Mind-Body Therapy for Agoraphobia
What’s alive inside you is still growing.
Every Seed Opens at Its Own Pace
Therapy can help your nervous system feel safe enough to unfurl—gently, and in its own time.
Agoraphobia isn’t just about fear—it’s about protection.
It’s your nervous system doing its best to keep you safe from overwhelm. That might be physical sensations like GI distress, dizziness, or pain. It might be emotional states like panic, shutdown, or dissociation. It might be the real social dangers of being targeted, judged, or misunderstood—especially for folks navigating racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, fatphobia, or other forms of systemic or identity-based threats.
Sometimes agoraphobia is not about a specific place—it’s about the possibility of something going wrong: losing control, feeling trapped, or not knowing how to get yourself to safety.
Clinically, agoraphobia is defined as a fear or avoidance of situations where escape might be difficult or help might not be available—like driving, flying, using public transit, being in crowds, or even leaving home. But in real life, it rarely fits into neat boxes. More often, agoraphobia shows up gradually. It’s a quiet narrowing—a slow retreat—from what used to feel okay.
Therapy doesn’t ask you to white-knuckle your way through these distressing situations. It helps you understand what your body has been trying to do—and offers you a new way forward, grounded in safety, curiosity, and compassion.
What I’ve Learned From Listening
Agoraphobia can hide behind other names: driving anxiety, panic attacks, chronic illness, social discomfort, or just “being cautious.” But underneath those labels, you’ll often find a nervous system that’s been in protection mode for a long time—doing what it had to do.
I’ve worked with clients who avoid elevators, airplanes, bridges, public restrooms, or crowds—not because they’re overreacting or irrational, but because their bodies learned that some places carry too much risk. That shame, panic, or harm could come too quickly to manage. And that there might not be a way out.
For many, these fears are shaped by trauma. For others, they’re shaped by systems—racism, fatphobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, ableism. Sometimes both. And when the world hasn’t been safe for you, caution makes sense.
The specifics differ, but the thread is often the same: your body found a way to protect you. Therapy can help you thank it for that—and gently explore what else might now be possible.
Let’s make more things feel possible again.
Begin the Inquiry Process.
We Often Talk About:
Adaptive Coping Skills & Beliefs • Agency & Choice • Avoiding the Grocery Store • Bathroom Mapping • Bridges & Elevators • Canceling Plans • Chronic Illness • Dizziness • Embodied Safety • Fear of Crowds • Fear of Driving • Fear of Flying • Fear of Leaving the House • Fear of Losing Control • Fear of Throwing Up • Flexibility • Gratitude • Honoring Progress (Not Perfection) • IBS Anxiety • Internalized Ableism • Insomnia • Masking & Hypervigilance • Panic in Public Places • Post-COVID Isolation • Public Transportation Anxiety • Reclaiming Joy • Religious Visibility • Self-Compassion • Sensory Overload • Shame About Avoidance • Social Anxiety • Systemic Oppression • The Body Saying No • Tiny Moments of Bravery • Values • Wanting More Freedom
My Philosophy of Care
I believe in working with your nervous system, not against it. In our work together, we’ll start from a place of respect—for your body, your boundaries, and your story. I’ll walk beside you while we listen to what your body has been trying to say—and gently explore what safety can feel like now.