Emotion-focused therapy for social anxiety (EFT-SA)

Elliott, Robert and Shahar, Ben (2017) Emotion-focused therapy for social anxiety (EFT-SA). Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 16 (2 Part). pp. 140-158. ISSN 1477-9757

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    Abstract

    Social Anxiety (SA) is a common, disabling difficulty characterized by persistent fear of other people. After a brief clinical description, we present an Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) theory of SA: We describe its developmental origins in experiences of social degradation, which result in primary emotional processes organized around a core sense of shame-ridden defective self. These give rise to secondary reactive anxiety that others will see the person's defectiveness, organized around a coach/critic/guarding aspect of self that, in the process of trying to keep the person safe from exposure, inadvertently generates the emotional dysregulation characteristic of SA. Following this we present a model and case example for working with SA via an emotional deepening process that begins with accessing secondary reactive anxiety of others in particular situations, then works backwards to accessing and activating primary maladaptive shame so that this emotion scheme can be restructured within a secure, accepting therapy relationship. We conclude with a brief summary of evidence for EFT-SA and some final thoughts about how working with this client population has changed our EFT practice.

    Author(s):Elliott, Robert ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3527-3397 and Shahar, Ben
    Item type:Article
    ID code:61180
    Notes:This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies on 02 Jun 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14779757.2017.1330701
    Keywords:social anxiety, emotion-focused therapy, Psychology, Psychology(all)
    Subjects:Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
    Department:Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > School of Psychological Science and Health > Counselling
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:30 Jun 2017 11:00
    Last modified:19 Nov 2019 14:07
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/61180
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