Panic Disorder Peer Support
Individual coachingPeer support from someone who’s been there—real conversations, practical tools, and hope for life beyond panic and agoraphobia.
Living with panic disorder, anxiety, or agoraphobia can feel incredibly isolating—especially when the people around you haven’t experienced it themselves. Peer support offers something different: the opportunity to talk with someone who understands these struggles through lived experience. My peer coaching is a supportive, judgment-free space where we can talk openly about panic attacks, anxious thoughts, physical sensations, avoidance, agoraphobia, setbacks, and the everyday challenges that can come with recovery. Peer support is not therapy, and I am not here to diagnose you, prescribe treatment, or tell you what your recovery should look like. Instead, my role is to listen, encourage, share relevant parts of my own lived experience, help you identify goals, explore coping and recovery strategies, and support you as you work toward the life you want to live. Depending on what you need, our conversations might include setting small and realistic recovery goals, talking through fears surrounding panic sensations, discussing avoidance and exposure-based recovery concepts, identifying patterns that may be keeping you stuck, preparing for a challenging situation, celebrating progress, or simply having a safe place to say, “This is really hard,” to someone who understands. One of the most important parts of peer support is that **you remain in control**. You get to decide what recovery means for you, what goals matter to you, and what steps you are ready to take. My job isn't to push you or “fix” you—it's to walk alongside you, offer perspective from lived experience, and remind you that you don't have to navigate this alone. My approach is grounded in hope, honesty, encouragement, and the belief that meaningful progress can happen one small step at a time. Peer coaching can complement professional mental health or medical care, but it does not replace therapy, diagnosis, medical treatment, or crisis services. **Your coaching includes personalized worksheets and resources.** I’ve created these tools based on strategies, reflections, and exercises that were helpful during my own recovery. When appropriate, I’ll choose or customize worksheets around what we’re discussing so you have something practical to take with you after our session and continue working on between conversations.
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Host
Heather K.
Peer SupporterState Certified Peer Supporter
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About The Host
If you’re reading this while feeling like anxiety, panic, OCD, or agoraphobia has taken over your life, I want you to know that I understand what it’s like to have your world become incredibly small. My story with mental health started long before I ever had words for what I was experiencing. I’ve lived with OCD since I was a child, and anxiety and panic attacks became part of my life in my 20s. I’m now in my 40s, which means I’ve spent more than two decades learning what it’s like to live with a brain that can make ordinary situations feel anything but ordinary. At my worst, panic and agoraphobia completely changed my life. There was a period when I didn't leave my house for an entire year. During an especially difficult time, I barely left my closet for almost six weeks. It had become the place where I felt safest when the rest of the world—and sometimes even the rest of my own home—felt overwhelming. I know what it's like to be afraid of driving because you're convinced you might panic or pass out. I know what it's like to stand in a store or restaurant secretly calculating how quickly you could get outside. I've feared traffic lights, standing in line, stairs, heat, crowded places, being too far from home, and situations where I felt like I couldn't easily escape. And I know what it's like to look around at the life you're living and wonder, “How did my world get this small?” For a long time, I thought recovery meant figuring out how to never feel anxious again. I searched for ways to stop the sensations, prevent panic attacks, and make myself feel safe before I did anything uncomfortable. Eventually, I began learning something very different: recovery wasn't about waiting until I wasn't afraid. It was about learning that I could be afraid and still move forward. I've now been in recovery for almost three years. My life today looks very different from the one I was living when leaving my house felt impossible. That doesn't mean I've become a person who never experiences anxiety. It means anxiety no longer gets to make all of my decisions for me. That's also why peer support means so much to me. I'm not here to diagnose you, provide therapy, or pretend that what worked for me will automatically work for everyone. I'm here as someone with lived experience who understands how isolating these conditions can feel—and how powerful it can be to finally talk to someone who doesn't need you to explain why something as ordinary as standing in line, driving down the road, or sitting in a restaurant can feel monumental. In our sessions, we can talk openly about what you're experiencing, the fears and patterns that may be keeping your world small, the things you're working toward, and the small victories that other people may not understand are actually huge victories. I'll share the perspectives, practical tools, and lessons that helped me during my own recovery while supporting you as you figure out what moving forward looks like for you. Most importantly, I want this to be a space where you don't have to pretend you're okay. I've been the person who couldn't leave the house. I've been the person sitting somewhere desperately wishing I could escape. I've been the person wondering whether life would ever feel normal again. And now I get to be the person who can say: Your world can get bigger again