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MOVING TO PHOENIX
for Social Anxiety Therapy
First of all, welcome. It usually takes a lot of courage to consider
moving to another state and city to receive adequate therapy that should
be available across the world.
If you have social anxiety, are motivated to overcome it, and choose to
become a part of our active SA groups, all of us will be happy to welcome and
work with you.
Here is some practical information concerning a move:
In the past, we discouraged people from moving here because, in an ideal world, it
would be better to participate in a local, active and structured CBT group
that is specific to social anxiety in your own home town.
However, as countless individuals have pointed out, there are almost no
programs of this kind anywhere throughout the world.
My e-mail box is full of messages like "I can't get help anywhere...what
is my life going to be like?", "Someone has to help me!", "If so many people
have social anxiety, WHY isn't there any help for this?",
"I don't care if I have to move six thousand miles away, if there's a
chance I'll get better I will make the move." "I need to do this now
before I get any older. My first priority in life has to be to stop living
with all this horrible anxiety!" (These are all actual
message headers.)
Because we have received many hundreds of responses like this in the past, we are no longer
discouraging people from moving here.
About three dozen people have already moved here in the past few years. We
have checked in with them at intervals about their decision to move here
and their response has been more than encouraging. The majority of them
remain in Arizona, even though many of them have moved on from the
program.
We don't want people moving here to participate in the therapy unless they
are ready to take part in the program. We also don't want there to be any
surprises waiting for you. The more you know and understand before you
come -- the better the transition will be. Moving across country is never
an easy decision, and it is important to check in with us first if you are
considering being a part of our active therapy group.
Some people have met me either here in Phoenix or through my travels,
conferences, talks, and speeches. It is easier to know how someone is
doing if I have met them and know them personally.
Others have flown or drove into town for their initial appointments ahead
of moving here. This allows for the diagnostic appointment, which is an
ethical requirement, to occur before the move, preventing any
kind of problem with acceptance into the program.
Yet others have emailed me for a while, submitted their completed
application, and then moved and then came in for their pre-group
appointments. Although this has not caused a problem yet, you can see this
option is the most problematic. It is certainly possible that someone may
think they have social anxiety and then find out that they don't meet the
diagnostic criteria. This is less likely if an application has been
filed, and email or phone calls to Dr. Richards have been established.
Typically, new group members familiarize themselves thoroughly with the
information on the website, and almost all people who consider moving here
have been working on the audio therapy series. In fact, most of them have
said they would not have moved here had it not been for what they heard on
the audio therapy series... and for the progress they had already made
doing the cognitive therapy on the tapes.
They feel they have made some progress already, and feel that they can make
more progress by actively participating in the social anxiety groups.
Therefore, we are no longer discouraging people from moving here. If a
person is motivated to overcome social anxiety and there is no active,
structured group that is running for social anxiety in his/her vicinity,
then we understand a person's desire to move to take part in a very active
CBT program.
PLEASE NOTE: We would not want anyone to come to Phoenix without emailing
Dr. Richards first and without knowing FOR CERTAIN that they suffer from
social anxiety disorder. Other mental health care conditions also need to
be ruled out -- we need to be completely sure you have social anxiety
before you can be admitted to the group.
The primary therapy group is held all day on Saturday at the present time
and you can read all the details and dates about the local group therapy
on the internet:
http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/local.html
In addition to the regular, basic therapy, when people feel ready to work
on more difficult issues, we run an "advanced" behavioral group, usually
on a week night, to handle the exercises we do not have time to deal with
during the Saturday program.
The group has regular social activities (almost every single day), meets
together for doing social experiments when you're ready, and has an active
email list. You will not need to be alone and solitary again if you are a
member of the therapy group -- there is always something going on
therapy-wise and socially.
JOBS
Sitting around isolated in your apartment all week long waiting for the
Saturday group will not work. We need to make sure you can find some
kind of employment to keep you busy and allow you to work on the
cognitive-behavioral therapy. There is no way to improve if you are
not busy and open to making progress.
Service-oriented jobs are easy to find. Professional jobs typically take
longer to find, but the job market here is generally good. Please check
this out via the internet on job sites.
It helps to think out and plan your job prospects before you come. You can
do a lot on the internet. The service oriented jobs are usually available
most easily -- Phoenix is a booming city and I don't know of anyone who
hasn't been able to find a job to support himself while here. Some people
do move more into permanent positions and many of them have chosen to stay
here longer than they planned. (Just wanted to report on what has actually
happened to the people who have moved here in the past).
THERAPY
Many people have the idea that you can completely overcome social anxiety
in just three months. That is simply not true. You can make some good
solid progress that you will notice in that time. You will be in the
process of thinking, believing, and feeling differently about yourself and
about life. But, the human brain cannot make these huge changes in such a
short time frame.
We would not want people expecting that by participating in the therapy
for this length of time they will be anxiety-free. Instead, we must be
more rational and we want people to stay in the program until they know
they are so much better that they can continue to improve if they go home.
FINANCES
Many people are worried about costs... SAI accepts insurance and has a
sliding fee scale for those without insurance. If the sliding fee scale is
still too high, scholarships may be available (when donations have been
made to us). We will need proof of financial need, but do not let finances
keep you from thinking you can't participate in therapy.
Also, keep in mind that therapy costs occur only in your first all-day
Saturday group. After this first fourteen weeks, as you participate in any
future behavioral groups, the charge is much less than standard, plus a
sliding fee scale exists.
HOUSING
Most who have moved here have been younger single people, for obvious
reasons. We encourage people to roommate together with other group members
rather than being alone. If you do live alone, it is important to stay as
active as possible -- there are always other group members ready to go
places or do things with you.
We hope to have residential facilities in the future, but we do not have
accommodations at this time on site. Therefore, we cannot guarantee you a
roommate. Sometimes people arrive at the same time or a local person has a
vacancy, and we will try to help you as much as we can. However, we have
no facilities of our own and can't guarantee a roommate will be available.
ALL INFORMATION ON THE PROGRAM AT THE SOCIAL ANXIETY INSTITUTE is on this
site here.
For additional considerations and an application packet, please contact us if you are considering moving
here for the therapy. The SAI office number is 602 230
7316.
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