Thrown Off & Overpowered in a Meeting? STOP Anxiety & Panic Attacks at Work, 2 Effective THERAPIST Tools

Show Notes

Practical grounding tools for acute panic – She offers listeners two simple, repeatable practices to interrupt spirals of panic in high-stakes moments:
- Naming the external disruption (“It is okay if the mad one disengages or leaves”).
- Asking, “Who is doing my job right now?” to anchor in the adult self.
Parts work meets somatic awareness – Ana bridges inner child work and somatic experiencing. She teaches how to identify when a younger, scared part of the self has “taken over” and how to step back into the adult self.
Reframing the trigger – Instead of personalizing someone else’s anger or chaos, she normalizes seeing them as “the mad one.” This creates emotional distance and protects self-worth in the moment.
Embodiment through concrete cues – She suggests writing your age on your palm or sticky note. This somatic anchor interrupts regression and reminds you: I’m an adult now. I have wisdom and capacity.

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From Panic and Anxiety At Workplace To Authority and Calm Program:

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️ Ana’s Lens

Trauma-aware professionalism – She shows that trauma recovery isn’t just about the therapy room; it’s about real-life tools people can use in boardrooms, dates, and daily life.
Empowerment in power dynamics – She teaches listeners how to reclaim their ground when someone else tries to dominate or destabilize them.
Gentleness with activated parts – Her language (“your little one is safe”) honors the scared child without shaming it, modeling compassionate self-dialogue.

Key Takeaways for the Audience

You can externalize panic. Panic is not your essence—it’s a part. When you place it outside your body, you gain space and clarity.
Not all reactions are “you.” Sometimes it’s a younger self showing up. Naming “who is doing my job” helps you step into your adult authority.
It is okay to let the “mad one” go. You don’t have to manage or fix them. Your role is to stay grounded and do your task.
Simple anchors matter. Writing your age on your hand is a radical yet accessible act of self-reminder: I’m safe. I’m not a child anymore.

Therapeutic Lessons for Other Practitioners

Blend cognitive inquiry with somatic anchors – Ana shows how to integrate inner dialogue (“Who is doing my job?”) with physical reminders (age on palm). This combination strengthens nervous system regulation.
Normalize regression – Instead of pathologizing panic, Ana frames it as a child part taking over, which can be met with compassion and reorientation.
Trauma-informed workplace tools – Therapists can adapt this method for clients navigating professional or relational stress, showing healing practices can live outside therapy sessions.

✨ Distilled Lessons

Panic in adult life often signals the child-self resurfacing in moments of threat.
Healing means learning to differentiate between the child part and the adult self.
Power lies in reminders of age, safety, and present capacity.
You can let others’ chaos be theirs without absorbing it.

Main Quotes

“It is okay if the mad one disengages or leaves.”
“Who is doing my job right now?”
“You are not little one anymore. You’re an adult now.”
“Write your age on your palm to remind yourself of your wisdom and capacity.”

About Ana Mael: Ana Mael is a genocide survivor, somatic therapist, and author of The Trauma We Don’t Talk About. She is the founder of the Somatic Trauma Recovery Center and has dedicated her career to helping survivors reclaim their identity, dignity, and self-trust. With decades of lived experience, Ana offers a unique, unapologetic approach to healing that combines trauma justice, somatic therapy, and spiritual integrity. She advocates for vulnerability, accountability, and collective healing to dismantle the systems that perpetuate oppression and harm.

Episode Transcript

📍 📍 Welcome to Exiled & Rising. I'm Ana Mael, somatic experiencing therapist for PTSD and trauma recovery. One advice I always share with my clients when they're about to face important meeting, if they need to deliver something, and they feel overwhelming panic or anxiety attack. If they feel triggered, if they feel they're in the place of power over and someone just took their place, when they were running a meeting, when they were sharing something. And when you feel in your body this rising panic attack. Two things, two things you will do. Number one. If someone is getting mad at you or someone is taking over. Over that space where you don't feel safe or comfortable anymore is to say:" it is okay that mad one, mad person, angry person, unsatisfied person, frustrated person you are dealing with, to disengage or leave. Let me repeat this. This is what you will say between you and you. -It is okay if mad one. It is okay if angry one, disengage or leaves.- Witness your panic. Witness your panicked part. It's almost like you can put a panic attack outside of your body, that part. And second, remind yourself with these words: "Who is doing my job right now?" So if you ever did inner parts work, if you know the work around inner child, this is what we are addressing right now. We are removing activated parts from ourselves because in this moment, you need to deliver. You are in the meeting, you are at the date, you will need to deliver something very important and anxieties flooding your system, you will remind yourself with this statement and with this inquiry: "who is doing my job right now?" Is this my activated 5-year-old? Is this my memory from three years ago? Is this my inner child who is 13 and who is scared to the bones because a father or a mother got angry. Okay, so two things. Two things. When someone gets activated in your presence and you need to deliver the speech, you need to deliver your thing as adult, as a professional, or if you're on date and that someone is making you feel threatened, unsafe, panic is coming up, anxiety is coming up. You'll say:" it is okay if mad one disengaged or leaves. It's okay. You are not little one anymore, you're not little one." And if it helps, write on palm of your hand or on a sticky note. Write down your age so when you see your age, 35, 55, 65, 29. You will remind yourself that you're adult and inner part , the child part is safe. Second line. Always, always keep this in your mind and ask yourself: " huh, who is doing my job right now?" And look at that number and remind yourself, your 48-year-old is doing your job right now and it has wisdom and it has a knowledge. And whoever mad person is next to you, yeah, they can leave. They can disengage, they can blab, they can be in their angry 5-year-old tantrum. But your job right now is to do your job as an adult. So this is all for today. Please follow, share, support. Check all the links below in the show notes, and as always, be gentle with yourself. I'm Ana Mael. This is Exiled & Rising. Until next time, much care, much care.

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