The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
84Group or Individual Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy can be delivered either individually or in groups. Both 
approaches work well. Although most studies have found group and individual thera -
pies for social anxiety to be about equally effective, some have found an advantage for 
 individual therapy (for a review, see Bieling, McCabe, and Antony 2006).
Regardless of which approach you choose, you should be aware of the advantages 
and disadvantages of each. Group treatment gives people an opportunity to meet other 
people with the same problem. This allows people to learn from the mistakes and suc -
cesses of others and reminds them that they are not the only ones suffering from this 
problem. Group treatment also provides clients with opportunities to interact with other 
individuals who can participate in exposure exercises and role-play practices. For example, 
group members can be an audience during exposures that involve giving presentations.
The cost is another advantage of group therapy. Because you are sharing the thera -
pist’s time with other people, the cost per session is often lower than for individual 
therapy. If you decide to enter group treatment for social anxiety, we recommend that 
you try to ﬁnd a group that focuses exclusively on anxiety problems, and ideally on 
social anxiety (rather than a group that includes people who suffer from a wide range of 
different problems). You are most likely to ﬁnd a specialized social anxiety group at an 
anxiety disorders specialty clinic.
Individual therapy also has advantages. First, it can be less scary than group therapy, 
particularly at the beginning. As you can imagine, people with social phobia are often 
quite terriﬁed of starting group treatment, although anxiety about speaking in front