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panicLINK's Four Phases

PHASE ONE – The Take Control Training Method

Cognitive behavioral therapy results in a dramatic reduction in panic for most patients within a few sessions. This is the first step on your path to a panic-free life.

Many therapy approaches to panic treatment stop with Phase One. Once patients feel comfortable that they have panic under control, it’s easy to assume that they’ve been cured.

But cognitive behavioral therapy alone is not enough. While effective at relieving panic initially, patients are not prepared for the almost inevitable return of symptoms. As Dr. Blumberg learned from treating thousands of patients over nearly three decades, the rave reviews from the initial relief can abruptly turn into the three D’s – despondency, discouragement and despair – when symptoms unexpectedly return. That’s why the panicLINK approach moves next to Phase Two.

What’s Covered in Phase One?

How Do I Know I Have Panic Disorder?
What Makes Panic Tick? The Rules That Govern the Panic Experience
takeCONTROL Training Steps One – Six
Real Live Practice – Opening Up Your World Again
Your Practice Program

The Scientific Foundations of Phase One

  • Schachter and Singer’s pioneering work on the “misattribution effect” had a dramatic influence on the development of the takeCONTROL Training methodology. They provided scientific evidence showing that how you interpret your bodily sensations determines the meaning of the experience.
    Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962).
    Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state.
    Psychological Review, 69(5), 379-399.
  • Claire Weekes’ pioneering work “Hope and Help for Your Nerves” introduced the “fear of fear,” helping lay the foundation for the body phobia concept.
  • Dr. Blumberg had the good fortune of spending a month in June 1975 at the Tenth June Institute of Behavior Therapy at Temple University School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Joseph Wolpe, the “Godfather of behavior therapy.” Here he demonstrated the “fear of symptoms” concept and applied his method of systematic desensitization to bodily symptoms.
  • Dr. David Barlow’s major research in demonstrating the power of CBT with panic disorder compared to alprazolam with lower relapse rates.
    A comparison of alprazolam and behavior therapy in treatment of panic disorder.
    Klosko, Janet S.; Barlow, David H.; Tassinari, Robin; Cerny, Jerome A.
    Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Vol 58(1), Feb 1990
    www.bu.edu/anxiety/dhb
  • The Barlow, et al. work influenced the outcome of the National Institutes of Health Consensus conference on panic disorder in 1991, which concluded “several different classes of treatment have been shown to be effective including cognitive and behavioral.”
    Treatment of Panic Disorder.
    NIH Consensus Statement Online 1991 Sep 25-27 [cited year month day];9(2):1-24



PHASE TWO – Rapid Rebound Skills

Until you’ve completed the entire panicLINK program, you must be prepared for the return of symptoms – and understand how their return can be an opportunity for you to move forward.

You must be ready for the return of symptoms, and you must have the right orientation to be rebound-ready. Learn what to do when symptoms return AND use their return as an opportunity to discover what’s triggering them. The answer to the “Why Panic?” question is hidden in the return of symptoms.

Once you are armed with how to deal with the return of symptoms, you are ready to move on to Phase Three.

What’s Covered in Phase Two?

Are You Rebound Ready?
The Big Picture on the Road to a Panic-Free Lifestyle

Scientific Foundations of Phase Two

  • G. Alan Marlatt and Judith Gordon’s Relapse Prevention 1985 Guilford press.
  • Dr. Blumberg’s own work at the Tufts Medical School Women’s health trial on developing a big picture conception of the change process in combination with field testing panicLINK over three decades.



PHASE THREE – Understanding Your Four Why Triggers

In Phase Three, you begin to explore the whyPANIC triggers that set off your attacks. Panic is no longer ‘out of the blue’ once you understand your triggers.

Once you are panic-free and rebound-ready, you can begin the exploration of the triggers that set off your panic symptoms – your whyPANIC triggers. In Phase Three, you finally get the answer to the question you have been asking since your first panic attack: Why am I feeling dizzy, heart pounding, shortness of breath? What is causing me to feel this way?

You enter a self-discovery process and explore your Four Factor Pre-Panic Profile. Here you discover where panic comes from. And panic is no longer out of the blue. You use the panicLINK log to break the false link to why you are feeling this way and start to identify the triggering conditions that precede the onset of your panic symptoms.

What’s Covered in Phase Three?

Your Four Why Panic? Triggers

Scientific Foundations of Phase Three

  • Over 5000 patients tracking panic with the panicLINK Log gradually uncovered a consistent pattern to your four “Why” triggers.



PHASE FOUR – Discovering Your Missing Link

Your Missing Link is the key to a panic-free future. Once you’ve identified this key factor, you can live an emotionally freer life without fear of another debilitating panic attack.

The fourth phase of the panicLINK program is the true key to living a panic-free life. This phase has never before been available outside Dr. Blumberg’s office.

In this phase, you are guided through an Eight-Step Self Discovery Method to understand your Missing Link. You begin to understand yourself and recognize more clearly the sources of stress that build up in your life, your emotional management style, your interpersonal style and cognitive style.  Here you discover the link between sources of stress and the onset of panic symptoms. Panic symptoms are no longer out of the blue, they are signals guiding you to a new self – a fuller self, a more developed you in the post-panic era of your life. When you see where the panic symptoms are coming from, you are less vulnerable to relapses and you can maintain the panic-free life style you deserve.

What’s Covered in Phase Four?

The whyPANIC Model
The Discovery of Your Missing Link

The Scientific Foundations of Phase Four

  • Schacter and Singer’s 1962 Two Factor Theory of Emotional Arousal
  • Over 5000 patients leading to the discovery of your missing link.

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