What is the best therapy for panic attacks?
Written by the clinical team at The Lyceum Clinic. Clinically reviewed by Sanah Younis, Clinical Director, BABCP-accredited (no. 1000792). Published 28 October 2026. Last reviewed 28 October 2026.
CBT using the Clark model of panic is the recommended treatment and one of the fastest-acting courses in the whole of CBT. Panic is maintained by misreading normal body sensations as catastrophe. Therapy brings those sensations on deliberately, in the room, so you learn through experience that they are harmless.
What people say when they arrive
"I thought I was dying." The racing heart, the dizziness, the breathlessness are read as a heart attack, a stroke, a loss of control. The first thing we do is validate the physiology completely: your alarm system is working perfectly. It is doing exactly what it is designed to do to keep you alive. It is just firing at a false alarm.
What we do in the room
Interoceptive exposure. We bring on the sensations deliberately, through straw-breathing to induce hyperventilation, or by spinning in a chair to induce dizziness. The reaction is immediate terror, followed by massive relief when the sensation passes and the person realises they did not die and did not lose their mind. The nervous system updates in real time. Once that has happened a few times, the entire architecture of the fear tends to collapse remarkably fast.
For more detail, read about CBT for panic attacks.
The safety behaviour nearly everyone has
A water bottle, mints, or medication carried "just in case". It is a magic talisman against the panic, and it quietly confirms to the brain that the panic was dangerous. The first homework is often to drop one tiny safety behaviour: leave the water bottle at home for a ten-minute walk. We test the water.
The common mistake
Stopping exercise because a raised heart rate feels frightening. That removes one of the best regulators the body has and teaches the brain that exertion is dangerous.
The turn
When the anxiety peaks and the person does not run. They ride the wave to the top, feel the terror, and watch it subside. At The Lyceum panic is treated in the short-term arm, often towards the lower end of 6 to 12 sessions.