Anxiety in the Body: Creating a Sanctuary at Home with Dr Alexandra Shaker
2/26/20261 hr 9 min
Anxiety is something many of us carry quietly. It can shape everything, from how we move through the world to how we feel at home.
In this episode of Homing, Dr Alexandra Shaker explores how the home can become a sanctuary and how physical environments can either soothe or unsettle us.
Alexandra is a specialist in anxiety disorders with a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Her book The Narrowing combines her personal experiences of panic attacks with what she’s learned over years as a practitioner and researcher.
The conversation traces some of the root...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAlexandra Shaker· Guest0:00
[gentle music] So let's imagine you're in a lecture hall the first time you have a panic attack.
Matt Gibberd· Host0:05
Yeah.
Alexandra Shaker· Guest0:05
And then you begin to associate your panic with lecture halls and spaces like lecture halls, like perhaps a movie theater, where there's rows of seats, and you might be stuck in the middle, and you don't know that you can get out, and getting out might feel kind of embarrassing.
Matt Gibberd· Host0:19
Yeah.
Alexandra Shaker· Guest0:19
And so it becomes a loop where you, as you say, you start to avoid those places. And then the more you avoid them, the more convinced your brain becomes that you can't manage them.
Matt Gibberd· Host0:28
Yeah.
Alexandra Shaker· Guest0:28
So the anxiety increases. I guess I would like to imagine that we can sort of see, like, a mapping on of the home that we try to cultivate in our minds and with our physical home, sort of like this sense of striving for, like, an inner peace or a sense of peace in our physical environments that you can always go back to.
Matt Gibberd· Host0:49
Hello, and welcome to Homing. I'm Matt Gibbard. This is an episode about anxiety. If I could pinpoint a particular feeling that's defined most of my life, I'd probably use the word anxious. I had my first panic attack at a young age, and from then on, I never really felt safe in my own body. It's something that many of us live with. Anxiety can cause us to lose hope, but it can also be a powerful force for action. Here to discuss this with me today is Dr. Alexandra Shaker, who has a PhD in clinical psychology and is a specialist in anxiety disorders.