“Jack”, a standout golfer, discusses the process by which he resolved his conversation anxiety, social avoidance, and obsessive perfectionism. His healing journey started when his parents initiated treatment when he avoided going to a cocktail party during school vacation. He never would have initiated treatment on his own. His anxiety was driven by his fear of sweating and conversation challenges. With his anxiety under control he proactively advanced his career and social life.

“Bill” had achieved a relatively high level of success in sales relying on one to one scenarios and spontaneous interactions with physicians in hospitals. Career pressure and advancement required that he face the anxiety scenarios that he had been very adept at avoiding; group presentations and meetings. In fact he had been avoiding job opportunities due to his anxiety, which he described as “anelephant sitting on my chest when trying to talk”. He had gone to a psychiatrist for help, but did not like the medication route. In this interview he discusses his high performance learning curve which was characterized by confidence implementing the paradoxical technique required for psycho-physiological control and management of sweating and blushing.

“Richard”, a successful businessman and dedicated family man describes his “core” work of self-acceptance that had been eluding him after experiencing “every type of motivational technique from positive thinking to programming your unconscious”. His long term struggle with social anxiety grew out of his “conflict with authority figures and his father”. He had lived with his “unauthentic self” stating that his many previous attempts at self-help and therapy dealt with this concept in a “cursory manner”.