Social Difficulties
For adolescents and adults who find social situations difficult, draining or confusing.
Some people find social contact genuinely hard work. Reading a room takes effort, holding a conversation takes more, and recovering from a misstep can cost the rest of the day. It can come with social anxiety, or exist alongside it as a skills and confidence issue.
We work on the anxiety and the practical skills together — conversation, assertiveness, boundaries, repairing misunderstandings — with rehearsal in session before you try it outside.
This is a common focus in our work with adolescents and young adults, including friendship difficulties, school refusal and the transition to university or work.
What to expect
Skills are rehearsed in session before you use them outside: starting and holding a conversation, saying no, repairing a misunderstanding. Alongside that, CBT targets the self-monitoring that makes social contact exhausting. Real-world steps are agreed with you and reviewed afterwards.
How many sessions will I need?
We agree the likely number of sessions with you at the first appointment, once we understand what's happening. A Mental Health Care Plan funds up to ten individual sessions per calendar year, and an initial referral commonly covers six before your GP reviews it. We set a review point rather than committing you to an open-ended course. Skills work and anxiety reduction run in parallel, and real-world practice between sessions determines the pace.
Evidence base
Source: nice.org.uk
Cognitive behavioural therapy combined with social skills training is a first-line approach to social anxiety in the UK NICE guidelines.
How we work with this
The shape of treatment, step by step — adjusted to what you bring and the pace you set.
Skills, rehearsed
Specific social and assertiveness skills practised in session so they're familiar before you use them.
Reduce the anxiety
CBT for the predictions and self-monitoring that make social contact exhausting.
Test it in real life
Graded, agreed steps into actual social situations, reviewed together afterwards.
Questions about Social Difficulties
Is this social anxiety treatment or social skills training?
Both, because the two maintain each other. Reducing the anxiety without building the skills leaves you exposed, and teaching skills you are too anxious to use changes nothing.
Do you work with teenagers?
Yes. This is a common focus with adolescents and young adults, including friendship difficulties, school refusal and the transition to university or work.
Will I have to do role-play?
Rehearsal in session is the mechanism that makes skills available under pressure. It is agreed in advance and starts at whatever level is manageable.
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Book with Peter
Sessions run 50 minutes, in our Melbourne CBD rooms or by secure video. No referral needed to begin.