Wellness Hills Mental Health provides Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) treatment in New Jersey using evidence-based therapy like CBT and clinician-guided exposure.
Social anxiety isn’t just a personality trait that you’re stuck with forever. It is a cycle where being afraid of what people think makes you start avoiding things. The more you avoid people or situations, the smaller your world gets. Eventually, that fear starts making all your decisions for you, setting strict limits on where you go and what you’re allowed to do.
At Wellness Hills Mental Health in Chester, NJ, we move beyond generic talk therapy to provide a high-fidelity, evidence-based protocol for social anxiety treatment. Our approach is anchored in clinical specificity, addressing the physical spotlight effect, anticipatory anxiety, and the post-event rumination that keeps you trapped.
By utilizing a structured progression through Outpatient (OP), Intensive Outpatient (IOP), or Partial Hospitalization (PHP) levels of care, we provide the repetition and clinical oversight necessary to bridge the gap between knowing what to do and doing it in the real world.
Social anxiety operates as a false alarm system, where your brain misinterprets social scrutiny as a survival threat, leading to chronic avoidance and safety behaviors.
Note: therapists can help you learn ways to manage these feelings so they don’t keep you from doing what you want.
The relief trap is the primary engine of social anxiety disorder; every time you avoid a social situation, your brain receives a hit of relief that reinforces the fear.
Introverts stay home because they enjoy the quiet, shy people stay quiet until they feel safe, and socially anxious people stay home because they are afraid.
Social anxiety becomes an emergency when it stops being just shyness and starts taking over your life.
Substance use is often a maladaptive safety behavior used to dampen the physical symptoms of social fear.
If you are in a crisis and need someone to talk to immediately, New Jersey has teams ready to help you 24/7:
At Wellness Hills, we use the DSM-5-TR updates to ensure our diagnostic screening matches the latest academic standards.
Clinical social anxiety disorder is defined by an intense, persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others.
The individual fears they will act in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing. This distress must interfere significantly with the person’s normal routine and lead to marked avoidance. Our clinical team, led by Leigh Rasmussen, LPC, LCADC, performs a formal differential diagnosis to confirm your symptoms aren’t better explained by other mental health conditions we treat.
This is a specific type of anxiety that hits high-functioning individuals when they feel like they are being tested or watched by others.
Proper treatment requires distinguishing between social anxiety and adjacent clinical entities to avoid wrong-path therapy.
We are a licensed facility, NJ DOH License No. 70290104, that mainly uses science-backed methods like CBT and exposure therapy to help you change your reaction to social anxiety.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at Wellness Hills is active, not passive. We focus on cognitive restructuring:
We follow a strict exposure hierarchy protocol, led by licensed clinicians, to reduce the risk of flooding or becoming overwhelmed.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) provides the psychological flexibility needed to stop fighting your thoughts.
Our protocol includes specific Between-Session Assignments (BSAs) to ensure treatment fidelity, for example:
Find out your personal coverage & options for treatment with a free verification of benefits from our admissions team. Whether you come to our programs or not we will ensure that you receive personalized recommendations for treatment based on your needs.
Medication management is provided by Paula Weisman, PMHNP-BC, and is designed to lower the physiological ceiling of your anxiety.
Medication may be recommended based on your symptoms, history, and overall level of impairment. When appropriate, your prescriber coordinates with your therapist to support a cohesive treatment plan and monitor response over time.
We adhere to evidence-based guidelines from authorities in mental health treatment, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA), typically utilizing SSRIs or SNRIs to reduce the intensity of the fight-or-flight response.
If you only feel overwhelmed during big moments, like a speech or a presentation, a doctor might give you medicine to use only for that specific time. This medicine can help keep your heart from racing so you can stay calm enough to get through the event. We only use these if we really need to, and we watch things closely to make sure the medicine is helping you practice your therapy skills rather than just covering up the problem.
Integrated care is the standard at Wellness Hills. Your psychiatric prescriber and primary therapist meet for clinical rounds weekly to adjust your protocol based on:
Average 5.0 Rating
"I felt supported, understood, and never judged. The therapists here actually listen, and the groups helped me build confidence and skills I didn’t even know I needed. I’m healthier, calmer, and finally hopeful about my future. I’m so grateful for the care I received.”
Client Satisfaction
Wellness Hills categorizes care by functional impairment to ensure you are not under-treated or over-supported.
Outpatient (OP) is best for people who are still functioning day-to-day but have social avoidance that is getting in the way. The clinical focus is weekly skill application and cognitive work (like structured CBT and planned exposure practice). Most people stay in outpatient care for 12–20+ weeks to build habituation and real-life follow-through.
Intensive Outpatient (IOP) is a better fit when someone is struggling to maintain work or school due to panic, shame, or avoidance patterns that feel hard to break. The clinical focus is higher-frequency support, typically 3 days per week, with intensive group practice and repetition to strengthen skills faster. Many people benefit from 6–12 weeks of IOP for consistent skill-building and momentum.
Partial Hospitalization (PHP) is appropriate when someone is experiencing total withdrawal and has difficulty functioning in daily life. The clinical focus is the highest structure, usually 5 days per week, with daily stabilization and carefully paced exposure hierarchies. PHP is often 2–6 weeks, followed by a step-down to IOP as symptoms stabilize and functioning improves.
Individual treatment timelines for SAD vary significantly. While professional programs provide standard estimated ranges, several key factors can extend or shorten your time:
Personal and Practical Factors
Clinical Factors
The people who work in admissions, like Rachael La Ponte and Brittany Robertson, make starting treatment easy for you. They figure out the best program for you using three steps:
In many cases, we can schedule an initial assessment within a short window, depending on availability and clinical fit.
We provide a HIPAA-compliant environment for clinical recovery.
Our multidisciplinary team brings decades of combined experience to social anxiety disorder treatments in New Jersey.
Social anxiety doesn’t always show up alone. During assessment, we screen for patterns that commonly overlap with social anxiety because they can change the pace of exposure work, affect motivation, and influence which skills we prioritize first.
We do not rely on gut feelings to determine if you are getting better. We may use:
For more targeted assessments, we may also use:
Weekly reviews to adjust the clinical plan if your scores do not show a downward trend.
Progress treatment often happens in phases. You may still feel anxious early on, but the difference is that anxiety stops controlling your decisions.
Weeks 1–2: Stabilizing and reducing avoidance
Weeks 3–6: Building tolerance and real-world follow-through
Weeks 6–12+: Expanding life range and improving self-trust
If symptoms aren’t improving after the first few weeks, we don’t blame the patient; we adjust the treatment plan. That may include changing the exposure pace, strengthening skills first, and addressing co-occurring issues like panic or depression.
These FAQs cover social anxiety vs. introversion, treatment options, and what to expect when getting started.
Look at why you avoid social situations. Introversion is a personality trait about where you get your energy, while social anxiety is a mental health condition rooted in fear.
Research suggests that social anxiety treatment can be most effective when it combines CBT with clinician-guided exposure.
While the idea of facing fears is intimidating, our exposure therapy is graded, meaning we start with situations that are only mildly uncomfortable.
Medication is not a requirement for everyone. It is a clinical tool used when indicated to help manage the physical intensity of anxiety.
IOP is designed to adjust with work or school schedules, whereas the PHP is a full-day commitment for those requiring higher levels of stabilization.
Yes. A clinician-led group can provide structured practice when appropriate and integrated into a broader plan.
We can’t remove every cost-related concern, but we can reduce financial anxiety early by helping you verify benefits, understand coverage, and plan next steps before committing to treatment.
Anxiety Disorders | American Psychiatric Association (APA) – Patient-facing overview from the APA that explains what anxiety disorders are, how they present, and why professional evaluation and evidence-based treatment matters.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) Information | U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) – Official FDA reference explaining SSRIs as a medication class and listing common SSRI generic and brand names.
Study Record: NCT01975480 | ClinicalTrials.gov (National Library of Medicine) – Government-run registry record documenting an SNRI-related clinical study in the anxiety treatment space.
HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health | U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) – Authoritative HIPAA guidance explaining when mental health information can or can’t be shared, including limits around psychotherapy notes and when disclosure may be permitted for safety.
