Oh, he told me straight... he said he liked me but he was having trouble getting to know me because I wouldn't talk. He encouraged me and I learned to trust him.
I started dealing with my SA pretty early, getting into performance based things in school to really confront my fears. I still have situations where I won't talk but most of the time, if I'm feeling anxiety, I force myself to get through it if it's important.
Because that's the key... acting as if. If it's not important enough to you, it's hard to do. I'm also Buddhist so I've done a lot of meditating and I created a safe place that I go to sometimes when I'm feeling a lot of anxiety. It helps.