The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
148Planning Appropriate Practices
Planning your exposure practices starts with developing an exposure  hierarchy . An expo -
sure hierarchy is a list of feared situations ranked in order of difﬁculty, from least fear 
provoking at the bottom, to most fear provoking at the top. Chapter 8 provides exam -
ples of hierarchies and includes instructions on how to develop your own hierarchy for 
situational exposure. Chapter 9 provides sample hierarchies and instructions for devel -
oping a hierarchy for exposure to feared sensations. Developing an exposure hierarchy 
will provide a structure that will allow you to begin with easier exercises and work your 
way up to more difﬁcult ones.
Carrying Out the Practices
Once you’ve identiﬁed some practices likely to be helpful, the next step is to begin 
carrying them out. Generally, exposure begins with more manageable situations and 
works up to more and more difﬁcult situations. As confronting the situations becomes 
easier, you should begin to let go of the subtle forms of avoidance that were discussed 
earlier. Later, after practicing situational exposure for several weeks (as described in 
chapter 8), it may be useful to add exercises involving exposure to feared feelings and 
sensations (as described in chapter 9).
Exposure practices should be structured, planned in advance, and carried out fre -
quently. The ways in which exposure practices are carried out affect whether the prac -
tices are helpful or not. Exposure can actually increase your fear if not done properly. 
The remaining sections of this chapter provide suggestions for the best ways to conduct 
exposure to maximize the chances of decreasing your fear.
Maintaining Your Improvements
In order to maintain your improvements, it’s important that you continue occasional