Picking up where Quiet ended, How to Be Yourself is the best book you’ll ever read about how to conquer social anxiety

HOW TO BE YOURSELF
Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety
by Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D.
Saint Martin’s Press, March 2018

“Ellen Hendriksen’s How to Be Yourself is for the millions of Americans who consider themselves quiet, shy, introverted, or socially anxious. Through clear, engaging storytelling, she takes readers on an inspiring journey: from how social anxiety gets wired into our brains to how you can learn to live a life without fear. This book is also a groundbreaking roadmap to finally being your true, authentic self.” — Susan Cain, New York Times, USA Today and nationally bestselling author of Quiet

When you get nervous about interacting with others, you’re probably told, “Just be yourself!” But that is easier said than done—especially if you’re prone to social anxiety. You might say you’re just introverted or bad with people; that you’re fine around friends but feel like you can’t speak up in a board meeting or a mingling event; or maybe you never would have considered yourself socially anxious but have recently moved or started a new job, only to become isolated and unsure.
But Dr. Ellen Hendriksen proposes a groundbreaking idea: you already have everything you need to succeed in any unfamiliar social situation. As someone who lives with social anxiety herself, Dr. Hendriksen has devoted her career to helping her clients overcome the same obstacles she has. With both familiarity and authority, Dr. Hendriksen talks the reader through the roots of social anxiety and why it endures; how it’s wired into our brains and how we can change our brains through our behavior; and how to quiet your Inner Critic (the voice that says, You can’t). Using her techniques to develop confidence, think through the buzz of anxiety, and relax in the face of uncertainty, you can finally be yourself.

Ellen Hendriksen is a clinical psychologist at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD). There, she treats everything from depression to trauma to hoarding, but has a special place in her heart for anxiety disorders. She graduated from Brown University, earned her Ph.D. at UCLA, and completed her training at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hendriksen is a regular contributor to Psychology Today, Scientific American, Huffington Post, and Quiet Revolution, and is the host of the Savvy Psychologist podcast on Macmillan’s Quick and Dirty Tips network, which has been downloaded over 5 million times.