Andras Lenart

Services / Trauma

Trauma Therapy in Victoria, BC

Somatic, experiential trauma therapy that helps your nervous system finish what it started — without reliving what happened.

Trauma is what stayed, not what happened

Maybe it's the obvious kind: intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares.

Maybe it's quieter. You feel numb. You watch your life from a slight distance. Certain situations produce reactions that seem out of proportion — to everyone but your body. You've built a life around what you avoid, so carefully that it almost looks like preference.

What happened is over. What it left behind isn't:

  • Interrupted survival responses — your system went into fight, flight, or freeze and never fully came back out.
  • Incomplete processing — the experience was never filed as past, so part of you still treats it as now.
  • Beliefs formed under threat — I'm not safe. I can't trust anyone. It was my fault. Encoded fast, and without your consent.
  • Disconnection from the body — leaving was how you survived. Coming back is the work.

You can't think your way out of these, because they were never thoughts. They're physiology.

How I work with trauma

Some trauma therapy is exposure-based: retell the story until it loses its charge. That helps some people. For others it just re-runs the event with a witness.

I work differently. We work with what's happening in your body now — tracking sensation and emotion as they arise, letting interrupted survival responses complete, updating the beliefs that formed under threat, rebuilding a connection to your body that feels safe rather than demanded.

The pace is yours. We stay inside what's workable. The goal is never to relive what happened — it's to help your nervous system register, at the level where it counts, that it's over.

Methods: AEDP, Coherence Therapy, somatic work, parts work (IFS).

This works best if:

  • You're stable enough for depth work — not currently in crisis.
  • You want your nervous system to register that it's over, not to retell the story endlessly.
  • You've noticed what it left behind: numbness, overreactions, a life arranged around avoidance.
  • You're willing to work with the body, at a pace we set together.

This may not be right if:

  • You're in acute crisis or currently unsafe — stabilization comes first, and I'll help you find it.
  • You're primarily seeking assessment, diagnosis, or documentation.
  • You specifically want exposure-style retelling (it works for some people; it isn't my method).

FAQ

Do I have to talk about what happened in detail?

No. This work is about what your nervous system is doing now, not about producing a complete narrative. We use only as much of the story as the work needs.

Is this EMDR?

No, though it shares a goal: processing what got stuck. I work through somatic and experiential methods grounded in memory reconsolidation rather than bilateral stimulation.

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.