Facing social fears: How do improved participants experience change in mindfulness‐based stress reduction for social anxiety disorder?

Abstract

Background Clinical trials indicate that mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) may be effective for social anxiety disorder (SAD), but little is known about how young adults with SAD experience this intervention. Aim The purpose of this study was to explore how improved participants experience the process of change in MBSR for SAD. Method We used a two‐staged mixed methods design to identify participants with reliable and clinically significant improvement on primary outcome measures after an eight‐week MBSR programme (n = 11), and analyse qualitative interviews to explore how they experienced their own process of change. The interviews were analysed using a hermeneutic‐phenomenological thematic analysis. Results Thematic analysis revealed five main themes: (1) Using awareness of the body to sense that you are actually here right now, (2) Establishing a space that enables you to see negative thoughts for what they are, (3) Allowing fear and shyness through sustained awareness of physical sensations, (4) Transforming an experience of being inferior with kindness and self‐acceptance, and (5) Discovering new ways of engaging with other people. Conclusions Participants described increased awareness and acceptance of sensations, thoughts and feelings, as well as greater self‐acceptance and improved interpersonal relationships during the MBSR programme. Future studies are needed to understand how and why individuals change in mindfulness‐based interventions for SAD.

Recognizing oneself in the encounter with others: Meaningful moments in systemic therapy for social anxiety disorder in the eyes of patients and their therapists after the end of therapy

“…The findings reveal consistent links with existing studies-for example the report on a patient who found the verbalized feedback from the group on her blushing important [47]. Acceptance of one's own experience, whose relevance becomes clear [47,48], was not explicitly addressed, but we hypothesize that the experience of having feedback from the group resonates with our results. Interestingly, in the case of Category 1 "meeting other patients in group therapy", it is-with one exception-not the deconstructed beliefs that the leading therapist has worked out with each client, but the setting itself which gives rise to meaningful moments.…”

“…The findings reveal consistent links with existing studies—for example the report on a patient who found the verbalized feedback from the group on her blushing important [ 47 ]. Acceptance of one’s own experience, whose relevance becomes clear [ 47 , 48 ], was not explicitly addressed, but we hypothesize that the experience of having feedback from the group resonates with our results.…”

Participant experiences of change in mindfulness-based stress reduction for anxiety disorders

“…Both these summaries indicate a need for more qualitative studies of MBSR for clients with anxiety disorders. To our knowledge, only two studies have investigated MBSR for this population (A. Hjeltnes et al, 2018a , 2018b ). Hjeltnes ( 2018b ) compared how improved and less-improved participants with social anxiety disorder experienced the MBSR program, and examined how improved participants experienced their own process of change after the intervention.…”