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Breathe Hard to Breathe Easy: Online Breathwork-Assisted Therapy for Social Anxiety

NCT07259005 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 96

Last updated 2025-12-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study aims to investigate the potential of supplementing psychotherapy with breathing techniques as a new online therapeutic approach to reduce social anxiety (SA). Clinically significant SA affects a substantial portion of the population (about 13%) and is associated with strong negative feelings of shame and anxiety in social settings. Such emotional distress leads to impairment in personal, relational, and professional functioning and may result in increasing degrees of social isolation.

In response to the demand for improved treatments for SA, this project aims to explore the efficacy of a novel treatment approach integrating online psychotherapy with online breathwork sessions designed to induce ASC.

We will recruit 96 individuals with SA, who will be randomly divided into two groups: one group will receive the new combined breathwork-assisted psychotherapy, and the other an active control intervention that does not induce ASC. Over the treatment duration, the effectiveness of these treatments will be closely monitored using established psychological scales and by observing patients in live interactions before and after therapy.

This project is expected to open the way to a more accessible and effective treatment option for a large group of people struggling with SA. More broadly, the findings will also contribute to our understanding of how ASC, induced through breathing techniques, can be used therapeutically. This could change the way a variety of mental health conditions (e.g., other anxiety-related conditions and depression) are treated, making a substantial impact on public health and the way mental health disorders are approached and managed.

Conditions

  • Social Anxiety

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Breathwork-Assisted Therapy 1

The investigational treatment will include two preparation sessions, two breathwork sessions, and two integration sessions.

BEHAVIORAL

Breathwork-Assisted Therapy 2

The comparator treatment will include two preparation sessions, two breathwork sessions, and two integration sessions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Maastricht University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Kim PC Kuypers, PhD · Maastricht University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-04-10
Primary Completion
2027-04-10
Completion
2028-04-10

Countries

  • Netherlands

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07259005 on ClinicalTrials.gov