Breathe Hard to Breathe Easy: Online Breathwork-Assisted Therapy for Social Anxiety

This study aims to investigate the potential of supplementing psychotherapy with breathing techniques as a new online therapeutic approach to reduce social anxiety (SA). Clinically significant SA affects a substantial portion of the population (about 13%) and is associated with strong negative feelings of shame and anxiety in social settings. Such emotional distress leads to impairment in personal, relational, and professional functioning and may result in increasing degrees of social isolation. In response to the demand for improved treatments for SA, this project aims to explore the efficacy of a novel treatment approach integrating online psychotherapy with online breathwork sessions designed to induce ASC. We will recruit 96 individuals with SA, who will be randomly divided into two groups: one group will receive the new combined breathwork-assisted psychotherapy, and the other an active control intervention that does not induce ASC. Over the treatment duration, the effectiveness of these treatments will be closely monitored using established psychological scales and by observing patients in live interactions before and after therapy. This project is expected to open the way to a more accessible and effective treatment option for a large group of people struggling with SA. More broadly, the findings will also contribute to our understanding of how ASC, induced through breathing techniques, can be used therapeutically. This could change the way a variety of mental health conditions (e.g., other anxiety-related conditions and depression) are treated, making a substantial impact on public health and the way mental health disorders are approached and managed.