Evidence-Based Therapy
Anxiety, Social Anxiety & Panic Attacks
Anxiety has a way of quietly shrinking your world. You start avoiding situations, making excuses, playing it safe — until one day you realize how much you've given up. Whether you're struggling with constant worry, social anxiety, or panic attacks, effective treatment exists and recovery is very achievable.
Understanding Panic Attacks
A panic attack is a sudden, overwhelming wave of fear that seems to come out of nowhere. You might experience:
- Racing heart or palpitations
- Sweating, shaking, or trembling
- Shortness of breath or feeling smothered
- Numbness or tingling
- Dizziness or feeling faint
- A terrifying sense that something terrible is about to happen
In the moment, it feels like a heart attack, like you're losing your mind, or like you might die. This is one of the cruelest aspects of panic disorder — the symptoms are so physical and so intense that they feel genuinely life-threatening, even though they aren't.
What's actually happening is a misfiring of your body's natural fight-or-flight response — a flood of adrenaline triggered when no real danger is present. Over time, panic disorder leads people to avoid anything that might trigger that feeling: exercise, heat, crowded spaces, tight rooms — even their own heartbeat. The avoidance brings short-term relief but makes the panic stronger in the long run.
How I Treat Panic Disorder
I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the gold standard treatment for panic disorder, typically delivered over 10–12 sessions. Treatment unfolds in four stages:
Stage 1 — Understand what's happening in your body Knowledge is the first step to freedom. I explain exactly what happens physiologically during a panic attack — why your heart races, why you feel dizzy, why you can't catch your breath. When you understand that these sensations are uncomfortable but not dangerous, they lose much of their power.
Stage 2 — Build your toolkit We introduce practical techniques to lower your baseline anxiety and give you reliable tools to use when anxiety spikes — including breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness-based strategies. These aren't just coping mechanisms; they actively retrain your nervous system over time.
Stage 3 — Change the thoughts fueling your fear During a panic attack, your mind races with thoughts like "I'm dying," "I'm losing control," "Everyone can see what's happening to me." We slow these down, examine them, and challenge them. As you develop a more accurate understanding of what panic actually is — and isn't — you'll feel increasingly empowered and in control.
Stage 4 — Face what you've been avoiding This is where lasting change happens. Using gradual exposure techniques, we deliberately and safely bring on the sensations you've been fearing, so you can learn through direct experience that you can handle them. Then we build experiments to help you re-engage with the situations and activities you've been avoiding — step by step, at a pace that feels manageable.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety goes beyond shyness. It's the persistent fear of being judged, embarrassed, or humiliated in social situations — and it can interfere significantly with work, relationships, and daily life. Many people with social anxiety appear confident and high-functioning on the outside while quietly managing intense internal distress.
Treatment for social anxiety follows a similar CBT framework: understanding the thoughts that drive avoidance, building confidence through gradual exposure, and developing the skills to engage more freely with the world.
To better understand what living with high-functioning anxiety feels like from the inside, you may find this TED Talk helpful: Jordan Raskopoulos: How I Live With High-Functioning Anxiety