Over the past three years, I’ve given or offered at least half-a-dozen workshops in Mexico, Portland and Kennebunk on how to overcome severe shyness. I have yet to have one severely shy person show up, even though in some cases I had personally spoken with them about it beforehand. It was a great learning experience for me to plan for the workshops, so the effort was not wasted.

A book, of course, is more accessible to the heart and mind of the severely shy person-in my case it was the book “Shyness” by Philip Zimbardo. But it is a solitary experience and doesn’t offer the comfort and knowledge that can be gleened through personal interaction in a group.

There’s a group of us working on ways to make it easier for the severely shy to join group therapies. If you have any suggestions, please send them in.