Andras Lenart

Services / Anxiety

Anxiety Therapy in Victoria, BC

Therapy that works with what's producing the anxiety — learned insecurity and hypervigilance — not just the worry it produces.

The anxiety is the output, not the problem

It's 11pm and you're rehearsing tomorrow's meeting again. Or replaying today's, scanning for the moment you said the wrong thing. Your heart races in rooms that contain no actual danger. You know that. It races anyway.

Here's what's usually running underneath:

  • Insecurity — a belief, laid down early, that you're not enough and will eventually be found out.
  • Learned hypervigilance — at some point, scanning for danger was the smart move. Your nervous system never got the message that the situation ended.
  • Fear of judgment — early experience taught you that being fully yourself wasn't safe.

None of this is a character flaw. It's old protection that outlived its job. And because it lives in the nervous system rather than in thought, understanding your anxiety perfectly — which you probably already do — doesn't switch it off.

How this work is different

Standard anxiety treatment manages output: breathing techniques, thought records, exposure ladders. Useful, sometimes. But management is a subscription. You pay every day.

I work with the production side. Anxiety doesn't stay theoretical in session — when we get near what matters, it tends to show up. When it does, we slow down and work with it: where it sits in your body, what it's guarding, what it learned and when. Part of what keeps anxiety running is the fight against feeling it — so part of the work is learning to let the sensation be there without bracing against it. That shift alone changes more than most people expect. We find the belief generating the alarm and put it in contact with felt experience that contradicts it, so it can update at the level it was encoded. When the belief updates, the alarm doesn't need managing. It stops being sent.

The methods — AEDP, Coherence Therapy, IFS, somatic work — all operate at that level.

This works best if:

  • You understand your anxiety well — and it fires anyway.
  • You're high-functioning but exhausted from the constant internal monitoring.
  • You've tried CBT, mindfulness, or breathing work — useful, not curative.
  • You want to work with what's producing the anxiety, not just quiet the output.

This may not be right if:

  • You want short-term coping techniques only.
  • You're primarily seeking medication guidance (I can't prescribe, though I'll coordinate with your GP).
  • You're in crisis and need immediate support first.

FAQ

I've done CBT for anxiety. How is this different?

CBT challenges anxious thoughts. This work goes under them — to the emotional learning producing the thoughts. If CBT gave you skills but the anxiety kept arriving, that's the layer we'd work with.

Do you treat panic attacks?

Yes. Panic is usually a nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do, at the wrong time. We work with the learning.

Ready to start?

If you recognized yourself here and want to work at this level, get in touch — a few lines about what's going on is plenty.

Fees & Coverage

Individual: $175/session · Couples: $190 (50 min) or $265 (80 min) · $5 off with e-transfer.

As an RCC and CCC, my services are covered by most extended health plans in Canada; I provide receipts for reimbursement. A limited number of sliding-scale spots are available.