Toronto Shyness and Social Anxiety Support Group

Gift of Shyness: Embrace Your Shy Side & Find Your Soul Mate
by Alexander Avila
Helps shy & introverted people accept who they are & maximize their unique strengths sensitivity, faithfulness, listening ability, reflection, modesty, mystery & gentleness to develop social confidence, date with ease & find lasting love.

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
by Elaine Aron
Offers coping methods & shows how to overcome the limitations & maximize the strengths of sensitivity-related personality traits.

The Self-Esteem Companion
by Matthew McKay
Offers exercises to help break the cycle of self-abuse; provides strategies for standing up to the inner critic, making an inventory of personal strengths & weaknesses & practicing self-compassion; learn how to deal with mistakes, handle criticism & feel more self-confident in personal relationships.

Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
by Philip G. Zimbardo
Offers scientific facts & case studies; self-help methods & exercises for building social skills (greeting people, striking up a conversation with a stranger, asking questions).

Beyond Shyness: How to Conquer Social Anxieties
A Step-by-Step Program to Help You Overcome Your Fears & Gain Control of Your Life
by Jonathan Berent
Outlines techniques to overcome the low self-esteem that fuels shyness & social phobias to replace rejection & fear with self-respect, focusing on specific social situations.

Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe: Working Through Social Anxiety
by Signe A. Dayhoff
Offers techniques, exercises, action tips, systemic & clinical methods for coping with anxiety producing social situations. The insider's scoop & life-strategy approach to alleviating social pain, effectively working toward your potential & achieving goals.

How to Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You
by Albert Ellis
Unhealthy anxiety inhibits you from enjoying everyday activities & relationships & makes you see them as too risky. Uses Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy to help you overcome the crippling power of anxiety brought about by unrealistic expectations, including performance anxiety, sexual dysfunctions & social phobias.

Overcoming Shyness & Social Phobia: A Step-by-Step Guide
by Ronald M. Rapee
Presents case studies, checklists & a cognitive behavioral solution for sorting out & ameliorating anxiety triggers.

Overcoming Social Anxiety & Shyness: Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques
by Gillian Butler
Provides practical methods for resolving feelings of nervousness or apprehension in our relationships with other people. Explains the many causes & forms & offers strategies for overcoming them. Program includesmonitoring sheets.

The Hidden Face of Shyness: Understanding & Overcoming Social Anxiety
by Franklin Schneier
Covers biological & environmental causes of social & performance anxiety, psychological theories, self-care methods, medications (including effects & side-effects of beta blockers, benzodiazepines, SSRI's & MAOI's), psychotherapy, exposure therapy & the development of positive responses. Includes case studies, self-test & advice for parents of shy children.

The Agoraphobia Workbook: A Comprehensive Program to End Your Fear of Symptom Attacks
by C. Alec, Ph.D. Pollard, Elke, Ph.D. Zuercher-White
Provides clear information about how the disorder develops & step-by-step self-help strategies to end specific fears & anxieties, including exposure & desensitization exercises. Provides guidelines on how to avoid relapse & manage setbacks.

An End to Panic: Breakthrough Techniques for Overcoming Panic Disorder
by Elke Zuercher-White
Explains the physiological, cognitive & behavioral components of an attack. Teaches strategies for coping with fearful situations, stress & conflict; breathing retraining; taking charge of catastrophic thinking; Interoceptive Desensitization; avoiding relapse & enjoying life. Reflects the client worksheets incorporated into Treating Panic Disorder & Agoraphobia & may be used as a client manual with that text.

Anxiety & Panic Attacks: Their Cause & Cure
by Robert Handly, Pauline Neff
Five point method discusses the causes of fear & teaches how to utilize positive visualization & statements to avoid irrational thoughts; use creative powers to initiate change; boost self-image to feel confidence; act like the person you want to be & set attainable goals.

The Anxiety Cure
by Dr. Archibald Hart
Explains the role of brain chemistry, physiological responses & thought patterns. Offers steps to change your lifestyle & overcome anxiety without medication or psychotherapy.

Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks
by R. Reid Wilson
Accessible & practical self-help program with specific plans & strategies (e.g. breathing exercises, meditation, muscle relaxation) for overcoming panic & coping with anxious fears. Includes techniques to master social anxiety & fear of flying.

From Panic to Peace of Mind: Overcoming Panic & Agoraphobia
by C.B. Scrignar
Shows how to overcome an abnormal or irrational fear or phobia using the technique of systematic desensitization & related procedures.

Journey from Anxiety to Freedom
Moving beyond Panic & Phobias & Learning to Trust Yourself
by Mani Feniger
Step by step account of the path to recovery offers tools to end the devastating cycle of anxiety & avoidance & guides you to your own experience of freedom.

Life Isn't Just a Panic
Stories of Hope by Recovering Agoraphobics
by Anita L. Pace
Includes writings & poems from the perspective of those learning to take back control of their lives: sharing experiences with how the anxiety began, how it affects their lives & what they've done to recover. Describes the symptoms of panic disorder with & without agoraphobia & includes effective treatment approaches.

Panic & Anxiety Disorder: 121 Tips, Real-life Advice, Resources & More
by Linda Manassee Buell
Collection of empowering insights, from the perspective of a panic/agoraphobia sufferer, offer understanding, tools & hope in the search for sensible concepts & realistic goals. Research shows that thoughts affect the body's responses to triggering situations. Offers advice on how to change negative thoughts to more positive ones, dramatically reducing the intensity of anxiety attacks.

10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking: Say Good-Bye to Stage Fright Forever!
by The Princeton Language Institute, Lenny Laskowski
Step by step approach to: overcome anxiety & discover your own natural style, establish rapport with the audience, practice new techniques daily in conversations, write a memorable speech, blend humor & anecdotes into your talks & use special techniques to memorize your speech.

Do Not Go Naked into Your Next Presentation:
Nifty, Little Nuggets to Quiet the Nerves & Please the Crowd
by Ron Hoff
Breezes through coverage of communication apprehension/speech fright, nervousness from fear, audience analysis (includes language use & setting analysis) & establishing a basic organizational pattern with wit & wisdom; tells how to learn presentation techniques by watching celebrities.

Fight Your Fear & Win
7 Skills for Performing Your Best Under Pressure: At Work, in Sports, on Stage
by Dr. Don Greene
Self-assessment survey pinpoint our mental outlook & reactions to failure, stress, fear, nervousness & distractions. Offers techniques & exercises to help people who appear in the spotlight to successfully overcome performance anxiety with fear-conquering skills: determination, energy, perspective, courage, focus, poise & resilience.

How to Conquer the Fear of Public Speaking & Other Coronary Threats
by Max D Isaacson
Shows how to conquer the fear of fear, eliminate frustration & embarrassment & take the terror out of delivering anything from a toast to an association speech. Filled with quotes from Zig Ziglar, Cary Grant, Ann Landers, Norman Vincent Peale, Andy Rooney & others on confidence, success & happiness. Gives step-by-step instructions for healthier self-esteem through better communication.

In The SpotLight
Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking & Performing
by Janet E. Esposito
Offers exercises for developing personal & professional communication skills; motivational enhancement & self-development techniques with cognitive-behavioral methods to get beyond stage fright, social anxiety & speaking phobias.

Overcoming Performance Anxiety
by Rod Farnbach, Eversley Farnbach
Shows how to overcome fear of failure & be confident in all social, professional & performance situations, including dating, dinner parties, public speaking & meeting people. Provides a series of processes & exercises, based on cognitive-behaviour therapy, to help change thought & behaviour patterns that generate & maintain fears.

New Talkpower: The Mind-Body Way to Speak Without Fear
by Natalie Rogers
Provides step-by-step methods for conquering anticipatory dread, preparing an interesting speech & dealing with performance jitters, such as thought-blocking, shame, adrenaline rush, trembling, breathlessness, rapid heartbeat, rambling & accelerated speech. Includes sample speech templates, from birthday toasts to board meetings.

Think on Your Feet: The Art of Thinking and Speaking Under Pressure
by Kenneth Wydro
Offers strategies for success with conversations & practicing preparedness: buy time to compose thoughts; listen fully; frame the answer with a question; be ready to say it in a single sentence. When asked for an opinion, learn to give it like you mean it. Say no tactfully. Deal with embarassing silences. Discover when to give the forest & when to give the details of each tree.