Specialized, Individualized Care

Panic: A Different Relationship With Alarm

Your body can learn that intense sensations are not the same as danger.

Together, we can understand the panic cycle, practice responding differently to physical sensations, and gradually return to situations fear has made difficult.

Accepting New ClientsAdults & Adolescents
Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation
Understanding the Alarm

What is Panic?

Panic can feel like a sudden emergency in the body. The sensations are real, while the meaning your alarm system assigns to them may make the experience even more frightening.

Body Alarm

Racing Heart

A rapid or forceful heartbeat may feel like evidence that something is medically wrong.

Breath & Chest Sensations

Breathlessness, choking sensations, or chest tightness can create intense urgency and fear.

Dizziness & Shaking

Lightheadedness, weakness, trembling, tingling, or temperature changes may make your body feel unsafe.

Fear & Disconnection

Fear of Dying

Physical sensations may be interpreted as a heart attack, medical emergency, or sign that death is imminent.

Losing Control

The intensity of the alarm may create fear that you are losing control, “going crazy,” or will be unable to cope.

Detachment or Unreality

You may feel disconnected from yourself or as though your body, surroundings, or experience are not fully real.

Anticipation & Monitoring

Impending Doom

A powerful sense that something terrible is about to happen can appear even when no clear danger is present.

Fear of the Next Attack

Constant worry about when panic might return can begin long before a situation and make ordinary plans feel risky.

Body Scanning

Monitoring your heartbeat, breathing, balance, stomach, or other sensations for early warning signs.

Avoidance & Restriction

Changing Routines

Plans, exercise, travel, driving, or time away from home may be changed to reduce the chance of panic.

Escape & Safety Planning

Staying near exits, bringing another person, or making sure medication, water, or help will be available.

Feeling Trapped

Places where escape or help might feel difficult can become increasingly limited or avoided.

Changing the Pattern

How Mindful Kinetics can help.

Rather than asking you to eliminate every sensation, we help you understand how panic builds and practice responses that make the alarm feel less powerful and restrictive.

When the barrier is… We may explore… So you can begin to…
Sensations The physical experiences that trigger alarm and the situations in which they become frightening.

Approach sensations with more understanding and less immediate escape.

Interpretation The catastrophic meaning attached to a heartbeat, breath, dizziness, nausea, or feeling unreal.

Respond more flexibly when your alarm system predicts danger.

Anticipation Body monitoring, worry about another attack, and the plans made to prevent or escape it.

Make plans based more on what matters and less on what panic predicts.

Avoidance The places, activities, sensations, and distances that have become difficult to tolerate.

Return gradually to meaningful situations through supported exposure practice.

Panic does not have to decide where you go or what you do.

A free 15-minute consultation gives you space to share how panic has been affecting your life, ask questions, and see whether specialized Panic therapy at Mindful Kinetics feels like a good fit.

Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation

In Our Office in Portland  •  Online throughout Oregon

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Mindful Kinetics
Our Team
Our Approach
What to Expect
FAQs
ADHD
OCD
Panic
Phobia
Social Anxiety
Rates
Contact
Existing Client Portal
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Back
Our Team
Our Approach
What to Expect
FAQs
Folder: Services
Back
ADHD
OCD
Panic
Phobia
Social Anxiety
Rates
Contact
Existing Client Portal
Mindful Kinetics

Focused Therapy for a Focused You

(503) 454-6481
scheduling@mindfulkinetics.com

Nathan Becker, LPC · Sessy De La Cruz, CSWA

Specialized, individualized therapy for adults and adolescents navigating ADHD, OCD, and Anxiety, including Panic, Phobias, and Social Anxiety. Meet with us in our Portland office or online across Oregon.

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