The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
152 gradually exposed to your neighbor’s friendly dog, at your own pace, your fear of dogs 
might decrease.
In everyday life, exposure to feared situations is often unpredictable. In addition, 
such everyday exposures tend to be brief and infrequent. All of these factors make 
exposure in everyday life less likely to lead to a decrease in fear, compared with the type 
of exposure that is used in cognitive-behavioral therapy. A summary of the main differ -
ences between the type of exposure you may have experienced in the past (previous 
exposure) and the type that has been shown as useful for helping people overcome fear 
(therapeutic exposure) appears below.
Typical Previous Exposures Typical Therapeutic Exposures
These are often unpredictable and  
uncontrollable  (e.g., you “end up” in the 
middle of an unexpected conversation; 
you are “forced” to go to a party that 
you would rather not attend).These are predictable and under your control  
(e.g., you make a decision to enter an 
anxiety-provoking situation speciﬁcally  
so that you can learn to be more  
comfortable in the situation).
These have a brief duration  (e.g., you get 
into the situation, feel anxious, then  
leave. This teaches you that when you  
are in the situation you feel frightened, 
but when you leave you feel better).These are prolonged  (e.g., you decide to 
stay in a situation until the anxiety comes 
down on its own or until you learn that 
your feared consequence doesn’t occur. 
Here, you learn that you can be in the 
situation, nothing bad happens, and your 
anxiety eventually subsides).