Coaching practices for Exposure Therapy for Panic

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Exposure Therapy for Panic, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I can handle the practice drills now, but I still steer around everything in real life that makes my heart pound
• When I make myself face the hard thing my body goes straight to full panic
• I’m terrified of facing the feelings that set me off, and the whole thing feels like one giant wall I either crash into all at once or run from completely
• Now I’m scared of the feelings themselves
• When I make myself face the scary scenario I end up still wound up and rattled afterward, and then I dread doing it again

Practices that may help

1. Generalize exposure to naturalistic triggers
   Seek out real-world situations that naturally produce the sensations you have been practicing with.
   Interoceptive Exposure for Panic
2. Interoceptive Exposure for Panic
   Interoceptive exposure deliberately induces the bodily sensations of panic — racing heart, dizziness, breathlessness — in a safe setting so the brain learns those sensations are not dangerous. It is a well-supported component of panic disorder treatment, with randomized-trial evidence showing significant reductions in panic frequency and avoidance.
3. Use controlled breathing to manage arousal during exposure
   A brief, slow-breathing technique modulates arousal during difficult exposure moments.
   Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Principles, Practices, and the Evidence
4. Build a personal sensation hierarchy
   Map which panic sensations frighten you most, then order them from mildest to most feared.
   Interoceptive Exposure for Panic
5. Interoceptive exposure: deliberately induce the feared sensations
   Reproduce the physical sensations of panic in a safe, controlled way to break the sensation-fear link.
   The Clark Panic Model, Made Practical
6. Combine worry exposure with relaxation skill
   After the exposure period, apply a relaxation practice to close each session with a deactivation phase.
   Worry Exposure, Made Practical
7. Exposure Therapy: Facing Fears to Shrink Them
   Exposure therapy is among the most empirically supported interventions in clinical psychology: it works by having you face feared situations, sensations, or thoughts in a structured way — long enough and repeatedly enough for the fear response to extinguish. Clinician-guided exposure is the gold standard for anxiety disorders; self-guided exposure using the same principles is effective for many manageable fears and is widely used in self-help and digital programs.
8. Imaginal exposure for difficult-to-access fears
   Vividly imagine the feared scenario in detail as a substitute or preparation for real exposure.
   Exposure Therapy: Facing Fears to Shrink Them
9. Approach avoided situations systematically (in vivo exposure)
   Deliberately enter feared but objectively safe situations, stay long enough for fear to reduce, and repeat.
   Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Principles, Practices, and the Evidence
10. Hyperventilation induction exercise
    Breathe rapidly through the mouth for 60 seconds to produce dizziness and breathlessness — then stay with it.
    Interoceptive Exposure for Panic

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