CBT: Role play, Practicing social situations

Practicing Social Situations

During a social anxiety treatment, you will practice with social situations. You do this to learn new skills and gain new insights. You practice together with your therapist in the form of a role play. You can do this role play online from your own familiar environment. In a role play, you reenact a situation that you find challenging.

Two role plays take place:

1. A role play with self-focused attention and safety behaviors.
2. A role play without self-focused attention and safety behaviors.

For both role plays, you will engage in a conversation with someone with whom you find it challenging to have a conversation. You and your therapist will agree on who you will have this conversation with and what it will be about. Your therapist takes on the role of the other person, and you are yourself. During the session, your therapist will explain the two role plays further to you.

Recording and Evaluating

For both role plays, you will record yourself. For example, you can use the camera of your laptop when video calling with your phone, or the camera of your phone when video calling through your laptop. Using a digital camera is also an option. After each role play, you will evaluate with your therapist how you experienced the role play. How did you feel? What thoughts came up for you? How do you think the other person experienced the conversation?