Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to danger - an automatic alarm that goes off when you feel threatened, under pressure, or are facing a stressful situation. It is our body’s way of letting us know we are not happy with some aspect of our lives.


A panic attack is an exaggeration of the body’s normal response to fear, stress or excitement. It is the rapid build-up of overwhelming sensations, such as a pounding heartbeat, feeling faint, sweating, nausea, chest pains, breathing discomfort, feelings of losing control, shaky limbs and legs turning to jelly.

If you experience this, you may fear that you are going mad, blacking out, or having a heart attack. You may be convinced you are going to die in the course of the attack – making this a terrifying experience.

Panic attacks come on very quickly - symptoms usually peaking within 10 minutes. Most panic attacks last for between 5 and 20 minutes. You may have one or two panic attacks and never experience another, or you may have attacks once a month or several times each week. For some people they seem to come without warning and strike at random.

There is no one cause of anxiety, rather there are a number of factors that may contribute to the development of anxious thoughts and behaviour. Some causes of anxiety can include: stress, trauma, life transitions, relationship issues, loss.

The most common forms of treatment offered are counselling and medication. My own preferred treatment modality is cognitive-behavioural therapy which has been found to be effective in the treatment of anxiety; And with over15 years experience counselling, I believe I can help develope a treatment plan to work towards alleviating troublesome anxiety and Panic Attacks,