Social anxiety disorder is a persistent fear of being judged, scrutinized, or embarrassed in social or performance situations. Treatment in Los Angeles typically uses cognitive-behavioral therapy with gradual real-world exposure. Group therapy is uniquely effective because the group itself becomes a low-stakes practice space.
您不需要为自己的感受辩解。
一些可辨认的时刻，用其他人描述过的话。如果其中几条引起共鸣——那是信息，不是定论。
您反复修改一条短信才肯发出去——有时根本就没发。
走进一个满是人的房间，您的身体表现得好像即将做某件危险的事。
一段对话结束后，您会花几个小时回放，寻找自己说错了什么。
打一个电话耗费的精力比通话本身还多。
您拒绝了邀请，然后感到愧疚，接着如释重负，再然后感到孤独。
在别人面前吃东西、在会议上发言、在餐厅点餐——这些小事都会让您精疲力竭。
您怀疑其他所有人都有一本您没拿到的手册。
这类焦虑通常是如何发展的。
Social anxiety affects roughly 7% of US adults in any given year, making it one of the most common — and most undertreated — anxiety conditions. It typically begins in adolescence and, without treatment, often becomes a stable feature of adult life.
What contributes is usually some combination of temperament (running on the more behaviorally inhibited end from early childhood), early experiences of public criticism or embarrassment that lodged in memory, and family or cultural environments where image, performance, or shame had a particular weight.
It is not the result of being a 'shy' person who needs to push themselves harder. The advice to 'just put yourself out there' often makes it worse — the underlying pattern is what needs treatment, not your willpower.
"You don't need to give a speech in week one. Treatment moves at the pace your nervous system can actually handle."
与相似模式的区分。
用通俗语言对这种情况与相似模式的区别进行简短说明。
What social anxiety is: a treatable pattern of fear focused on being evaluated by others, including pre-event anticipation, in-event physiological activation (racing heart, sweating, trembling), and post-event rumination (replaying for hours).
What social anxiety isn't: shyness (which is a temperament, not a treatable condition). Introversion (a preference for less social input, not a fear of it). General anxiety in social settings only when something specific is going on (that's situational, not the disorder).
治疗如何帮助
社交焦虑在心理健康领域拥有最坚实的研究基础之一。认知行为疗法（CBT）——尤其是专门针对社交焦虑的版本——背后有数十年的实证支持。这项工作分为两部分：识别您的大脑对社交情境所作的预判（通常是灾难性的，且鲜少准确），以及在真实生活中温和地检验这些预判。
团体治疗在这里尤为有力。团体本身就是一个理想的练习空间——一个低风险的社交场合，在这里稍显尴尬是被允许的，其他成员完全理解为什么一个周二的夜晚会让人感觉如临大敌。许多人告诉我们，这个团体成为他们第一个无需表演就能感到被看见的地方。
第一周不会要求您发表演讲。治疗以您的神经系统真正能够承受的速度推进，从小小的成功开始，逐渐向外拓展。
我们采用的方法
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for social anxiety
The most-researched treatment for social anxiety. Identifies the predictions your mind makes about social situations and tests them in small, paced ways.
Group therapy
Uniquely powerful for social anxiety. The group is itself a practice space — a low-stakes social situation where being a little awkward is allowed.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Helpful for the chronic post-event rumination — the hours of replaying conversations after they end.
Common shapes social anxiety takes
没有两种表现完全相同。以下是我们在实践中看到的常见形态——列出来是为了帮助您找到最接近您自身经历的版本。
Performance-type social anxiety
Specific to public-facing situations: presentations, speaking up in meetings, performing on stage, being introduced.
Generalized social anxiety
Across most social situations — small talk, eating in public, ordering at restaurants, casual interactions with neighbors.
Dating-specific social anxiety
Functional in most contexts but blocked in romantic ones. Often a stable pattern that responds well to focused work.
Workplace social anxiety
Functional outside of work; activated by 1-on-1 manager meetings, large team meetings, work events. Common in early-to-mid career.
Cross-cultural / immigration-related social anxiety
Anxiety amplified by code-switching across languages or cultural contexts. We work with this in many of our multilingual clients.
典型治疗过程，逐周说明。
每个人都以自己的节奏前进。以下各阶段是治疗通常如何展开的诚实描述——不是处方。
Weeks 1–4
Map the social situations that activate the most anxiety. Build cognitive tools for the predictions your mind makes ahead of them.
Weeks 4–12
Begin paced, voluntary exposure to real situations. The group (if you're in one) becomes a structured place to practice.
Beyond 12
Generalize to broader life — work, dating, family. Many clients describe a felt shift around month 3–4: more willing, less braced.
我们服务的洛杉矶人群特有的规律。
In LA, social anxiety often presents as paralysis around the audition cycle, the open call, the pitch, the networking event. We also see it shaped by code-switching — the cost of running multiple cultural registers in different rooms — particularly among first- and second-generation clients across our Spanish-, Mandarin-, Vietnamese-, Hindi-, Italian-, Arabic-, and Armenian-speaking communities. Our group therapy options include both general social anxiety groups and specifically multilingual / multicultural process groups.
在洛杉矶都市区提供这种治疗的地点。
Our office is in Pasadena (301 N. Lake Ave, Suite 600) with parking on site and easy access from the 134, 210, and 110 — most of our in-person clients commute from the San Gabriel Valley, the Eastside neighborhoods (Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Atwater Village), the Glendale–Burbank corridor, and central Los Angeles. For clients in the Westside, the San Fernando Valley, the South Bay, Long Beach, and Orange County, telehealth is often the more practical format. California has strong telehealth parity laws (Bus. & Prof. Code §2290.5) — most major insurance plans cover telehealth at the same in-network rate as in-person care, and our clinicians see clients across the full state.
人们在第一次来电前常问的问题。
Will I have to do public speaking?
No — unless that's specifically your goal. Treatment is shaped by what you want to be able to do, not by a generic exposure list. Most people start with smaller, everyday social situations.
Is group therapy worse if I already have social anxiety?
It feels counterintuitive, but group is often the most effective format for social anxiety precisely because the room itself is the work. Members are screened in advance, the clinician keeps the structure tight, and you set your own pace for sharing.
How is this different from being shy?
Shyness is a temperament; social anxiety disorder is a treatable pattern. The difference is in how much it shapes your choices — declining things, avoiding people, dropping out of conversations — and how much distress it creates.
Can I do telehealth for this?
Yes. Many clients prefer to start over telehealth and move to in-person later. Both formats are clinically effective; the format that gets you in the room is the right one.
How long until I feel different?
Most clients notice the cognitive piece shifting in the first few weeks. The behavioral piece — feeling actually willing to do the thing — usually shifts somewhere between weeks 6 and 12, depending on pacing.
如果这引起共鸣，这些通常也会。
广泛性焦虑障碍
If your mind has been busy for so long you can't remember when it wasn't, you're describing what we treat every week.
了解广泛性焦虑（GAD）
广场恐惧症
Agoraphobia rarely arrives all at once. More often the world quietly shrinks. The freeway first, then certain stores, then the trip to your sister's, until one day you realize how much you've been declining without noticing.
了解广场恐惧症
表现焦虑与职场焦虑
Los Angeles runs on performance — the audition, the pitch, the meeting, the launch, the post.
了解职场焦虑第一次对话很简短。剩下的我们来处理。
无论您之前尝试过什么，无论这种情况持续了多久——通过电话、电子邮件或联系表格联系我们。我们的医疗协调员会解答问题、核查保险，并帮助您找到合适的临床医生。