Treatment Experience
I participated in a 20 week CBT group with Valdeck starting in the fall of 2006. This was the beginning of my journey to live the life I want despite my social anxiety.

We worked with Dr. Richards CBT audio therapy, 20 CDs, 20 weeks. Our job was to listen and work with the CDs every day and then we'd meet each week to work on behavioral hierarchy items (things that challenge out anxiety).

It wasn't always easy, the whole point being to challenge our irrational fears, but it really helped that Valdeck is a warm, friendly and kind guy and Vanessa, his friend who helped him, is wonderful too.

Each week we'd talk about the concepts and cognitive learnings from the CDs for that week and then participate in behavioral exercises.

When we started out we were doing things like working on eye contact, holding small talk amongst ourselves, shouting at each other from across the room, doing little improv games and so on. You only had to participate if you wanted to. No one was every forced to participate in any activity.

With time we learned new concepts and worked on more challenging things like fake job interviews and role-plays where we'd work on assertiveness and try to return items to stores with an employee who was being mean or getting yelled at.

While we were there to challenge our irrational anxiety there were times when we had a lot of fun.

Some of the things I did later on were give a serious speech in front of everyone, performed a rap song I wrote and danced.

My biggest challenge by far was dancing in front of others, which I did near the end of the group. It wasn't easy, but I did it. Compare dancing at a dark club packed in like sardines with dancing in a bright room with a handful of people staring at you. After doing it in group, I found it much less anxiety causing to go out dancing with a friend, something I would have turned down without a thought in the past.

Overall this is an experience I'd recommend to anyone with social anxiety. Anxiety is relative. When I went through this group, it helped me realize how I could do a lot of the things I thought I couldn't. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't easy, I haven't "overcome" social anxiety, but I have no doubt that it's had a very positive influence on my life.

Before I started this group, something like college seemed impossible to me, but after, while I knew it was going to cause me anxiety, it became something not only that I thought I could do, but that I wanted to do.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.