Having a Panic Attack at Work: What to Do Next

THERAPY FOR DRIVEN WOMEN • April 6, 2026

LAST UPDATED: APRIL 2026

Last reviewed: June 2026 by Annie Wright, LMFT

In short: A panic attack at work is a misfired nervous system alarm, not a sign of instability, and the most effective immediate strategy is paradoxically to stop resisting it, because fighting the sensations intensifies and prolongs them.

The Anatomy of a Panic Attack at Work

It’s 2:47 in the afternoon. Heather is in a glass-walled conference room on the fourteenth floor, seated at the far end of a long table, laptop open, a half-drunk cup of coffee going cold beside her. The quarterly review has been running for forty minutes and she’s been fielding questions confidently, the way she always does. Then something shifts. Her heart begins to thump against her sternum. Not fast at first, just insistent. A warm flush moves up her neck. She notices the fluorescent light feels too bright, the room too close. Her chest tightens, and her next breath doesn’t feel like enough air. She takes another, shallower this time. Her fingers go slightly numb. The voice of her colleague across the table begins to sound muffled, like she’s hearing it through water. She thinks: What is happening to me right now?

What Heather is experiencing is a panic attack. And she’s experiencing it in one of the least forgiving environments imaginable. Experiencing a panic attack at work can feel like your body is betraying you in the middle of a high-stakes moment. The symptoms can spike suddenly: heart racing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, intense fear, or a sense of unreality. These sensations aren’t just “in your head.” They’re the result of your autonomic nervous system kicking into high gear, triggering a fight-or-flight response when no immediate physical danger is present.

When you’re at work, these physical symptoms collide with the mental pressure to maintain composure, deliver results, and protect your professional identity. Your body is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, which sharpen your senses but also create a cascade of physical reactions that feel overwhelming. Your brain’s amygdala, the emotional alarm system, misinterprets cues from your environment and activates survival mechanisms. Even though the threat is internal, not external. Research from neuroscientist Stephen Porges, PhD, creator of polyvagal theory, illuminates this process precisely: the nervous system is constantly scanning the environment for signals of safety or danger through a process he calls “neuroception,” and when it detects threat. Even a psychological one. It mobilizes the body accordingly, regardless of what your rational mind is telling it.

This internal chaos can make your thinking foggy or rapid. You might struggle to focus on the project in front of you, or worse, fear you’re about to embarrass yourself in front of colleagues. The paradox is that your mind is trying desperately to maintain control, but your body feels out of control. A 2019 meta-analysis published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders found that workplace-induced panic episodes frequently involve this specific cognitive-somatic split. Your prefrontal cortex struggling to reassert control while your limbic system is already in full alarm mode.

Because panic attacks are so sudden and intense, the experience can leave you feeling isolated and ashamed. But it’s important to recognize that this is a physiological event. Your nervous system responding to perceived threat, not a personal failure or weakness. Gabor Maté, MD, physician and trauma specialist and author of The Myth of Normal, writes that the body’s stress responses are not character defects but adaptive strategies. Responses that made sense at some point, even when they feel wildly out of place now. You’re not broken. You’re having a very human response to an inhuman amount of pressure.

Why Driven Women Experience Panic Differently

Driven women have a unique relationship with panic attacks. The very traits that fuel your ambition. Perfectionism, high standards, relentless work ethic. Can also intensify panic when it strikes. You’re wired to push through discomfort, to “handle it” yourself, and to keep emotions tightly controlled. Panic attacks disrupt that narrative, making you feel vulnerable in a space where vulnerability is often seen as a liability.

These relational patterns often trace back to early attachment experiences. The blueprint your nervous system created in childhood for how relationships work and how much of yourself it’s safe to show.

Many driven women report that their panic attacks come with an added layer of cognitive judgment: “I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” or “If others see this, it will ruin my reputation.” This self-criticism ratchets up anxiety and shame, often prolonging the panic and making recovery feel more difficult. You might also experience what I call “performance panic”. The fear that this moment of intense distress will derail your career trajectory or damage your professional relationships. Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, researcher studying vulnerability and shame, has documented extensively how shame functions as an accelerant in moments of perceived exposure: the more you fear being seen as inadequate, the more intensely your nervous system mobilizes to protect you, and that mobilization is indistinguishable from panic.

From a neurobiological perspective, driven women often have hyper-responsive stress systems due to chronic exposure to high-pressure environments. Your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be more reactive, meaning your body releases stress hormones more readily and intensely than others might. This heightened state of arousal predisposes you to panic attacks, especially when combined with sleep deprivation, emotional suppression, or unresolved trauma. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, psychiatrist and trauma researcher and author of The Body Keeps the Score, has shown that when the nervous system is chronically activated. As it often is in women managing relentless professional demands. The threshold for a full panic response gets lower and lower over time. You’re not suddenly weaker; you’ve simply run out of buffer.

In my clinical work with clients, I see this pattern consistently: a driven woman has been managing impossible levels of stress for months or years without adequate support, and a panic attack is the first moment her body gets loud enough to be impossible to ignore. It doesn’t happen because she’s weak. It happens because she’s been strong for far too long without the scaffolding to hold her.

Emotionally, many driven women are conditioned to prioritize logic over feelings, which can create a disconnect from bodily sensations until they become overwhelming. Panic attacks, then, may feel like a “failure” to keep emotions in check. But the truth is that panic is your body’s alarm signaling that something needs attention. Whether it’s chronic stress, unmet emotional needs, or physical health factors. Richard Schwartz, PhD, founder of Internal Family Systems therapy, would say that your panic response is actually a “protector part”. A well-intentioned internal system trying to warn you that something underneath needs care. It’s not your enemy. It’s a messenger you haven’t yet learned to hear.

Understanding this dynamic is the first step toward reclaiming your power. It’s not about eliminating panic entirely. Because that’s unlikely. But about developing strategies that respect your nervous system’s signals while allowing you to maintain your professional presence. The goal isn’t to build a thicker wall between you and your body. It’s to build a more honest, compassionate relationship with everything your body is trying to tell you.

What to Do in the Next 10 Minutes (Immediate Regulation)

The moments following a panic attack at work are critical. Your nervous system is still rattled, and how you respond in those first 10 minutes can either help recalibrate your body or inadvertently fuel the panic cycle. Here’s a straightforward, clinically-informed approach you can use immediately:

1. Ground Yourself Physically: Engage your senses to anchor yourself in the present. Feel your feet firmly on the floor. Notice the texture of your chair. If you can, hold a small object like a pen or a stress ball to focus tactile attention away from anxious thoughts. Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, describes this kind of deliberate sensory engagement as “orienting”. You’re inviting your nervous system to register the present environment as non-threatening.
2. Control Your Breath: Panic attacks often involve rapid, shallow breathing, which can worsen dizziness and chest tightness. Try a simple 4-7-8 breathing technique: inhale quietly through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, then exhale slowly through your mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat until you feel your heart rate slowing. The extended exhale specifically activates the vagus nerve, which signals the parasympathetic nervous system to begin downregulating the alarm response.
3. Use Cognitive Reframing: Remind yourself that this is a panic attack. Not a heart attack, not a failure, not a loss of control. Repeat a grounding phrase: “This will pass. I am safe. My body is reacting, not threatening.” Keep the phrase short and concrete. Your brain isn’t in a state to receive complex information right now.
4. Remove Yourself from High-Stimulation Environments: If possible, excuse yourself to a quieter, less crowded space. Even a bathroom stall, your car, or a hallway. Lower sensory input can help your nervous system reset. You don’t owe anyone an explanation in this moment. “Excuse me for a moment” is enough.
5. Hydrate and Nourish: Dehydration and low blood sugar can exacerbate panic symptoms. If you can, sip water or have a light snack once you’ve regained some composure. Something cold. Ice water, a cold cloth on your wrists. Can also be surprisingly effective at interrupting the panic cascade through the dive reflex.

These steps are about interrupting the panic cascade. You’re sending your nervous system a message: “I see you, but I’m not in danger.” This can help shift you from sympathetic overdrive (fight-or-flight) into a more regulated parasympathetic state. In my clinical work with clients, I often call this “buying time for your body to catch up to what your rational mind already knows”. That you’re physically safe, even when your nervous system is screaming otherwise. (PMID: 16530597)

If you’re alone at your desk and can’t step away, try to silently engage your senses. Feel your feet, touch your chair, focus on the texture of your keyboard. Even small sensory inputs can help ground you. Notice five things you can see. Four you can touch. Three you can hear. This isn’t a trick. It’s neuroscience. When you deliberately redirect attentional resources to the present environment, you interrupt the catastrophizing loop that feeds panic.

One important note: avoid the temptation to suppress or fight the panic itself. Resistance often adds fuel. Instead, acknowledge what’s happening without judgement. Daniel Siegel, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and author of Mindsight, uses the phrase “name it to tame it”. When you can label what you’re experiencing (“this is panic, this is my nervous system, this will pass”), you engage the prefrontal cortex and begin to restore regulatory capacity. Your goal in these 10 minutes isn’t to “make it stop” immediately, but to stabilize enough so you can return to your workday with greater control.

What to Do in the Next 24 Hours (The Aftermath)

Experiencing a panic attack at work can feel like your world has tilted on its axis. Once the immediate intensity fades, the aftermath can be just as challenging. Exhaustion, lingering anxiety, and a sense of vulnerability often settle in. In the next 24 hours, your focus should be on gentle recovery and practical steps to regain stability.

Think about what happens to Heather after that conference room moment. She makes it through the meeting. Barely. And spends the next hour in a low-grade fog of embarrassment and dread. She replays every second: Did they notice? Did my voice shake? Will this happen again tomorrow? By 6 p.m. she’s exhausted in a way that sleep won’t fully fix. This is the nervous system coming down from its adrenaline peak, and it’s completely normal. It doesn’t mean you’re fragile. It means you just ran a sprint you didn’t choose to run.

First, give yourself permission to rest. Your nervous system has been through a surge of adrenaline and cortisol, and it needs time to recalibrate. This doesn’t mean you have to shut down completely, but prioritize activities that don’t tax your cognitive or emotional resources. Avoid making major decisions or diving into high-stakes meetings if you can. Even simple acts like walking outside, drinking water, or taking a short nap can help your body and mind reset.

Next, pay attention to your physical needs. Panic attacks often disrupt breathing patterns, so practicing slow, diaphragmatic breathing throughout the day can reduce residual tension. Eating nourishing meals at regular intervals stabilizes blood sugar, which is crucial because drops in glucose can mimic or exacerbate anxiety symptoms. Avoid caffeine and alcohol in the 24 hours following a panic attack. Both destabilize the nervous system and can extend the window of vulnerability.

It’s also important to check in on your support system. Share what happened with a trusted colleague or friend if you feel comfortable. Sometimes just naming the experience out loud can diminish its power. If you don’t feel ready to disclose at work, reach out to someone outside your professional circle who understands the context of your day-to-day pressures. Isolation after a panic attack is one of the most counterproductive things you can do. Your nervous system regulates best in the presence of safe, connected others. This is what Stephen Porges, PhD, calls “co-regulation”: your system literally borrows stability from another calm nervous system nearby.

For many driven women, this dynamic echoes what clinicians call betrayal trauma. The specific injury that occurs when the person or institution you depend on is also the source of your harm.

Lastly, observe any patterns or triggers that seemed to precede the panic attack. Did a specific meeting, thought, or physical sensation stand out? Keeping a brief journal can provide valuable insights, especially if you decide to pursue therapy or coaching. This isn’t about self-judgment but about gathering information to build resilience. The goal isn’t to find someone or something to blame. It’s to understand your own system well enough to work with it instead of against it.

Both/And: You Are Highly Competent AND Your Nervous System Is Overwhelmed

I want to be clear: having a panic attack isn’t a sign that you’re weak or failing. In fact, you can be one of the most driven women in your field and still have a nervous system that hits a breaking point. These things coexist. It’s not an either/or scenario.

Consider Leah. She’s a senior director at a tech company, managing a team of twenty across three time zones. She’s the person other people call when something goes sideways. She’s been decorated twice for performance, has a reputation for being unflappable, and privately hasn’t taken a real vacation in three years. When she had a panic attack in her car before an all-hands meeting, her first thought wasn’t I need help. It was I can’t let anyone find out. That gap between what she projected and what her body was experiencing had been growing for years. The panic attack wasn’t the problem; it was the message.

The reality is, your brain and body are wired to respond to stress in very primal ways. Fight, flight, freeze. When your environment or internal pressure ramps up beyond what your nervous system can handle, a panic attack is a signal that something needs attention. It doesn’t erase your competence, intelligence, or the value you bring to your work. It’s a biological response, not a character flaw. Peter Levine, PhD, psychologist and founder of Somatic Experiencing, describes this as the body’s “unfinished protective responses”. Survival energy that gets activated but has nowhere to go in a professional context, so it builds until it overflows.

Recognizing this both/and perspective can be freeing. You don’t have to “fix” yourself by pushing harder or ignoring the signs. Instead, you can honor your capabilities while acknowledging the limits of your current stress tolerance. This mindset opens the door to strategies that support your nervous system without compromising your ambition. You can be excellent at your work and also need support. You can be a leader and also be human. Those aren’t contradictions. They’re both true, at the same time, right now.

Holding both truths is essential for sustainable success. You can maintain your high standards and leadership role while developing tools to manage overwhelm. This might mean setting boundaries, integrating calming practices into your daily routine, or learning to read your body’s signals earlier. It’s a nuanced balance, but one that respects your whole self. Not just the part of you that shows up on your performance review.

The Systemic Lens: When the Environment Demands Panic

It’s crucial to look beyond the individual experience and consider the environment that surrounds you. Sometimes, the pressure cooker of your workplace isn’t just a backdrop. It actively contributes to nervous system overwhelm. When your work culture demands constant alertness, multitasking, and perfection, your body may respond with a panic attack because it’s trying to survive an impossible standard.

Christina Maslach, PhD, social psychologist at UC Berkeley who defined the three dimensions of burnout, has spent decades documenting how organizational environments. Not individual deficiencies. Are the primary drivers of burnout and related anxiety responses. Her research consistently shows that when workplaces have high demands, low control, poor community, unfairness, mismatched values, and insufficient reward, workers’ nervous systems pay the price. The panic attack happening in your body is, in part, a systemic problem wearing a personal face.

Workplaces that reward pushing past exhaustion, minimize emotional expression, or stigmatize vulnerability create systemic conditions ripe for panic. The expectation to perform flawlessly without visible signs of strain is exhausting by design. When your environment constantly signals threat or inadequate performance, your nervous system can’t differentiate between real danger and chronic stress. It just reacts. Judith Herman, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance and author of Trauma and Recovery, has noted that environments that demand constant vigilance while offering little safety or predictability are functionally traumatizing, regardless of whether a discrete traumatic event has occurred. (PMID: 22729977)

This lens shifts some accountability away from you alone and acknowledges that your response is rooted in a context that needs attention. It’s not about blaming your employer or colleagues but about recognizing the role environment plays in mental health. This awareness can empower you to advocate for changes that support well-being, whether that’s negotiating workload, creating space for breaks, or cultivating peer support. It also gives you permission to stop framing your panic as a personal failure. It’s a reasonable response to an unreasonable situation.

Understanding the systemic factors also validates your experience. You’re not just “too sensitive” or “not resilient enough.” You’re responding naturally to the demands placed on you. The goal becomes not only managing your nervous system but also navigating and, where possible, reshaping the environment to reduce triggers. Sometimes that means making a business case for well-being practices in your organization. Sometimes it means deciding that the environment itself isn’t workable for you long-term, and beginning to honestly evaluate your options.

How Therapy Prevents the Next Panic Attack

Therapy isn’t just about managing symptoms when panic strikes. It’s about building a foundation that prevents panic attacks from happening in the first place. When you work with a therapist who understands the unique pressures faced by driven women in demanding careers, therapy becomes a tailored space to develop strategies that align with your lifestyle and goals.

In my clinical work with clients who experience panic at work, I’ve found that the most transformative shifts happen not in the moment of a panic attack but in the quiet, consistent work done between sessions. It’s in learning to notice the low-grade tension that’s been building all week. It’s in recognizing the physical signature of your particular stress response. The tightening in the jaw, the shallow breath, the clenched shoulders. Before it escalates to a full panic episode. This kind of body literacy takes time to develop, but it’s genuinely life-changing for women who’ve spent years in their heads and out of their bodies.

One of the primary benefits is learning how to recognize early warning signs. Panic attacks rarely come out of nowhere; they’re often preceded by subtle shifts in your body or thoughts. Therapy helps you tune into these signals and intervene before the system reaches a breaking point. This might include breathwork, grounding techniques, or cognitive strategies to reframe catastrophic thinking. Janina Fisher, PhD, psychologist and specialist in trauma treatment, has written compellingly about how the nervous system leaves “bread crumbs”. Physical cues that escalation is coming. And that learning to read those cues is one of the most powerful forms of self-knowledge a person can develop.

Many driven women I work with didn’t experience overt abuse. They experienced something subtler: childhood emotional neglect, the absence of attunement that teaches a child her emotions don’t matter.

But prevention goes deeper. Therapy also addresses the underlying factors that contribute to nervous system overwhelm. Things like chronic stress, unresolved trauma, or unrelenting self-expectations. By exploring these layers, you can reduce the intensity and frequency of panic attacks over time. It’s not about eliminating stress entirely. That’s unrealistic. But about increasing your nervous system’s capacity to handle pressure without tipping into panic. In IFS terms, it’s about building a stronger, more compassionate relationship between your “Self” and the protective parts that trigger panic. So those parts don’t have to work quite so hard.

Additionally, therapy can help you navigate systemic challenges with more resilience. Whether it’s refining communication skills to set boundaries or developing plans to modify your work environment, these steps reduce the external triggers that fuel panic. Therapy becomes a resource for empowerment, not just symptom relief. The best therapy for driven women doesn’t ask you to slow down or stop being ambitious. It asks you to become ambitious in a way that’s sustainable, embodied, and actually yours.

Ultimately, investing in your mental health through therapy is an act of strength, not weakness. It’s a strategic move to protect your well-being so you can continue to lead, excel, and live fully without being sidelined by panic. The women I work with don’t leave therapy less driven. They leave more capable, more connected to themselves, and more able to use their ambition in service of a life that actually feels like theirs.

If what you’ve read here resonates, I want you to know that individual therapy and executive coaching are available for driven women ready to do this work. You can also explore my self-paced recovery courses or schedule a complimentary consultation to find the right fit.

How to Heal: Building a Nervous System That Doesn’t Have to Break Down at Work

When Heather had her first panic attack in a conference room. Heart pounding, hands tingling, convinced in the moment that something was genuinely wrong with her body. Her first instinct was to pretend it hadn’t happened. Get through the meeting. Don’t let anyone see. Leah did something similar: she excused herself, went to the bathroom, ran cold water over her wrists, and was back at her desk in seven minutes. What I see consistently with clients who’ve had panic at work is that the immediate coping response is almost entirely about containment. About managing how it looks, not about understanding what it means. The panic attack is treated as a glitch to be hidden rather than a signal to be heard. That containment strategy works, sort of, until it doesn’t. Here’s the path that actually gets underneath the pattern.

Here’s the path I walk with clients, in roughly this order:

1. Stabilize the nervous system before you analyze anything. In the immediate aftermath of a panic attack, the nervous system is still in its recovery arc. And this is not the time for self-examination or root-cause analysis. Stephen Porges, PhD, psychologist and originator of the Polyvagal Theory, has documented that the autonomic nervous system moves through discrete states. Safe/connected, mobilized, shut down. And that returning to regulation after a spike requires physiological input, not cognitive effort. This means: slow your exhale longer than your inhale (a 4-count in, 6-8-count out activates the parasympathetic brake). Drink something cold. Move your body if you can. Even a walk to a different floor changes your nervous system’s state more than sitting at your desk trying to think your way calm. In the 24 hours following a panic attack, prioritize sleep, reduce stimulants, and be honest with yourself about your current load. You can’t process what your system just did while it’s still in recovery.

2. Name the panic attack as a nervous system event, not a psychological catastrophe. One of the most damaging things that happens after a panic attack at work is the secondary panic. The catastrophizing about the panic itself. What if I have another one? What if someone noticed? What if this means something’s seriously wrong with me? Janina Fisher, PhD, clinical psychologist and leading trauma researcher, describes this as the “fear of fear”. When the nervous system learns to anticipate its own overwhelm, it can begin generating panic in response to any sensation that resembles the original experience. Breaking this cycle starts with accurate information: a panic attack is a false alarm from a threat-detection system that’s been working too hard for too long. It’s not a sign that you’re broken. It’s a sign that your window of tolerance. The zone within which your nervous system can process stress. Has narrowed. That’s workable. But you have to stop treating the alarm as evidence of catastrophe before you can begin to widen it.

3. Build a personalized regulation toolkit for the workplace specifically. Generic self-care advice (sleep more, meditate, go outside) doesn’t account for the reality of what your actual workdays look like. In my work with clients, I ask them to map their week: Where are the pressure points? What time of day is your system most activated? What are the specific triggers. Certain emails, certain people, certain types of meetings? Then we build regulation anchors that fit that map. This might mean a four-minute walk before every large meeting. A specific breath pattern you run silently at your desk before a difficult call. A phrase you say to yourself when you notice the early signs of activation. I see what’s happening. I can stay here. Somatic Experiencing offers concrete tools for building these anchors in the body, not just the mind. Small, repeatable, body-based practices before the panic arrives are far more effective than heroic coping during it.

4. Excavate the roots inside a reliable therapeutic relationship. Panic attacks at work almost never appear from nowhere. In my experience, they tend to emerge at the intersection of a dysregulated nervous system, a current environment with genuine stressors, and older material that the current stressors are unconsciously activating. attachment experiences that taught you that visibility is dangerous, that falling short has catastrophic consequences, that your worth is entirely contingent on your performance. In individual therapy, we can work with all three layers: regulating the current system, addressing the immediate environmental stressors, and getting underneath the older material that’s making the current stressors land with so much more force than they objectively warrant. The panic attack isn’t the problem. It’s the indicator. The therapy is where we address what it’s indicating.

5. Hold the systemic context without using it to stay stuck. As we explored in the section on environments that demand panic, many of the women I work with are in genuinely difficult workplace environments. Ones characterized by chronic overload, insufficient support, ambient competition, and structural inequity. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, psychiatrist and trauma researcher and author of The Body Keeps the Score, is clear that nervous system dysregulation is not just an individual phenomenon; it’s responsive to the actual environment. Keeping that systemic lens in view means you don’t have to pathologize every panic response as your personal failure. AND. And this is important. It also means noticing clearly what in your environment is actually changeable. Setting clearer limits, restructuring how you manage your calendar, addressing the chronic overwork through burnout support. These are real levers. The body keeps score on your behalf whether or not you think the environment is “bad enough” to justify a reaction.

6. Rebuild a sustainable relationship with the work itself. The goal isn’t to become someone who never gets activated at work. It’s to build a nervous system that can encounter difficulty without going into emergency mode. Some clients, once they’ve done enough stabilization work, realize that the panic was a very accurate signal about a working arrangement that needed to fundamentally change. Others find that the same job becomes genuinely manageable once the older nervous system patterns have been addressed. Either way, the panic attack was not a failure. It was your body doing exactly what it’s designed to do: sound an alarm when the load has become too great to carry alone.

If panic has visited you at work. Once or repeatedly. Please know that this is treatable and you don’t have to white-knuckle your way through it. Whether through individual therapy to address the nervous system and relational roots, executive coaching to restructure the workplace patterns contributing to the overload, or the self-paced Fixing the Foundations^™ course to start building regulation capacity on your own timeline. Support is available. You can schedule a consultation to talk through what fits where you are right now.

Related Reading

Craske, Michelle G., et al. The Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties. Psychological Medicine, vol. 25, no. 2, 1995, pp. 355, 367.

Barlow, David H. Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual. 5th ed., Guilford Press, 2014.

Mahoney, Annette E. J., et al. “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” Journal of Anxiety Disorders, vol. 61, 2019, pp. 41, 50.

Clark, David M. “A Cognitive Model of Panic Disorder.” Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 35, no. 8, 1997, pp. 741, 756.

If any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, I’d like to talk with you. A 20-minute consultation is the first step. No commitment, no forms, just a conversation between two professionals.

References

Peer-Reviewed Research (Vancouver)

1. van der Kolk BA, Wang JB, Yehuda R, Bedrosian L, Coker AR, Harrison C, et al. Effects of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD on self-experience. PLoS One. 2024;19(1):e0295926. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0295926. PMID: 38198456.
2. Cloitre M, Stolbach BC, Herman JL, van der Kolk B, Pynoos R, Wang J, et al. A developmental approach to complex PTSD: childhood and adult cumulative trauma as predictors of symptom complexity. J Trauma Stress. 2009;22(5):399-408. doi:10.1002/jts.20444. PMID: 19795402.
3. Payne P, Levine PA, Crane-Godreau MA. Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Front Psychol. 2015;6:93. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093. PMID: 25699005.
4. Porges SW. Polyvagal Theory: Current Status, Clinical Applications, and Future Directions. Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2025;22(3):169-184. doi:10.36131/cnfioritieditore20250301. PMID: 40735382.
5. Reisz S, Duschinsky R, Siegel DJ. fearful-avoidant attachment and defense: exploring John Bowlby's unpublished reflections. Attach Hum Dev. 2018;20(2):107-134. doi:10.1080/14616734.2017.1380055. PMID: 28952412.
6. Ogden P, Pain C, Fisher J. A sensorimotor approach to the treatment of trauma and dissociation. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2006;29(1):263-79, xi-xii. PMID: 16530597.
7. Brenner EG, Schwartz RC, Becker C. Development of the internal family systems model: Honoring contributions from family systems therapies. Fam Process. 2023;62(4):1290-1306. doi:10.1111/famp.12943. PMID: 37924221.

Books & Cultural Sources (Chicago Author-Date)

• Maté, Gabor. When the Body Says No. A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003.
• Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly. Penguin Audio, 2012.
• Fisher, Janina. Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors. Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

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