Panic attacks can feel like your body is betraying you
You're driving, or in a meeting, or lying in bed, and suddenly your heart is pounding, your chest feels tight, and a wave of fear hits you for no reason you can name. Maybe you've been to the ER thinking it was a heart problem. Maybe you've started avoiding places where it happened before, just in case it happens again.
That anticipation, the dread of the next one, is often harder to live with than the attacks themselves. Panic disorder isn't a personality flaw or a sign you can't cope. It's a treatable pattern in how your nervous system responds to threat, real or perceived.
The Therapy Nest offers panic disorder therapy in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with in person sessions at our Brunswick Street location, and virtual sessions for clients across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Ontario.
What is panic disorder, and how is it different from an occasional panic attack?
Almost everyone can have a panic attack under enough stress. Panic disorder is different. It means the attacks are recurring, and a significant part of your life has reorganized around the fear of the next one: avoiding certain places, carrying medication just in case, scanning your body for warning signs, or staying close to home.
Common signs include a racing or pounding heart, shortness of breath, chest tightness, dizziness, trembling, and a strong urge to escape wherever you are. Many people also describe a fear of losing control or dying during an attack, even when medically nothing is wrong.
Panic disorder often shows up alongside other patterns: generalized anxiety, agoraphobia, past trauma, or ADHD. Effective treatment looks at the whole picture, not just the panic attacks in isolation.
A trauma informed team that treats the nervous system, not just the symptom
The Therapy Nest is a Fredericton based practice founded by Chaw Su, who works from a trauma informed and brain based lens with training in Brainspotting, CBT, and DBT. The team, including Emily Russell and Melanie Blackmore, brings a shared focus on what's actually driving the panic, whether that's unresolved trauma, chronic overwhelm, or a nervous system that's stuck in overdrive.
This matters for panic disorder specifically. Talk therapy alone can help you understand your panic intellectually without changing how your body reacts in the moment. Brainspotting works with where the brain and body hold onto fear responses, which is often where standard CBT plateaus.
CBT and DBT skills give you concrete tools for the moment an attack starts. Used together, they address both the pattern and the panic itself.
What to expect from your first panic disorder therapy session
Step 1: Book a consultation
Step 2: Connect, in person or virtual
Step 3: Build skills, then build safety
What changes when panic disorder therapy works
Fewer attacks, and less fear between them. Many clients notice the anticipatory dread easing before the attacks themselves become less frequent.
Your life stops shrinking around the fear. Places, drives, and plans you'd been avoiding become manageable again.
Support built for what you're actually dealing with. You won't be handed a generic anxiety worksheet. Treatment is shaped around panic disorder specifically, and around anything else that's tangled up with it.
Reduced rate and free options if cost is a barrier. The Therapy Nest runs a Free and Reduced Rate Counselling Program, and asking about it is always welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Panic disorder responds well to treatment. CBT, DBT skills, and approaches like Brainspotting that work with the nervous system directly have strong track records for reducing both the frequency and intensity of attacks. Many clients reach a point where panic is no longer running their decisions.
Yes. Virtual sessions work well for panic disorder, since much of the work is building skills and understanding patterns, both of which translate fully to video. We offer virtual sessions to clients across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Ontario.
That's common, and it usually means the approach didn't match what was driving your panic. If CBT alone wasn't enough, Brainspotting or a trauma informed approach may reach what talk therapy missed. A free consultation is a good place to talk through what you've tried already.
