evidence based therapy « The AI-Therapy Blog

Internet CBT treatment for social phobia. What is it?

A man [woman] who does not think for himself [herself] does not think at all.
-Oscar Wilde

I added the brackets to remind you, my dear reader, that it is 2012.

Internet CBT treatment for social phobia

I have created a video to help explain Internet CBT treatment for social phobia. One goal of this treatment is finding out what type of thinking people use. The video is designed to help people become more aware of these thoughts. Thinking about thinking is the first step.

Social phobia is characterised by an inflated threat perception in social situations. Sufferers experience intense fear of negative evaluation and see amplified threats in being judged by others. This exaggerated fear response has a marked impact on their relationships with others, in both public (e.g. work) and private life (e.g relationships). Frequently people suffer from low mood and exhaustion due to the distress the problem causes. Sufferers fear, avoid, or endure with significant stress the following: conversations, meeting new people, expressing a controversial opinion or disagreement, being assertive, speaking in front of a group, being the centre of attention, eating, drinking, or making mistakes in front of others.

Our Internet CBT treatment for social phobia (http://www.AI-Therapy.com) is a professional website incorporating a computerised CBT practitioner that we have been building since 2007. CBT, or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, is a well known treatment approach supported by several hundred controlled experimental trials. Our Internet CBT treatment for social phobia offers you a fully automated computer psychologist that tailors your treatment to the specific symptoms that you report to the system. The database it uses is derived from a wealth of psychological data gathered in major anxiety and mood clinics over the past 20 years.

Your subscription lasts for 6 months, and includes the following online treatment procedures: (1) cognitive restructuring exercises; (2) mindfulness tasks; (3) exposure exercises and behavioural experiments; (4) education about the nature of anxiety and depression; (5) quizzes to test your growing understanding of your condition and its treatment; (6) emails to motivate and remind you to access the program; (7) online assessment tools to measure your improvement; and (8) voice overs by me Fjola and Ross explaining each treatment procedure covered in the program.

AI-Therapy is an Internet-based CBT treatment for social phobia comprising 7 sections. Section 1 helps the user get in the habit of becoming aware of their thoughts and behaviours. Sections 2-6 teach strategies to address unhelpful thinking and behaviours. Section 7 is focused on relapse prevention so that the user can maintain their changes in the long run.

Try a 10 questions free social phobia symptoms test

Fjola Helgadottir, PhD, MClinPsych, is a clinical psychologist, a senior research clinician at the University of Oxford, and is a co-creator of AI-Therapy.com, an online CBT treatment program for overcoming social anxiety

What is therapy or psychotherapy?

I’m often asked by friends, family, and people I meet, “what is therapy or psychotherapy?” so I figured it would make a worthwhile topic for a blog.

Psychological therapy, or psychotherapy, is probably one of the more misunderstood concepts around. Its popularity is evident by the vast amount of coverage it gets in popular movies and TV. As a clinical psychologist, I often cringe when watching “therapy” scenes in pop culture. For example, I watched the last episode of the 6th season of Dexter last night, where the therapist proposes an untrue/untested/completely-bullocks theory about how Debra Morgan must be in love with her brother! Fun twist for a TV show, but this theory is horrible PR for the field of evidence based clinical psychology.

This example from Dexter provides a great illustration of why a good therapist needs to be a good scientist too. Why should someone called a “therapist” have the authority to tell people things that aren’t based on evidence? The expectation for professional standards for therapists should be no less than when you go to see your family doctor. You have the right to trust that your therapist is acting in your full interest, and acting in accordance with the latest scientific findings from clinical psychology research field. Sadly though, science isn’t trendy.

Back to the original question, what is therapy or psychotherapy?

The first few sessions of therapy involve answering many questions, and filling out some standardised assessment questionnaires. Next, the psychologist uses their clinical knowledge and experience to determine what is the problem. If it is anxiety, the therapists figures out what type of anxiety one is experiencing. There are many different types of anxiety. For example, anxiety can be social anxiety, generalised anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, panic symptoms or phobias for almost anything under the sun. Each of these diagnoses need a specialised and tailored individualised treatment. Therefore, it is highly individualised what type of treatment one can receive under the general umbrella of “anxiety” or “worry problems”. Once the therapist understands the problem and has prioritized what needs to be tackled, the actual therapy can commence.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is the state-of-the-art therapy for many psychological problems. On average it takes 12-18 sessions, where a person meets with a therapist on a weekly basis. During this time, the therapist and the client work collaboratively on understanding the thoughts and behaviours that are contributing to everyday life problems.

This may sound straightforward, but it can be incredibly tricky to think about your own thinking, and understand your own behaviours, as well as the functions they serve. You learn to assess objectively what happens in every day life, and learn to tackle these using cognitive behaviour therapy strategies. In general, this leads to a more emotionally balanced lifestyle. The great thing about this type of therapy is that if it is done well, there are no side effects, and it continues to be effective in the long run. However, as opposed to many popular miracle cures popularised on TV and in movies, CBT takes work. However, as most people who receive the benefit from it will tell you, it is worth all the effort you put in.