Treatment for Shyness
Treatment for
Shyness is mainly psychological. Some
professionals use
medication, especially those who do not distinguish between Shyness and
Social Anxiety Disorder. Those who do distinguish between them use almost solely
psychotherapy, since the anxiety levels are mild or moderate.
Psychotherapies apply to any difficulty in the mental or psychological
arena, but some
therapists dedicate themselves more to some of them, as is
the case in Shyness and the Anxiety disoders. There are dozens of
approaches, but few of them are based on theoretical models and/or
consistent experiments.
In order to facilitate understanding of this diversity, two examples
illustrate different ways to work with
psychological problems. For
pedagogical purposes, psychotherapies enjoying more prestige in academia
and among professionals can be broken down into two major groups:
psychodynamic and behavioral.
You will enjoy this psychological suspense
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As its name indicates, the psychodynamic group understands that there is a psychic dynamic to the disorder. The descriptions of these dynamics vary with the
Personality Theories on which each psychotherapy is based. Many are not
supported by theories, but by general
statements on the psychological
development of human beings.
Client-Centered Therapy - This psychodynamics approach
formulated by
psychologist Carl R. Rogers is
shown here as an example. It is based on its author's
conviction that the human being is essentially good,
developing himself or herself in social integration and
harmony between the
organism and the
concepts
it assimilates, provided that the environmental conditions
are favorable. If certain adversities occur, internal
disagreements and contradictory
criteria by which to evaluate
oneself and the world arise, and then anxiety sets in. If the therapist offers an environment of
acceptance,
comprehension and a
genuine interest for her
client's welfare, the client tends to seek a better
self-knowledge,
to better order concepts, and to make choices which are more coherent with what her organism indicates. She thus frees innate constructive forces. Hence, a successful therapy is one that updates the self. In Shyness, for instance, the client makes many negative references to himself at the start of therapy, but, as sessions succeed each other, this changes. The dynamics of the person's development, which led to anxiety, undergo a change due to propitious psychotherapy conditions.
The set of psychodynamics psychotherapies is very heterogeneous, since
they are based on very different theories or statements. They share the understanding that the changes in the individual result from changes in the psychological processes.
The other group of approaches, generically known as behavioral, is a bit more
homogeneous. Initial formulations were based on
Behavior Analysis,
developed by B. F. Skinner. In the field of experimental research,
Behavioral Analysis has expanded Pawlow's concepts on
conditioned reflex.
Clinical application of these studies essentially consists in replacing
organism-learned responses by others—for instance, substituting the
anxiety response in a social
performance situation with a body relaxation
response.
Clinical Behavior Therapy - Arnould A. Lazarus has structured an
application of the Behavioral Analysis in the clinic. It consists in
surveying situations in which a person experiments anxiety and ordering
such situations as per the intensity of the anxiety. Hence, the situations are
placed into a hierarchy, starting with the situation causing very low
anxiety and ending with that which causes the highest anxiety. In another
stage, the person is placed in a state of muscle relaxation and stimulated
to mentally reproduce the image of the situation causing the lowest
anxiety. The exercise is repeated a few times and one then moves on to the
mental image of the situation that causes a little higher anxiety,
pursuant to the hierarchy. This goes on for several sessions and it is
expected that the organism learn to relax in all situations to which it
otherwise responded with anxiety.
Many therapists have merged this Lazarus technique with others—such as instead of the person imagining a situation, he is faced with the concrete situation and encouraged to
rationally tackle the threat head-on. Variations like
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy currently enjoy much prestige as one of the more effective forms for treating Anxiety Disorders, such as Social Anxiety Disorder and, naturally by extension, for the treatment of Shyness.
Related Pages:
Shyness: Consultation with a Professional
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