quite terriﬁed of starting group treatment, although anxiety about speaking in front 
of the group usually diminishes after the ﬁrst few weeks. Furthermore, with individual 
therapy, you don’t have to share your time with other group members. And, because 
there is more time to focus on you, the program can be individually tailored to suit your 
personal needs. Individual therapy also has advantages from a scheduling perspective. If 
you miss a session due to illness or vacation, usually you can just reschedule an individual 
appointment. In contrast, if you miss a group session, catching up on the material that 
you missed may be more complicated.
Whether you decide to seek group or individual treatment should depend on a 
careful weighing of all of these factors. Keep in mind, however, that you may not have a 
choice. Although the availability of CBT is increasing, this form of therapy is still hard 
to ﬁnd in some places, either in a group or individual format. We would like to empha -
size that, in choosing a therapy, the most important factor is ﬁnding a therapist who has 
experience in providing CBT for social anxiety. Whether you choose group or individual 
therapy should be a secondary issue, since both seem to work well.
THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR PRACTICE 
Although simply reading about how to overcome social phobia may be helpful, to make 
big changes in your social anxiety, it will be necessary for you to actually practice the