November 18, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The National Social Anxiety Center (NSAC) provides information about relevant and current research in service of disseminating and promoting evidence-based treatment. This month’s summary is written by Kyla Kachman, LCSW, A-CBT of NSAC Chicago. The article, Post-event Processing in Social Anxiety: A Scoping Review, by Flynn & Yoon (2025), reviews the current literature about the role of post-event processing in social anxiety disorder.
Post-event processing plays an important role in social anxiety treatment. The process was first described by Clark and Wells (1995), and its role has been explored in subsequent models of social anxiety; however, these are now considered dated or limited in scope.
What is Post-Event Processing?
When people with social anxiety engage in post-event processing, they reflect on their social performance in a way that often perpetuates the cycle of anxiety. Post-event processing may include ruminating about what they said, criticizing themselves, and thinking about what others may have thought about them. This process may distort one’s perception of their own social performance and social skills, increase anxiety levels, and reinforce negative self-perceptions about social failure.
The article explores the following focus points of more recent studies on post event processing:
Social-Evaluative Events: Post-event processing was more prevalent following performance situations such as giving a speech and events with higher perceived social costs. Lower stakes situations and daily social interactions were shown to be followed by less post-event processing.
Negative Memory Biases: Post-event processing appears to amplify one’s tendency to remember anxious events over other events. Findings also support that post-event processing injects more negativity and emotional intensity into the memories of the events.
Performance Appraisals: The more one discounts one’s performance, the more they may reflect on their perceived mistakes and engage in post-event processing; conversely, positive appraisal of one’s performance may mitigate the need to review specifics of the performance. Post-event processing has also been shown to lead to more negative appraisals in the future.
Self-Focused Attention: Studies have shown that high levels of self-focused attention during social situations lead to higher levels of post-event processing and social anxiety. This process appears to be a key antecedent to post-event processing.
Assessment of Post-Event Processing
Measures for post-event processing rely on self-report, which may be susceptible to biased recall, resulting in under or over-reporting of post-event processing. The Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) shows potential for monitoring post-event processing across time and remedying potential biases.
There is still room to better understand the relationship between post-event processing and social anxiety. Several suggested areas for future research include:
1. The antecedents and consequences of post-event processing.
2. Do individuals with social anxiety also engage in post-event processing after positive events?
3. What are the mechanisms underlying post-event processing, and how is it maintained over time?
4. What is the role of shame in post-event processing?
Take-away: While post-event processing is a key element of many models of social anxiety and a topic of recent research studies, there’s still more to learn about the function of post-event processing and how it can be addressed in clinical treatment.
Clinical Question: How do you assess for and manage post-event processing in clients you see for social anxiety?
Reference:
Flynn, A. J., & Yoon, K. L. (2025). Post-event processing in social anxiety: A scoping review. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, volume 109,
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Kyla Kachman, LCSW, A-CBT
Representing NSAC Chicago
(Depression and Anxiety Specialty Clinic of Chicago)