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Panic Attack Therapy in Kew
A panic attack doesn't feel like ordinary anxiety. It arrives suddenly and physically, a racing heart, tightness in the chest, a wave of dread that can feel indistinguishable from real danger, even when nothing in the room has actually changed. For many people, the panic attack itself becomes the new thing to fear, creating a cycle where the anxiety about having another attack starts to shape daily life as much as the attacks themselves.
At KYND Psychology, therapy for panic attacks looks beyond the physical symptoms to understand why the body reacts this way, and why now. Panic often appears when something has become too much to process consciously, so the mind and body respond as though the danger is immediate and physical, even when the real source is psychological. Making sense of what preceded an attack, not just managing it once it starts, tends to reduce both its frequency and its power.
Working from a psychoanalytic foundation, and drawing on evidence-based approaches where they serve the person in front of me, I offer a space to understand what these episodes are actually responding to, alongside practical ways to feel steadier in the moment. This isn't only about symptom control. It's about understanding what the panic has been trying to signal, always in service of the person, never the protocol.
Why Panic Feels Like the Body Taking Over
Freud distinguished between ordinary anxiety, which functions as a warning signal the mind can still think around, and panic, where that signalling function seems to fail and the body responds as though overwhelmed all at once. This is often why panic feels less like a thought and more like something happening to you. Restoring the mind's capacity to process what's happening, rather than being flooded by it, is usually central to reducing how often panic takes over.
What Sessions Look Like
Early sessions focus on understanding the pattern of your panic attacks: what tends to precede them, what they interrupt, and what life circumstances surrounded their onset. From there, therapy moves between practical grounding strategies and a slower exploration of what the panic has been responding to.
Sessions are available for adults and young adults at our practice in Kew. Many clients travel from Hawthorn, Camberwell, Balwyn, and Richmond for a therapeutic approach that treats them as a whole person rather than a diagnosis. Clinical psychology offers structure and practical strategies, psychoanalytic thinking offers depth and meaning, and my training in both allows sessions to move between immediate relief and a slower exploration of where these episodes began.