Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Strategies

Social phobia is an extremely important area. There have been many studies on the topic, but treatment has been neglected, since people with social phobia are not usually psychotic and may seem normal in many ways. However, social phobia limits one’s life extremely and thus is an important disorder to recognize and treat. In this book, the authors provide important insights into how they conduct group psychotherapy for people with social phobia.

The first author is Director of the Adult Anxiety Clinic at Temple University in Philadelphia, and much of the work reported in this book seems to come from there. In addition to the usual review of the literature and the section of the text on treatment, the book also includes the authors’ treatment procedures, which are explained to the reader. Thus, the book is very practical, since it would help the reader to both understand and treat patients with social phobia.

The first section is called Understanding the Nature of Social Phobia and consists of six chapters. The other section in the book is titled Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia: A Treatment Manual and consists of eight chapters. The first section should be read before attempting treatment, since it sets the stage for understanding social phobia, with such chapter titles as “Subtypes of Social Phobia, Comorbidity, and Impairment” and “Cognitive Function in Social Phobia,” to name just two. The second section has chapters such as “In-Session Exposures” and “Homework Procedures,” which provide specific treatment approaches to social phobia.

I was surprised that although there are several references to Aaron T. Beck, a leader in understanding cognitive and behavioral approaches, there are none to Albert Ellis, who is also a pioneer in the field. Perhaps Beck’s recent studies and theories are seen as more useful than Ellis’s original theories. However, overall this is an excellent book, both from the scientific and the applied standpoint. It will be very helpful to those who wish to understand or treat social phobia.