Cold Sweat When Phone Rings 'Phone Phobia'... "600,000 Won Per Hour Treatment"

US Consulting Firm Helps Overcome Phone Phobia
Offers Personal Counseling, Corporate Workshops, and Seminars
"MZ Generation Only Familiar with Text and Non-Face-to-Face Communication"

As the number of people suffering from so-called 'phone phobia' increases, consulting firms that help overcome this issue have also emerged.

Phone phobia refers to the anxiety experienced when making phone calls, as people have become accustomed to exchanging short messages through social networking services (SNS) and the like.

[Image source=Pixabay]

On the 26th (local time), the U.S. economic media Business Insider reported, "Young employees working in companies are losing confidence in work calls due to this phobia, leading to communication inefficiencies."

According to the media, Allison Papadakis, head of clinical psychology research at Johns Hopkins University, analyzed, "The MZ generation primarily uses texts and short messages as their main communication method, so they have very little experience with phone calls. Due to this lack of experience, they naturally feel less comfortable, and people vulnerable to social anxiety are prone to feeling anxious in such situations."

The media introduced Mary Jane Copps, who founded the phone skills consulting firm 'The Phone Lady.' Copps, a Canadian, realized 16 years ago that the phenomenon of phone phobia was increasing and established a company to address it.

The company's one-on-one counseling service costs $480 per hour (about 600,000 KRW), and online seminars are priced at $365 per 30 minutes (about 460,000 KRW). For corporate workshops, the fee is $3,500 per day (about 4,430,000 KRW). According to Copps, the main clients of 'The Phone Lady' are financial companies and startups.

Copps said, "Emails are not exchanged instantly and you cannot hear the tone of voice, so it is difficult to build relationships. Phone calls are very important for expressing interest and passion." She identified the biggest reason young people fear phone calls as "the anxiety of not knowing how to answer questions."

Once counseling begins, clients are not allowed to exchange messages with anyone for three days. Instead, they start practicing by making phone calls to family members or close acquaintances. For those who have particular difficulty with phone calls, the media reported that the process starts with receiving a call from the counselor on a designated date.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.