficulty making new friends, maintaining existing relationships, or being authentic with people because the vulnerability feels too dangerous
SAFETY BEHAVIOURS
Arriving early to avoid attention, staying at the edge of groups, over-preparing scripts, or using alcohol to cope socially
Our Therapeutic Approach
Reducing the threats, expanding your life
- Understanding the social anxiety model
We begin by building a clear picture of how your social anxiety works. We identify the triggers, the predictions, the safety behaviours, and the post-event processing that maintains and reinforces it. - CBT for social anxiety
We challenge the core beliefs driving your fears such as “I will say something stupid,” “people will think I am boring,” “everyone will notice I’m anxious”. We begin testing your beliefs against what actually happens in social situations. - Shifting attention inward to outward
Social anxiety is characterised by excessive self-focused attention – such as, monitoring your own performance, body, and facial expression. We work on shifting your attention outward, towards genuine engagement with others, which paradoxically makes social performance more natural. - Dropping safety behaviours
Safety behaviours prevent you from discovering that the feared outcome would not actually happen or that you could cope with it if it did. We work on reducing them systematically, and creating new social evidence. - Behavioural experiments and graduated exposure
We carefully design social experiments that test your predictions in real situations. We build your confidence through experience, not just through insight from discussions. - Addressing the deeper beliefs
Social anxiety is usually rooted in deeper beliefs about being fundamentally unlikeable, defective, or unworthy of belonging. We work on these beliefs because reducing surface avoidance without addressing the core produces fragile change.
Social anxiety responds extremely well to structured CBT-based treatment. The evidence base for this condition is one of the strongest in all of anxiety treatment, which means that if you do the work, meaningful change is very likely.
What to Expect
Starting this work:
- A first session that is, itself, a social situation you survived
The first therapy session with social anxiety is often anxiety-provoking. That is completely expected, entirely welcome, and actually useful information for the work we will do together. - Between-session practice is essential
Social anxiety cannot be treated by insight alone. It requires new social experiences. We design specific, manageable experiments for between sessions, tailored to your life and your current level of challenge. - Visible progress within 12–16 sessions
Most women experience significant reduction in social fear, increased confidence, and an expanding social and professional life within a few months of structured treatment. - Online sessions as a starting point
Online therapy is an entirely appropriate and effective starting point for social anxiety. It provides the safety needed to begin, and we work toward progressively more challenging real-world exposure as treatment progresses. - No pressure to become an extrovert
The goal is not to make you into someone who loves social situations. It is to free you from the grip of fear so that your social choices are made from preference, not avoidance.
