Social Anxiety: When Being Seen Feels Unsafe
Social anxiety can make everyday interactions feel high-stakes. Conversations replay in your head, your body tenses, and the fear of being judged or misunderstood can show up even when you want connection.
I provide online therapy for social anxiety for adults across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Nebraska. Therapy focuses on helping you feel safer being seen, reduce self-consciousness, and respond differently to anxiety in social situations.
Social anxiety isn’t a flaw. It’s a nervous system trying to protect you. And it’s treatable.
What Social Anxiety Can Feel Like
Social anxiety often shows up as a mix of thoughts, body sensations, and urges to avoid or manage how you’re perceived. Common experiences include:
Overthinking conversations before or after they happen
Worry about saying the “wrong” thing
Avoiding social situations, meetings, or events
Physical reactions like blushing, sweating, or a racing heart
Feeling exposed, awkward, or “on the spot”
Many people appear confident on the outside while feeling tense and self-critical on the inside. You’re not alone in that experience.
Why Social Anxiety Feels So Persistent
Social anxiety is driven by self-monitoring and fear of negative evaluation. The more attention you give to how you’re coming across or try to control others’ reactions, the more anxious you tend to feel.
Avoidance and reassurance can bring short-term relief, but they often reinforce anxiety over time. This isn’t a failure. It’s how the nervous system learns — and it can relearn.
How Therapy Helps with Social Anxiety
Therapy for social anxiety focuses on helping your nervous system relearn safety in social contexts.
We work together to:
Understand how social anxiety operates for you
Reduce self-focused attention and mental replay
Decrease avoidance and subtle safety behaviors
Practice responding to anxiety without overcorrecting
Build tolerance for uncertainty in social interactions
Strengthen confidence in being yourself, even when anxiety shows up
Part of this work may include gradually engaging with social situations in a supportive, intentional way. The goal is not to change who you are, but to change how much anxiety gets to decide what you do.
Any practice is always:
Collaborative
Optional
Introduced gradually
Adjusted to your comfort level
Therapy is paced, supportive, and focused on progress rather than forcing anything to happen.
What Social Anxiety Therapy Is Not
Social anxiety therapy is not about telling you to “be more confident” or “just stop caring what people think.”
It’s not about pushing you into social situations before you’re ready. And it’s not about eliminating anxiety completely or changing your personality.
Instead, therapy helps you relate to anxiety differently so it no longer controls your choices or keeps your world small.
What to Expect in Social Anxiety Therapy
We’ll start by talking about how social anxiety shows up in your life and what you’ve already tried. You don’t need to have the right words or a perfect explanation.
Sessions focus on:
Clear education so social anxiety starts to make sense
Practical tools you can use in real-life interactions
Gradual, intentional practice that builds confidence
Reducing self-criticism and mental replay over time
Progress isn’t about never feeling awkward or anxious again. It’s about knowing you can show up anyway.
You’re Allowed to Take Up Space
Social anxiety can quietly shrink your life — the conversations you avoid, the opportunities you pass up, the parts of yourself you keep hidden.
With the right support, it’s possible to feel more at ease, more connected, and less controlled by fear of judgment.
If you’re ready to explore therapy for social anxiety, you can schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
If you are in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Nebraska and looking for online therapy for social anxiety that is supportive and actually helpful, I would love to work with you!