Free Online Improv for Social Anxiety

July 2025

Build Creative Confidence and Feel More Comfortable in Social Situations

If social anxiety makes it hard to speak up, connect with others, or express yourself, you’re not alone. Our free online improv workshop for adults in Massachusetts offers a new way to practice social confidence in a fun and supportive space.

This is not a performance class. It’s a low-pressure opportunity to explore your creativity and reduce social anxiety through play, laughter, and connection.

Why Try Improv for Social Anxiety?

Improv has long been explored as a mental health tool, especially for those navigating social anxiety. It can help:

  • Lower social anxiety symptoms

  • Reduce overthinking and self-criticism

  • Improve communication and listening

  • Build self-trust in real-time interactions

  • Practice presence, spontaneity, and laughter

Research on improv and mental health has been growing for years. Comedic Improv Therapy for the Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder (Phillips Sheesley et al., 2016) highlighted how comedic improv can ease social anxiety by encouraging play, group connection, and gentle exposure.

A more recent study, Reducing Social Anxiety and Intolerance of Uncertainty in Adolescents with Improvisational Theater (Sandstrom & Bressler, 2023), found that participating in improv helped adolescents lower anxiety and build social self-efficacy. In safe, supportive spaces, improv becomes more than performance - it becomes practice for real life, helping people feel more grounded, spontaneous, and connected.

Who Is This Workshop For?

This space is for you if:

  • You often feel nervous or self-conscious in group settings

  • You want to build confidence in social situations

  • You prefer mental health support that is inclusive and culturally responsive

  • You’re BIPOC, Asian American, queer, neurodivergent, or exploring identity in a way that’s often overlooked in therapy spaces

  • You’re curious about group therapy but want to try something creative first

We welcome all levels of anxiety and will honor your pace throughout the session.

Facilitators

Blessing Egbuogu, MSW, LCSW

Associate Psychotherapist and Group Facilitator

Blessing is a trauma-informed therapist who specializes in supporting clients through anxiety, racial identity, life transitions, grief, and self-worth. As a Nigerian American woman with lived experience navigating bicultural identity and high-pressure expectations, Blessing brings empathy, depth, and cultural humility into every room she enters.

Her clinical work is grounded in relational, strengths-based, and holistic practices that affirm each person’s truth and lived experience. Blessing is passionate about group healing and community-centered spaces, especially for people who have felt silenced or isolated in more traditional therapy settings.

She believes improv can unlock confidence, connection, and curiosity, essential ingredients for healing social anxiety. Through this workshop, Blessing hopes to offer a playful yet grounding space where participants can experiment, laugh, and discover new ways to relate to themselves and others.

Yanyi Weng, MSW, LICSW

Founder, Clinical Director, and Psychotherapist

Yanyi is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and the founder of Dear Therapy. As a Taishanese Chinese immigrant raised in Boston’s Chinatown, Yanyi brings a deep commitment to community care, cultural responsiveness, and trauma-informed healing. Her specialties include anxiety, ADHD, racial identity, grief, sexuality, and mood-related concerns, with a focus on BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ clients.

With a background in psychodynamic and narrative therapy, Yanyi integrates humor, honesty, and creative practices into the therapeutic process. She believes in co-creating spaces where people can show up fully, unlearn internalized narratives, and build confidence in who they are. Her passion for improv stems from its power to soften social anxiety, nurture spontaneity, and help people access joy and presence in ways that traditional therapy sometimes can't.

Workshop Details

Workshop Length: 1.5 hours
Date: July 2025 (Final date TBA)
Time: To be announced
Check-in Time for Tech: We’ll share this in your calendar invite before the session.

Participant Info

Who Can Join: Adults 18 and older. No improv experience required.
Capacity: 10 to 16 participants to allow for better engagement and support.

    • Introduction of Facilitators 

    • Share rules and expectations for a safe, respectful space

    Poll questions: Have you ever done improv? What made you interested in this workshop? Would you be willing to try improv to help with your anxiety or just for fun?

    • What is social anxiety?

    • Why improv can improve your mental health and decrease social anxiety.

    • Research conducted on improv and mental health

    • Why improv can reduce social anxiety and create confidence

    • Improv is not just for actors it’s for everyone

    • Ask follow up questions that participants can respond to in the chat

    • Breakout rooms for 4-8 participants

  • Breakout rooms for 2-3 participants

    • Bring participants back to the main room

    • Open floor for reflections in the chat or aloud: 

      • How did this feel?

      • Which exercise did you enjoy the most?

      • How might you bring this energy into everyday life?

    • How improv techniques can help alleviate anxiety symptoms and encourage you to be more social. 

    • Share ongoing improv resources and improv community groups.

    • Drop a link in chat to an anonymous feedback form (Google Form)

    • Closing gratitude and encouragement

    • Send any other helpful information or resources in the chat

    •  Leave remaining time for questions