The Clinical Evaluation of Psychodrama's Effectiveness in Treatment of Social Anxiety: A Case Study

Social phobia that has been renamed social anxiety disorder in the DSM 5, causes severe disability of person in social communication and a sense of shame and reluctance to participate in certain social situations. So using an effective therapy for it, is very important. Although the theater-based therapies to treat this disorder have been recommended, their clinical application of these methods not be seen. So the main aim of this research was testing the effectiveness of psychodrama as a theater-based therapy in treatment of social anxiety. The present research is an experimental case study research that has used AB method. The client was a ten-year-old boy with social anxiety. To estimate the amount and type of client’s anxiety, the Spence children’s anxiety scale was used. The results of therapist and client’s mother observation, showed a significant decline in the social anxiety’s symptoms. Also, the comparison of client’s scores of Spence children’s anxiety scale in the pretest and posttest represents a substantial reduction in the level of his social anxiety. According to the research’s findings, we can say that psychodrama is an appropriate and effective therapy in treatment of social anxiety, but given that this study is a case study, its results can hardly be generalized. So the recommendation of the present researchers is doing more researches to testing the effectiveness of psychodrama in treatment of the mentioned disorders.