EMDR for Anxiety and Panic Disorders

If you’re living with anxiety or panic, you’ll know how overwhelming and frightening it can feel. EMDR offers a gentle, effective way to help you find peace with these experiences and reclaim a sense of safety in your own body and life.

Together, we’ll begin by exploring the earliest memories that might be connected to your anxiety or panic; the moments that first taught your nervous system to respond with fear. Sometimes these are obvious, dramatic events, other times, they’re quieter experiences that you may have forgotten or not realised were significant. We’ll also look at what tends to trigger your anxiety now, perhaps certain body sensations, places, thoughts, or situations that seem to set everything off.

In our sessions, I’ll invite you to bring to mind the moment just before panic usually takes hold, noticing what you feel in your body whilst we use bilateral stimulation (eye movements or hand taps). This process helps your mind and body begin to separate the physical sensations from the overwhelming fear response that’s become attached to them. You’re not doing anything wrong when you feel anxious, your nervous system has simply learned to sound the alarm, and we can help it learn something new.

As we continue working together, something rather wonderful often happens: those sensations that usually feel so terrifying: your racing heart, breathlessness, dizziness, begin to feel more manageable. Your nervous system starts to recognise that these feelings, whilst uncomfortable, aren’t actually dangerous. This breaks the cycle where fear of the sensations creates more sensations, which creates more fear. Through the bilateral stimulation, your brain gently updates its understanding, learning that normal bodily responses does not have to mean catastrophe.

We’ll also work with what’s sometimes called “anticipatory anxiety”, that fear of the fear itself, the worry about when panic might strike next. This can be just as limiting as the panic attacks themselves. Using EMDR, we can help soften those frightening predictions about the future, transforming them into something more neutral or even hopeful. As this happens, you’ll likely find yourself feeling more comfortable with uncertainty and more willing to re-engage with situations you may have been avoiding, whether that’s driving, speaking in public, being in crowds, or whatever feels difficult for you.

What’s beautiful about this approach is that you don’t have to force yourself to think differently or memorise coping statements. Instead, as we process the distress held in those core memories, new understandings emerge naturally from within you. Beliefs like “I can’t handle this” or “something terrible will happen” begin to lose their power, replaced by a felt sense, not just an idea, that you’re actually safe. Your nervous system learns through direct experience, not through being told what to think.

Towards the end of each session, we’ll take time to notice how your body is feeling, checking whether sensations like chest tightness, trembling, or throat constriction still trigger alarm, or whether they’ve become simply information your body is sharing with you. Any remaining activation can be gently processed until your body truly knows it’s safe. This comprehensive approach brings both your mind and body into balance, creating lasting change and helping prevent anxiety from returning.

What This Journey Might Look Like for You:

• We’ll gently explore the earlier experiences that may have set the stage for your anxiety and panic
• We’ll map out your unique triggers: the sensations, thoughts, and situations that tend to spark fear
• Bilateral stimulation helps your nervous system uncouple physical sensations from frightening interpretations
• Your body can learn to experience sensations like a racing heart as normal rather than dangerous
• We’ll work specifically with the fear of future panic, helping you feel safer about what’s ahead
• The therapy helps ease the fear of recurrence by processing those worrying images of future attacks
• New, kinder beliefs about yourself and your ability to cope emerge naturally as old fears fade
• Your nervous system relearns that arousal and activation are manageable, not threatening
• We’ll ensure your body feels genuinely calm and that physical sensations no longer trigger alarm
• The outcome is a renewed sense of freedom, less avoidance, and a nervous system that feels settled and safe

You deserve to feel at ease in your own body and to move through life without constant fear. This work can help you get there.