From the Author

Over thirty years of work as a psychotherapist, including training and countless conversations with people, I have encountered thousands of different stories.

Some of that experience comes from working in Europe, including at a clinic in Germany.

For many years, I also worked with people online across different countries, cultures and life circumstances.

Over time, a pattern becomes clear:

people can describe what is happening to them in very different ways.

The words change.

The situations change.

The context changes.

But beneath those different descriptions, people are often dealing with very similar experiences.

This toolkit did not begin as a public project.

At first, I recorded these exercises for my family and people close to me.

I wanted to give them something more useful than general advice - something they could use in a difficult moment.

Not pages of explanation.

Not an idea.

A specific action they could take right away.

Later, I decided to make this material available to others.

These exercises do not come from a single method.

Over time, I selected them from different approaches and practices.

What mattered to me was not simply collecting techniques, but keeping those that can be explained clearly and used without special training.

That is why what matters here is not only the exercises themselves, but also how they were selected, worded and presented.

There are many ways to work with difficult inner experiences.

You can talk.

You can analyze.

You can look for causes.

You can explore past experience.

All of that can matter.

But this toolkit is designed for a different moment.

For the moment when what a person needs is not analysis, but a clear next step.

At some point, this became more than professional knowledge for me.

I found myself in a situation where what mattered was not understanding what was happening, but getting through it and staying able to act.

I could no longer rely on my experience, knowledge, beliefs, or attempts to explain everything.

What remained were the things I could do right then.

And it was simple actions - the kind that are easy to underestimate - that helped reduce the fear and stop the panic from escalating.

That is why there is almost no theory in this toolkit.

It contains only what helps you take action.

It is best to try the exercises in advance, while you are calm.

That makes it easier to see which ones work for you and to return to them more quickly later.

Sometimes the skill becomes almost automatic, especially when distress starts to build.

My experience is something you have to take on trust.

The exercises are not.

Do them and see what changes in how you feel.

If an exercise helps, keep using it.

If it does not, check whether you followed the exercise closely.

Even when an exercise is followed precisely, its effect can vary depending on the person and what they are experiencing.

In this kind of work, precision often matters.

If what you are experiencing does not ease over time or becomes too difficult to manage, consider seeking support from a professional you can speak with directly.

Marat At