engleski

In session exposure during group work with socially anxious students

Social anxiety is one of the common problems among university students, which can significantly decrease or even block their academic performance, especially when they are expected to give a presentation in front of the group of other students. Anxiety can also interfere with other aspects of their everyday life, and frequent avoidance may also lead do depressive symptoms. The efficacy of group CBT for social anxiety has been proved in many studies, with Heimberg and Becker model as a gold standard. The main therapeutic interventions included in their program are psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring and in-vivo exposure exercises in the group, while homework assignments were focused on behavioral experiments and exposure. The experiences of the CBT treatment with 3 groups of socially anxious students (N=20 ; age 19 to 28) will be briefly described. It is the shortened version of 8 weekly sessions with one follow-up session (after two months). The main focus will be on the in- session exposure exercises which play an important role in CBT treatment of socially anxious people and has several functions. It helps in desensitization process, it encourages students to conduct homework exposure exercise on their own, and it is used for cognitive restructuring (as behavioral experiments). The evaluation of the treatment showed significant improvement in all measures. Students also report about less avoidant behavior and improved functioning in academic and social situations, after the treatment. The improvements were stable during the follow-up period. Many students reported that in-session exposure was the most helpful technique in the treatment. Some of them even asked for repeated group exposure, especially in their preparation for public presentations in front of the group of colleagues.

social anxiety ; group CBT ; exposure

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