Therapy can help if you or your child experience:
- Sudden episodes of intense fear, racing heart, chest tightness, or shortness of breath
- A sense of unreality, dizziness, or feeling like you might faint or die during an attack
- Constant worry about when the next panic attack will happen
- Avoiding places, situations, or activities where a panic attack has occurred before
- Restricting driving, travel, crowds, or exercise out of fear of triggering symptoms
- Physical symptoms that have been checked by a doctor but have no medical cause
- Anxiety that has begun to limit your work, relationships, or daily activities
What Is Panic Therapy?
Panic therapy helps individuals understand what panic attacks are, break the cycle of fear and avoidance that sustains them, and rebuild confidence to re-engage with life fully.
Panic disorder is not a sign of weakness or instability. It is a well-understood anxiety response that, with the right therapy, responds extremely well to treatment.
Children
Learn to understand the body’s alarm system and build tools to face feared situations with confidence.
Teens & Young Adults
Develop skills to manage panic without letting it restrict school, friendships, or independence.
Adults
Regain the freedom to work, travel, socialize, and live without panic calling the shots.
Therapy Can Help With
- Understanding what panic attacks are and why they happen — removing the mystery that fuels fear
- Breaking the cycle of avoidance that allows panic disorder to take hold
- Learning to tolerate physical sensations without interpreting them as dangerous
- Gradually re-entering situations that have been avoided due to panic
- Reducing anticipatory anxiety — the constant dread of the next attack
- Building lasting confidence in your ability to handle anxiety when it arises
Our Approach to Panic Therapy
Our therapists specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), widely considered one of the most effective approaches for Panic Attacks. CBT works by helping you understand the relationship between thoughts, physical sensations, and behavior — and breaking the cycle that keeps panic going. Through CBT, you or your child learn that panic sensations, while deeply uncomfortable, are not dangerous — and that avoiding them only makes panic stronger.
A key component of panic treatment — deliberately inducing the physical sensations associated with panic (such as a racing heart or dizziness) in a safe, controlled setting. This teaches the brain that these sensations are not dangerous, reducing the fear response over time.
Other therapeutic approaches may also be incorporated based on individual needs, including:
Interoceptive Exposure
A key component of panic treatment — deliberately inducing the physical sensations associated with panic (such as a racing heart or dizziness) in a safe, controlled setting. This teaches the brain that these sensations are not dangerous, reducing the fear response over time.
Mindfulness Practices
Breathwork, body awareness, and grounded attention techniques help clients step out of the spiral of panic and respond to physical sensations with curiosity rather than alarm.
Family Therapy
When a family member has panic disorder, loved ones often accommodate avoidance in ways that unintentionally maintain it — avoiding the places or activities that trigger panic, or offering excessive reassurance. We work with families to provide support that promotes recovery rather than restriction.
With convenient office locations in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose, we proudly serve the entire Silicon Valley community – from Stanford University and the Peninsula to the South Bay, offering easy access for tech professionals, students, and families.
Frequently Asked Questions About Panic Therapy
Panic disorder is typically diagnosed when someone has experienced recurrent unexpected panic attacks and has spent at least a month worrying about future attacks or changing their behavior to avoid them. If panic attacks are happening more than once, or if you or your child are beginning to avoid situations because of fear of an attack, that is a strong signal to speak with a specialist.
Panic presents differently across age groups and individuals. Some people experience the full classic picture — racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain — while others primarily feel dizziness, nausea, or a sense of unreality. Children often struggle to describe what they feel and may express panic as stomach aches, headaches, or a desperate need to leave a situation. Panic disorder generally presents in recognizable patterns:
Unexpected panic attacks — occurring without an obvious trigger
Situational panic attacks — triggered by specific places, activities, or sensations
Anticipatory anxiety — persistent worry about when and where the next attack will happen
Each person’s experience is unique. Therapy identifies the specific pattern at work and builds a treatment plan around it.
Many people initially manage panic by avoiding triggers — stopping driving, avoiding crowds, cutting out caffeine or exercise. While this reduces panic in the short term, avoidance teaches the brain that those situations are genuinely dangerous, making panic stronger over time. Strategies that felt like solutions gradually become limitations. Therapy helps replace avoidance with genuine tolerance, which is the only approach that produces lasting change.
It’s completely normal to feel apprehensive about therapy that involves facing feared sensations and situations rather than avoiding them. Our therapists pace treatment carefully so that nothing feels overwhelming. Sessions are:
- Gradual — always starting with situations that feel challenging but manageable, never jumping to the most feared scenario
- Transparent — explaining clearly what to expect from each step and why it works
- Collaborative — building the approach together, so you always feel in control of the process
- Child-friendly — using age-appropriate language, games, and structured encouragement for younger clients
Seeking help early is the most effective approach. A single panic attack that is treated promptly is far less likely to develop into full panic disorder. CBT after an initial panic attack can break the cycle before anticipatory anxiety and avoidance take hold. The sooner treatment begins, the faster and more complete recovery tends to be.
Yes. Medication can reduce the frequency and intensity of panic attacks, but therapy provides skills that medication alone cannot. CBT specifically helps with:
Understanding why panic attacks happen, removing the mystery that fuels them
Facing avoided situations step by step, rebuilding confidence
Learning to respond to physical sensations without catastrophizing
Building lasting tools that remain effective if medication is adjusted or stopped
Yes. Panic disorder frequently co-occurs with generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. Our therapists are experienced at treating panic in the context of other diagnoses and will address the full picture. In many cases, as panic symptoms reduce and avoidance lifts, mood and overall anxiety improve significantly as well.
The terms are often used interchangeably, but they describe slightly different experiences. Panic attacks come on suddenly and peak quickly — typically within 10 minutes — and often feel completely unprovoked. Anxiety attacks tend to build more gradually in response to a perceived stressor and feel more like escalating worry and physical tension. Both are treatable with CBT. A therapist can help clarify which pattern best describes your experience and tailor treatment accordingly.
Recognizing Good Therapy
Evidence-Based
Specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we provide effective & caring counseling. Our therapists are passionate in delivering high-quality therapy & enhance their skills through the latest trainings.
Strong Relationships
Our relationship with you is valued & of highest importance. We are compassionate, respectful, & honest. Our professional counseling includes working side by side with you towards YOUR goals.
Short-Term & Focused
Our active therapists use tailored homework exercises to help you find relief in a timely manner. By keeping our meetings on track & targeting specific concerns we help you enjoy life again, usually in a matter of months not years.
Client Convenience
Appointments after 5pm & Saturdays, friendly administrative staff, & three locations: Palo Alto, Menlo Park, & San Jose. We help children, teens & adults, couples, & families. Video therapy available!
What Our Clients Are Saying…
Palo Alto Therapy does not just provide talk therapy, but focuses on teaching skills to maintain therapy. You have a genuine interest in the client’s well-being and you offered a new way of thinking about or means of addressing my issues.
What Our Clients Are Saying…
I liked the emphasis on doing concrete things to get results-writing down negative thoughts, trying to say things to counter those thoughts…Thank you for helping me make my life better.
What Our Clients Are Saying…
I found the homework exercises to be very helpful to me. I’ve been able to use techniques I have learned from those exercises to slow down my thoughts when problems arise and work through whatever the issue may be, OCD or otherwise.
Meet Our Team of Therapists in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, & San Jose working with Panic Attacks
Hong-Ha Vuong, AMFT, APCC
Sarah Covert, AMFT
Kitte Anderson, AMFT
Deborah Brewer, LCSW – Clinic Director
Get Support fo Panic Disorder Today
Panic attacks don’t have to keep shrinking your world. With the right support, you can understand what’s happening in your body, face the situations you’ve been avoiding, and get back to living fully — in Palo Alto, San Jose, Menlo Park, or online throughout California.