Christine A. Padesky, PhD
1 Full Color DVD
Run Time 54 minutes

Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Social Anxiety

© Copyright 2008 Christine A. Padesky, PhD / www.padesky.com

Dr. Christine Padesky presents her treatment rationale and demonstrates the CBT approach she developed in the 1990’s to treat social anxiety called “Assertive Defense of the Self.”

A young woman (Pooh) describes how she avoids certain social events and activities because she fears criticism from others. In the opening minutes of this DVD program, Pooh identifies her anxious thoughts and gives a brief history of her fears.

Via role play practice that Padesky debriefs using Socratic dialogue, Pooh begins to build her "Assertive Defense of the Self" repertoire and skills. Over the course of this single session Pooh gains confidence that she can cope with criticism.

Padesky emphasizes coping with criticism rather than testing out the belief that people are critical. This is because successful CBT protocols help people directly face their fears. If fear of criticism is central to social anxiety then it makes sense that learning to face and cope with criticism should be central to treatment.

Once Pooh gains confidence she can defend herself against criticism, she works with Padesky to devise a behavioral experiment to test her skills in the real world. She devises a challenging experiment that she hopes will elicit criticism from others. This experiment is based on the "Assertive Defense" philosophy that people with social anxiety should court criticism until their fears subside. Viewers will hear how Pooh and Padesky develop the experiment and how Pooh learns to view herself as “lucky” if she received criticism.

The end credits of the program include a photo of Pooh carrying out her behavioral experiment that she emailed to Dr. Padesky several weeks after this session was filmed. Our new Audio CD on Social Anxiety includes more follow-up information on these experiments! (SKU SANX)

DVD Chapters
1.   Fear of Criticism
2.   Relevant History
3.   Treatment Rationale
4.   Assertive Defense Setup
5.   Practice Assertive Defense
6.   Debrief Experiments
7.   Seek Criticism
8.   Practice “Gentle” Defense
9.   Summary & Assignment
10. End Credits