The Shyness Clinic, originally called the Stanford Shyness Clinic, was founded around 1975 in Philip Zimbardo’s psychology lab at Stanford University.
Zimbardo placed an ad in the Stanford Daily newspaper recruiting shy Stanford students to participate in experimental group therapy.
Meg Marnell, trained in behavioral counseling, served as Zimbardo’s co-therapist.
The clinic charged no fees and tried different therapeutic approaches with each group of 6-8 participants over an 8-week period, making the experimental nature explicit.
After successful outcomes in improving clients’ social functioning, the clinic expanded to include Stanford staff and later community members under the direction of Marnell and Rochelle Kramer.
In 1982, now called the Palo Alto Shyness Clinic, Dr. Lynne Henderson became director.
Dr. Carlo Piccione, a licensed clinician, provided intensive individual and weekend treatment for out-of-town clients.
That year, ABC’s 20/20 did a feature on “The Pain of Shyness” covering Zimbardo’s research and the clinic’s work.
In 1994, renamed The Shyness Clinic, it moved to Portola Valley and later Menlo Park under Henderson’s leadership.
Recently, Henderson and Zimbardo founded the Shyness Institute to promote research and train therapists in their successful approaches to treating shyness.
More information can be found on the Shyness Resources website (shyness.com).
