Panic Attacks
Therapy for Panic Attacks
A panic attack can feel like a heart attack, a loss of control, or the certainty that something terrible is happening. Counseling helps you understand the alarm and stop organizing your life around it.
What a Panic Attack Can Feel Like
Panic usually builds fast and peaks within minutes. In the moment it can feel overwhelming and intensely physical, and it is common to fear that something is medically wrong, especially the first time.
- A pounding or racing heart.
- Shortness of breath or a tight chest.
- Dizziness, shaking, tingling, or waves of heat or cold.
- A sense of unreality, or of watching yourself from outside.
- A sudden, intense fear of losing control or dying.
Check In With Your Doctor Too
If you have not had your physical symptoms checked by a doctor, that is a sensible first step alongside counseling. Chest pain and trouble breathing always deserve medical attention. Once other causes have been looked at, the alarm itself becomes the thing we work on together.
Why the Fear of the Next One Matters
For many people, the attacks are only part of the problem. The bigger issue becomes the fear of having another one. You start avoiding the places where it happened, routes without an easy exit, crowded rooms, caffeine or exercise, anything that might set off the feeling. Your world gets smaller in the name of keeping you safe.
Panic can show up on the highway, in a checkout line, in a lecture hall or in a meeting where leaving would be noticed. You might start planning every outing around where the exits are, or carrying water, gum or a phone as a safety net. Part of our work is noticing those quiet adjustments, because they are often where panic holds the most control.
That avoidance makes sense, but it also teaches your brain that those situations really were dangerous. Each escape brings relief, and the relief keeps the cycle turning.
Panic feels like an emergency. Understanding it as a false alarm is where the work begins.
How We Work on It
Using cognitive behavioral therapy, we start by understanding what your body is doing during panic: an alarm system firing when there is no real emergency. Knowing that does not switch the feeling off right away, but it changes how you relate to it.
Then we map your personal loop: what tends to set it off, the thoughts that ramp it up, and the escapes that keep it going. From there we practice new responses step by step, so you can gradually return to the places and activities panic has taken from you. We go at a pace that feels challenging but manageable, and you stay in charge of each step.
Skills for the Body
Because panic is so physical, body-based skills matter. Mindfulness-based strategies like slow, steady breathing, pressing your feet into the floor, or describing what you see around you can help you ride out a wave instead of fighting it. These are simple and quiet enough to use in a meeting, a car or a classroom.
Panic is one part of the broader anxiety work I do. If it shows up in a teenager, my page on anxiety therapy for teens explains how that looks, and racing thoughts at bedtime are covered in how to stop overthinking at night.
Common Questions
- Can a panic attack hurt me?
- A panic attack is your body's alarm system firing at full volume. It feels frightening, and chest pain or shortness of breath always deserves a medical check, especially the first time. Once your doctor has looked at other causes, counseling can help you respond to panic with less fear.
- Will I have to face my fears all at once?
- No. We work step by step, at a pace that stretches you without overwhelming you. You stay in control of what we try and when. Small, practiced steps are what make the next one possible.
- My attacks are rare, but I live in fear of them. Can counseling help?
- Yes. The fear of the next attack can shape your life even when attacks themselves are rare. Working on that anticipation, and on the avoidance it creates, is a central part of panic work. A free consultation through Work With Me is an easy first step.
Keep Reading
- Anxiety TherapyHow I work with anxiety more broadly.
- Anxiety Therapy for TeensWhen panic shows up in a teenager.
- How to Stop Overthinking at NightWhy worry gets loud at night, and what helps.
- Cognitive Behavioral TherapyThe approach at the center of panic work.
- FAQFees, privacy, scheduling and video sessions.
Stop Planning Your Life Around Panic
Book a free consultation and tell me where panic has been showing up. We will talk about what working on it together could look like.