Abstract. Aim: Social anxiety is directly associated with negative evaluation about one’s body image, which in turn aggravates social phobia. One of the effective treatments for these disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The present study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of group CBT on social phobia and body image of students with social phobia in Shahid University. Methods: The present study is a pre-post test with control group. The sample consisted of 32 students of Shahid University who scored 23 or higher on social phobia inventory (SPIN). They were randomly allocated to groups (16 participants in the intervention group and 16 in the control one).  Group CBT was performed in 10 sessions of 2 hours and 30 minute in the intervention group, and the control group did not receive any training program. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient and analysis of covariance by SPSS software, version 21. Results: There was a significant difference between social phobia and body image of the experimental group before and after treatment (F(1,30) = 1306.174, p < 0.0001).  Conclusion: It can be concluded that group CBT has significant effect on reducing social anxiety and a specific positive effect on body image.

Key words: body image, cognitive behavioral therapy, social phobia, stress management

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