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many shapes and forms
What is social anxiety?
Social anxiety isn’t simply about shyness or introversion. For many, it’s a deep, often painful fear of being judged, exposed, or humiliated. It may show up as dread before speaking, avoidance of social events, or intense self-monitoring during conversations.
For others, it’s more vague — a constant worry about saying the wrong thing, being watched, or being misunderstood.
Living with social anxiety can feel like being on stage without knowing the script. Even seemingly minor interactions — a meeting, a greeting, a silence — can provoke disproportionate fear. And beneath the fear, there is often shame.
We understand that social anxiety is not irrational. It may be rooted in real experiences — of exclusion, ridicule, or feeling like an outsider. But it also speaks to something more: how you relate to others, to speech, and to being seen.
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it functions
What causes social anxiety?
Some people trace their anxiety to early life experiences — being shamed, criticised, or ignored. Others may have been encouraged to stay quiet, to not take up space. Still others have no obvious cause, yet feel as if something about them is fundamentally “too much” or “not enough.”
From a psychoanalytic perspective, social anxiety is not just about fear of others — it can also be about a fear of desire, expression, or exposure.
It may relate to conflicts about identity, vulnerability, or being looked at. It may even be protecting you from a deeper fear: of connection, rejection, or loss of control.
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transforming social anxiety
How we work
We don’t offer scripts, exposure exercises, or social skills training. We won’t tell you how to be more confident or what to say in a crowd. Instead, we offer a space where your experience can be worked through — carefully and without pressure to perform.
Our psychotherapists listen to how social anxiety functions for you — what it holds back, and what it may be protecting.
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Is therapy for social anxiety right for me?
You don’t need a diagnosis or referral to begin.
You may find yourself avoiding eye contact, struggling to speak in groups, or obsessively replaying conversations. You may feel physically sick before social situations, or constantly worry about what others think of you. You may not even call it “social anxiety” — just a persistent discomfort in being seen or heard.
Whether it’s longstanding or just now becoming unmanageable, therapy begins not by just simply silencing anxiety — but by listening to what it’s trying to say.
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an Other way
About Us
We are a patient-first professional counselling & psychotherapy clinic.
Psychoanalytically informed. Dublin based.
100%
Hold Masters Degrees
177+
Combined years of experience
1
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