Shyness is a common problem that comes with a high price. If you suffer from shyness or social anxiety you might avoid social situations and may have trouble connecting with others due to an extreme fear of humiliation, rejection, and judgment. As a shy person, you may also experience panic attacks that make it even more likely that you'll avoid social situations. With 'The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness', the authors' acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) program for overcoming shyness has become available to the public for the first time. This program has been found to be highly effective in research studies for the treatment of social anxiety disorder and related subclinical levels of shyness. In the first section, you will confront performance fears, test anxiety, shy bladder, and interpersonal fears - fundamental symptoms of social anxiety. The second part helps you learn psychological flexibility to improve your ability to accept the feelings, thoughts, and behavior that may arise as you learn to work past your anxiety. By keeping your values front and center, you will gradually learn to move beyond your fears and toward greater social confidence. Jan H. Fleming, MD , is a psychiatrist who divides her time between a private practice devoted to individuals suffering with social anxiety and her work as consultant in a hospital-based anxiety disorders clinic. Along with Nancy Kocovski, she developed and piloted a mindfulness and acceptance group treatment for social anxiety disorder. She is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, adjunct professor of psychology at Ryerson University, and part-time psychiatrist at the anxiety disorders clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Nancy L. Kocovski, PhD , is a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the department of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. She and her students are actively engaged in research on mindfulness and acceptance processes and interventions in social anxiety. She has received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation (New Investigator Fellowship) and had published widely in the area of social anxiety. She has adjunct appointments at Ryerson University and the University of Waterloo, and maintains a part-time private practice largely devoted to the treatment of social anxiety. Foreword writer Zindel V. Segal, PhD , is professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto and head of the cognitive behavior therapy clinic of the mood and anxiety disorders program in its clinical research department. | 
