Hi Michael thank you for deciding to come in for your first session. It takes a lot of courage to take this first step. What are your initial thoughts about starting this session?

Thank you, Doc. I'm pretty nervous, to be honest with you. This is a first for me and I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone by being here. 

That's very understandable and I appreciate you taking that first step. Now to begin, can you tell me what's bringing you here today? 

Sure. Some symptoms that I have been experiencing are things like being nervous that I'm going to embarrass myself during social situations and will be judged.

This has only gotten worse over time and it is starting to affect both my personal life as well as my personal career too. 

Wow, I am so sorry to hear about that. I'm sure that having to deal with that every single day is very challenging and very energy-consuming. 

Yes, it has been and I'm finally ready to work and try to fix that. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this go away for good. 

It takes a lot of courage to take that first step and I'm proud of you for doing so. Let's talk about some practices that you'll do to work on this social phobia that you are struggling with.

The strategies that we are going to implement are based on cognitive-behavioral strategies. The first practice that we are going to have you work on is to set goals for you to work towards. What is a good goal that you want to set for yourself?

Well a good first goal for me I think would be to not feel as if people are judging me every time I'm in a social setting. 

That is a perfect goal for you to work towards and it may take some time to complete but that is completely fine and normal. Another practice that we can work on is role-playing different types of situations that you will be in regularly. 

This will help you become more accustomed to different situations. It will also help you develop different ways on how you will react when you end up in said situations.

That sounds like a good idea. I think that it will be very helpful for me to have a good foundation on what to expect during different types of situations. 

Absolutely. The last thing we will have you work on for this session is keeping an active journal daily. 

The journal will allow you to jot down things that you are struggling with and give you a place to escape and vent your feelings. We can also use that journal in our next session to see what other things we can have you work on. 

Sounds good Doc. I will start writing in a journal daily to allow myself to express the things that I am dealing with. I really appreciate your help and suggestions on what I can improve on. 

It's my pleasure, Michael. I look forward to our next session and am excited to see your progress. 

The End

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