The Therapist’s Effect in Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder

Aims and objectives: This study examined the therapist’s effect in cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) for social anxiety disorder. Method: The study design was pre-test post-test in which 24 students with social anxiety disorder were selected and randomly assigned to one control group and two experimental groups. The tools used in this study included the social phobia inventory, the clinical interview and the brief fear of negative evaluation scale. The experimental groups attended 12 treatment sessions based on Heimberg Model held by two different groups of two therapists. Finally, all participants were re-examined by the aforementioned questionnaires. The data was statistically analyzed using multivariate covariance analysis. Results: The multivariate analysis covariance revealed the effects of cognitive behavioral group therapy on Social Phobia (p =0.006) and Fear of Negative Evaluation (p=0.001). Also Data analysis suggested that there were no statistically significant differences in the effectiveness of CBT for social anxiety disorder between two experimental groups (P=0.64 for the SPIN and P= 0.51 for the BFNE). discussion: The findings indicated that cognitive-behavioral group therapy based on Heimberg Model was effective on social anxiety in Iranian sample and different therapists do not play important roles in this intervention.

Keywords:

Social anxiety , Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy , therapist effect