Effectiveness of Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Reducing Psychological Distress in a Client With Social Anxiety Disorder: A Single-Case Study

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201125.016How to use a DOI?

Keywords

anxiety, depression, psychological distress, social anxiety disorder, social phobia

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common psychological disorders that can happen at some point in one’s life. It is characterized by intense distress that occurs before, during, and after engaging in social situations. SAD can negatively affect an individual’s functioning in many aspects of life. Therefore, SAD is often associated with severe psychological distress. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of brief cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combined with counseling techniques in reducing psychological distress in a client with SAD. CBT targeted the maladaptive thoughts, which were considered as the leading cause of SAD. The changes brought by the psychological distress symptoms were quantified using a pre-post design with a single-case study (n = 1). The participant was a 19-year-old first-year female student who had been avoiding many social situations for the last 8 months. She came to the counseling center with complaints of distress and intense anxiety when facing social situations. HSCL-25 measurements reduced from 2.56 to 1.72, indicating that her psychological distress, which included anxiety and depression symptoms, was significantly decreased. The GHQ-12 measures also decreased, showing that psychological distress and adjustment disorder symptoms had diminished. In the last session, the participant also managed to develop a more adaptive way of thinking. Therefore, CBT combined with counseling techniques can effectively reduce psychological distress symptoms on a client with SAD.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Syifa Zunuraina
AU  - Adhityawarman Menaldi
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/27
TI  - Effectiveness of Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Reducing Psychological Distress in a Client With Social Anxiety Disorder: A Single-Case Study
BT  - Joint proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Intervention and Applied Psychology (ICIAP 2019) and the 4th Universitas Indonesia Psychology Symposium for Undergraduate Research (UIPSUR 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 189
EP  - 203
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201125.016
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201125.016
ID  - Zunuraina2020
ER  -