\Social anxiety: person-centred/experiential approaches
Overview
Social Anxiety (SA) also known as Social Phobia is characterized by social-interpersonal withdrawal and poor self-worth. People with SA are terrified of public speaking, talking to certain classes of people, eating in public, being watched by others, etc. SA is a widespread psychiatric disorder with links to key social problems such as substance abuse and employment difficulties.
Problems of social-interpersonal withdrawal and poor self-worth (hallmarks of Social Anxiety) were a key focus of Person-Centred therapy in it beginning phases, but this client group has been virtually ignored by humanistic psychotherapies for the past 40 years. Furthermore, SA is a common co-occurring condition with Major Depressive Disorder, for which there is substantial empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of Person-Centred and Experiential psychotherapies (PCEPs). On the other hand, there is some research evidence -- all of it conducted by supporters of the dominant Cognitive Behaviour Therapy approach -- that appears to indicate that a Person-Centred/Experiential approach may be less effective with anxiety problems. Taken together, this seemingly contradictory state of affairs suggests the timeliness of research on contemporary Person-Centred/Experiential approaches specifically focused on problems of social anxiety.
Published Work:
- Elliott, R., Greenberg, L.S., & Lietaer, G. (2004). Research on Experiential Psychotherapies. In M.J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin & Garfield‘s Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5th ed.) (pp. 493-539), New York: Wiley.
Presentations:
- Elliott, R. (September, 2007). Person-Centred/Experiential Psychotherapy for People with Social Anxiety. Paper presented at meeting of Scottish Society for Psychotherapy Research, Glasgow, UK. [ (PDF format 290kb)]
- Elliott, R., Black, R., Jack, G., & Mooney, G. (2007). Developing a Person-Centred/Experiential Approach to Social Anxiety: Initial Heuristic Investigation and Research Protocol. COSCA’s Fourth Annual Research Dialogue, Dunblane.
Current research:
- Treatment development: Can practical, short-term Person-Centred and Experiential psychotherapies (PCEPs) for social anxiety be developed?
- Pre-post change: Do clients seen in PCEPs show substantial therapeutic benefit (statistically significant and > .8 sd) over the course of treatment?
- Bench-marking: Do clients seen in PCEPs show as much pre-post change as clients seen in cognitive-behavioral therapies studies reported in the literature?
- Causal inference: Using interpretive single case methods, are client pre-post changes causally linked to therapy (beyond the effects of measurement and nontherapy factors)?
- Change Processes: Based on client report and interpretive case analyses, what specific aspects of therapy appear to be associated with client change?
Potential research topics:
The Social Anxiety protocol is designed to provide a rich data set for qualitative and quantitative process and outcome studies, including group and single case studies as well as measure development research. A few of the possible topics are:
- Interpretive single case efficacy design studies of 1 to 3 similar therapies (1 –2 cases = MSc or M-level dissertation; 3 cases = PhD or D-level dissertation)
- Client-perceived significant events in PC/E for social anxiety.
- Helpful aspects of PC/E therapy for social anxiety
Active Researchers
- Robert Elliott (contact)
- Brian Rodgers
- Lorna Carrick
- Tracey Sanders
- Elizabeth Freire
- Mikio Shimizu
- Garry Mooney
- Aileen Walker
- Grahame Jack
- Rebecca Black
- Diane Elliott