If you find yourself rehearsing conversations before they happen, replaying interactions afterward, or avoiding situations where you might be noticed or judged, you’re not alone. Social anxiety can make everyday moments in New York City feel overwhelming—from speaking up in meetings to navigating crowded subway cars to simply ordering coffee.
We provide online therapy for social anxiety, helping individuals and young adults in their 20s and 30s develop practical tools to manage anxiety and show up more fully in their lives. Our approach combines evidence-based techniques with real-world understanding, creating a space where you can be honest without having to perform.
Understanding Social Anxiety
Social anxiety disorder goes beyond typical shyness or nervousness. It involves persistent fear or anxiety in social situations where you might be observed, evaluated, or judged by others. This fear can lead to significant distress and avoidance that interferes with your work, relationships, and quality of life.
Common experiences include racing heart, excessive sweating, overthinking interactions, harsh self-criticism, and avoiding social situations or opportunities. You might struggle with speaking up at work, forming friendships, dating, or even routine interactions like making phone calls or attending events.
Living in NYC presents unique challenges. The constant proximity to others, fast pace, and emphasis on networking can make symptoms feel more intense. Whether you’re navigating professional settings, college life, or everyday urban interactions, social anxiety can leave you feeling exhausted and limited.
/ How We Treat Social Anxiety
Our approach to social anxiety therapy combines several evidence-based modalities, tailored to your specific needs and circumstances. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all protocol, we draw from different therapeutic approaches to create treatment that resonates with you.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety. We work together to identify the automatic negative thoughts that arise in social situations, examine the evidence for these thoughts, and develop more balanced alternatives. Through behavioral experiments and gradual exposure, you’ll learn to face feared situations in a way that feels manageable, building genuine confidence based on real experiences.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT offers powerful skills for managing the intense emotions that accompany social anxiety. You’ll learn mindfulness techniques to stay present rather than spiraling into what-ifs, distress tolerance skills to sit with discomfort without avoiding it, emotion regulation strategies to manage intense feelings, and interpersonal effectiveness skills for communicating your needs and maintaining relationships.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT focuses on changing your relationship with anxiety rather than trying to eliminate it completely. We explore your values and what truly matters to you, examine how avoidance has limited your life, and develop ways to take meaningful action even when anxiety is present. The goal isn’t to feel comfortable all the time—it’s to live according to your values regardless of discomfort.
Mindfulness-Based Approaches
Mindfulness is woven throughout our work with social anxiety. You’ll learn to notice anxiety without immediately reacting to it, observe your thoughts as mental events rather than facts, stay grounded in your body during stressful situations, and develop self-compassion rather than self-criticism.
/ What to Expect in Therapy
We begin with a free 15-minute consultation call where you can share what you’re experiencing and ask questions about therapy. This helps us both determine if we’re a good fit.
If we move forward, we schedule an initial intake session. During this first full session, we explore your history, current symptoms, and what brought you to therapy. We discuss your specific triggers, how social anxiety impacts different areas of your life, and what you hope to achieve through treatment.
Following the intake, we develop a treatment plan unique to your needs. This plan outlines your specific goals, the approaches and techniques we’ll use, how we’ll measure progress, and the general structure of our work together.
We meet for 50-minute individual therapy sessions, typically on a weekly basis. During sessions, we might process recent situations that triggered anxiety, practice cognitive restructuring techniques, plan for upcoming challenging situations, learn and practice new coping skills, and review exercises you’ve tried between sessions.
Between sessions, you’ll have exercises to practice. These aren’t stressful homework assignments—they’re opportunities to apply what we’re discussing in real-world situations. The work you do outside of sessions is where real change happens.
Who We Work With
Our practice is designed for young adults and individuals in their 20s and 30s navigating life in New York City or New Jersey while managing social anxiety.
You might be a young professional struggling with anxiety around meetings, networking, or workplace visibility. Perhaps you’re in college dealing with class participation, making friends, or adjusting to campus life. Or maybe you have a life that looks fine from the outside, but you know you’re not fully showing up—exhausted from performing, avoiding, or just managing anxiety all day.
This work is for people ready to make changes, willing to practice new skills, and open to examining the patterns that have kept them stuck. You don’t need to have everything figured out—you just need to be willing to try.
Why Clients Choose Our Practice
Clients choose our practice because we combine real-world relatability with clinical expertise and warmth. We blend mindfulness with evidence-based approaches to help people manage anxiety in practical ways. Our work is informed by both professional training and personal experiences, which are also shared in our book. This makes therapy feel grounded, accessible, and tailored to what people actually need.
We offer online therapy sessions, which means you can access support from wherever feels comfortable for you in New York City or New Jersey. There’s no commute, no waiting room, and no worry about running into people you know. You can show up exactly as you are.
Moving Beyond Social Anxiety
The goal of therapy isn’t just symptom reduction—it’s helping you build a life that feels authentic and aligned with what matters to you. This means showing up more fully in your relationships, taking opportunities you would have avoided before, feeling more comfortable in your own skin, developing genuine confidence based on real experiences, and connecting with others without constant performance or fear.
Social anxiety might have shaped your life up until now, but it doesn’t have to dictate your future. With the right support and tools, you can develop a different relationship with anxiety—one where it’s present sometimes, but not in control.
Start Your Journey Today
Starting therapy takes courage, especially when you’re dealing with social anxiety. If you’re tired of avoiding, overthinking, and feeling limited by anxiety—if you’re ready to invest in yourself and make real changes—we’d be honored to work with you.
Reach out to schedule a free 15-minute consultation call. We’ll talk about what you’re experiencing, what you’re hoping to achieve, and whether we’re a good fit. For information about scheduling and fees, please contact us directly.
You don’t have to navigate this alone. Let’s work together to help you find your voice and show up more fully in your life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Shyness is a trait that typically doesn’t interfere significantly with your life. Social anxiety, on the other hand, involves intense fear or worry about social situations that leads to distress and avoidance, impacting your work, relationships, and daily functioning. If you find yourself regularly avoiding opportunities, experiencing physical symptoms like racing heart or nausea before social events, or spending excessive time worrying about interactions, it may be social anxiety worth addressing in therapy.
Before scheduling a full-length 50-minute intake session, we offer free 15-minute introductory calls with all potential new clients. During this call, we’ll discuss why you’re seeking therapy, and I’ll share logistical information about rates, insurance, and scheduling.
Prior to the initial 50-minute intake session, you’ll complete the practice’s intake paperwork. The first session is intended for us to get to know each other and talk about what you’d like to accomplish in therapy. We’ll ask you questions about your background, your mental health history, what current problems you’re facing, and what you want out of therapy.
If we’re a good fit, we will create an individualized treatment plan that is unique to you and your specific needs, using tools and techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and mindfulness.
All individual therapy sessions are 50-minutes.
We meet with most clients on a weekly basis. We ask that new clients commit to weekly sessions at the start of treatment, and depending on how things progress over time, we may recommend that we increase or decrease the frequency of sessions to best meet your needs.
Currently, we offer online sessions only.
Online therapy is delivered via a secure video platform. Online therapy provides all of the benefits of traditional therapy in addition to flexible scheduling and the convenience of participating in sessions from home.
Session fees for individual therapy range from $125-$250 per session depending on the clinician you work with. Group therapy sessions are $80 per session. We also offer a limited number of sliding scale spots to help make therapy more accessible. Your specific fee will be discussed with you prior to beginning treatment.
Mindful Mental Health Counseling is out-of-network with insurance. Private pay is a great option for people who want maximum privacy, confidentiality, and flexibility.
If you do not opt for private pay, you may also be eligible to use out-of-network benefits in order to receive reimbursement for sessions. Often, out-of-network benefits cover anywhere from 70-80% of the full session fee. Check with your insurance company directly to ask about out-of-network benefits.
- Do I have out-of-network benefits for outpatient mental health services?
- What is my out-of-network deductible?
- How much of my deductible has been met this year?
- How much will I be reimbursed for a 45-minute psychotherapy session (CPT code: 90834)?
- How do I submit claim forms for reimbursement?
If you plan to utilize out-of-network benefits, we will provide you with a monthly invoice to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement.
Yes. If you are unable to pay the full session fee and do not have out-of-network benefits, please contact us to discuss a sliding scale rate. We reserve a limited number of sliding scale spots for new clients.
If the sliding scale rate is still not within your budget, we can refer you to other local providers in the area.
24 hours notice is required for all cancellations. Otherwise, you will be charged for the full fee for the canceled or missed session.
At Mindful Mental Health Counseling, we are licensed in New York and New Jersey. Clients must live in either New York or New Jersey to work with our team.
