When the Therapist Has a Panic Attack: What Yesterday Taught Me About Being Human

Yesterday, I had a panic attack.

Not the kind that rises, peaks, and dissolves with a few grounding skills and a glass of water.Not the kind I’ve learned to manage over the last five years with medication, breathing techniques, and the entire toolbox I teach my clients.

This one was different. It was hours long.It was unresponsive to every strategy I reached for.It left me convinced, for a moment, that something was medically wrong. Heart wrong. Body wrong. Life-threatening wrong.

And as a therapist, that feeling came with an added layer of shame I didn’t expect.

“I should know what to do.”“I teach people how to survive this.”“Why can’t I stop it?”

But here’s the truth I needed to relearn in real time:

No amount of training exempts us from being human.

I talk with clients every day about nervous systems: how they can misfire, how they get stuck in threat mode, how trauma and stress accumulate quietly until the smallest thing becomes the tipping point.I teach grounding techniques, cognitive strategies, nervous-system resets, and lifestyle tools.

And all of that is valid. All of that matters.

But none of that means we can always override our biology in the moment.

As I sat there, hours into panic, exhausted by trying to fight my own body, something finally shifted, not because I found the “right skill,” but because I stopped demanding that my system behave.

Sometimes healing isn’t about control. It’s about compassion.

I reminded myself:

Panic doesn’t mean danger.

A body in distress isn’t a body that is failing.

Even the most practiced tools can meet a moment that exceeds what they were meant to handle.

And even therapists have a tipping point.

The attack eventually passed; slowly, stubbornly, without elegance. And afterward, I felt wrung out. But I also felt clearer about something I’ve always known professionally and forgot personally:

Panic is not a personal flaw. It’s a physiological event.

There is no shame in having it.There is no shame in struggling through it.There is no shame in needing help, even when you’re the one usually offering it.

If anything, this experience reminded me why I do the work I do: because living inside a human nervous system is complicated, and we all deserve someone who understands that without minimizing it.

If you’ve ever had a panic attack that felt “too big,” “too long,” or “too much”

you’re not broken. You’re not failing your tools. You’re not weak.

You’re human. Just like me.

If you’re ready to explore your own anxiety with someone who gets it; professionally and personally, you can schedule a session here:

Book a session with me: https://thetowntherapist.clientsecure.me/