The effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on self-criticism/reassurance and symptoms of social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder is a condition where people feel very anxious in social situations. This has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) on self-criticism/ reassurance and social anxiety symptoms. 

The statistical population of this cross-sectional study included all the people aged 18-40 who were diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and referred to a psychological clinic from September to March of 2021 in Tehran city-Iran. Fourteen patients were selected using purposive sampling and assigned randomly into an equal experimental and control groups. The experimental group received EFT in five 120-minute weekly sessions, while the control group did not receive therapy intervention during this period. The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and the Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS) were used for data collection. We analyzed the data through repeated measures ANOVA and SPSS-24. 

Emotion-focused therapy effectively reduced the scores of self-criticizing/attacking and self-reassuring and social anxiety symptoms (P< 0.001, P< 0.001, respectively). 

Our findings highlight the positive role of emotion-focused therapy in improving self-criticism/reassurance and symptoms of social anxiety in patients with social anxiety disorder.