Treating social anxiety remotely with cognitive therapy

Journal article

Remote delivery of evidence-based psychological therapies via video conference has become particularly relevant following the COVID-19 pandemic, and is likely to be an on-going method of treatment delivery post-COVID. Remotely delivered therapy could be of particular benefit for people with social anxiety disorder (SAD), who tend to avoid or delay seeking face-to-face therapy, often due to anxiety about travelling to appointments and meeting mental health professionals in person. Individual cognitive therapy for SAD (CT-SAD), based on the Clark and Wells (1995) model, is a highly effective treatment that is recommended as a first line intervention in NICE Guidance (NICE, 2013). All of the key features of face-to-face CT-SAD; including video feedback, attention training, behavioural experiments, and memory focused techniques can be adapted for remote delivery. In this paper, we provide guidance for clinicians on how to deliver CT-SAD remotely, and suggest novel ways for therapists and patients to overcome the challenges of carrying out a range of behavioural experiments during remote treatment delivery.

Authors: Warnock-Parkes, E; Wild, J; Thew, G; Kerr, A; Grey, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Cognitive Behaviour Therapist
• Volume: 13
• Article number: e30
• Publication date: 2020-07-16
• Acceptance date: 2020-07-09
• DOI: 10.1017/S1754470X2000032X
• EISSN: 1754-470X
• ISSN: 1754-470X
• Language: English
• Keywords: social anxiety disorder; CBT; cognitive therapy; COVID-19; social phobia; FFR; remote therapy; distance therapy