nurses, occupational therapists, clergy or other religious leaders, and even psychothera -
pists without any formal degree in a mental-health related ﬁeld. As mentioned earlier, 
it is more important to know whether the person you’re seeing has the experience and 
expertise in treating social anxiety using strategies that have been proven to be useful 
than whether the person is a nurse, family doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist,  occupational 
therapist, social worker, or a student in one of these ﬁelds.
FINAL QUESTIONS REGARDING TREATMENT  
OF SOCIAL ANXIETY
Here are some answers to a few additional frequently asked questions.
How long does treatment take?  As mentioned earlier, cognitive behavioral treatment 
for social and performance anxiety typically takes between ten and twenty sessions. 
Sometimes a person may make signiﬁcant gains after just three or four sessions, par -
ticularly if the fear is very mild. Other times, treatment may last many months or even