Andras F. Lenart, RCC
How I Work
If understanding your problems was enough to change them, you'd already be done.
Why Intellectual Understanding Doesn't Change Anything
You've probably spent time in therapy understanding your patterns. Why you get anxious before certain situations. Why you withdraw when someone gets too close. Why you second-guess yourself constantly. You can trace it back, explain it clearly, recognize it when it's happening.
And yet, you still do it.
That's not a personal failing. It's how your brain works. The beliefs and responses driving your behavior don't live in your conscious thoughts. They're encoded in your nervous system and emotional memory—the parts of your brain that don't update through insight alone.
Most therapy operates at the wrong level. You talk about your problems, gain understanding, maybe learn some skills to manage symptoms better. That helps some people manage their struggles more effectively. But it doesn't change what's creating them.
What Sessions Actually Look Like
We don't spend session after session talking about what happened last week and how you felt about it. We work with what's happening now.
You might identify a belief driving a pattern—"If I show vulnerability, I'll be rejected." We'll activate that belief, then engage actual experiences that contradict it—moments when vulnerability led to connection. When your brain registers the contradiction emotionally, not just intellectually, the belief can update. Your nervous system integrates information it didn't have before.
Or you might notice anxiety rising as you talk about something. Instead of just noting that and moving on, I'll ask you to stay with it. Notice where you feel it in your body. What the sensation actually is. What happens if you don't push it away. We work with what's emerging in real time.
You might recognize a familiar pattern showing up live in the session—withdrawing, deflecting, intellectualizing. I'll point it out directly. Not as criticism, but as an opportunity to work with the pattern as it's happening rather than just analyze it later.
We work with emotions and sensations as they arise, not after the fact. With the parts of you that hold different beliefs and protective strategies. With the moments when old patterns get activated, so we can help your nervous system learn something different.
This is efficient. People often experience meaningful shifts faster than they expect—not because we're rushing, but because working directly with your nervous system is more efficient than circling issues intellectually for months.
Sessions are active and evocative, sometimes intense. I'm here to help you change, not just to momentarily make you feel better.
The Approach
The methods I use—Coherence Therapy, AEDP, Internal Family Systems, somatic work—all share something: they engage your emotional memory and nervous system directly, not just your conscious thoughts.
Coherence Therapy works with the neuroscience of how emotional learning actually updates. When you activate a belief and then experience something that contradicts it at a felt level, your brain can rewrite the original learning. Not suppress it or manage it—rewrite it. When that happens, the pattern it was driving just stops.
AEDP and IFS work with emotion and the different parts of you holding different protective strategies. Somatic work engages your body's responses before they become thoughts. For couples, I use Gottman Method—practical skills combined with deeper attachment work.
I'm not rigid about methodology. I use what works for what you're bringing. But everything is oriented toward the same thing: engaging the system where your patterns actually live, not just the part of your brain that understands them.
The Neuroscience
There's a gap between what you know intellectually and what you feel to be true. That's not a personal failing—it's neuroscience.
Conscious understanding lives in your prefrontal cortex and explicit memory. The beliefs and responses that actually drive your behavior live in subcortical structures, implicit memory, your autonomic nervous system. Different systems.
This is why you can know something intellectually and still feel the opposite. "I'm safe" versus the racing heart and shallow breathing when you walk into a room. "I'm competent" versus the visceral certainty that you'll be exposed as a fraud. The intellectual knowledge and the felt experience are stored in different systems.
These deeper systems don't update through insight. They update through direct experience that contradicts the original learning at a felt level—a process neuroscience calls memory reconsolidation.
When a belief is activated and then immediately met with an experience that contradicts it viscerally, not just intellectually, the original memory becomes unstable. Your brain can rewrite it in that window. Not suppress it—rewrite it.
What I'm Like as a Therapist
Direct and fairly challenging. I care more about your growth than your comfort, though I manage both. There's warmth and a lot of humor, but no softness that lets you off the hook.
I'll give you direct feedback when patterns show up. I'll ask questions that push you past your current frame. I'll work with what's happening in your body and emotions, not just what you're saying intellectually.
This isn't for everyone. If you want someone who mostly listens and validates without challenging you, I'm not the right fit. If you want someone direct who's willing to go to depth with you, we'll probably work well together.
This Approach Works Best If:
✓ You've done talk therapy or CBT without lasting change
✓ You understand your patterns intellectually but can't shift them
✓ You want to work with root causes, not just manage symptoms
✓ You're ready to engage emotionally and somatically, not just cognitively
✓ You're willing to be challenged and work at depth
This May Not Be Right If:
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You want quick tips or surface-level solutions
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You prefer therapy that stays at the cognitive level
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You're not ready to engage with difficult emotions
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You're looking for someone to just listen without challenging you
Ready to Start?
If you recognize yourself in what you've read here and want to work at this level, get in touch.
Fees:
Individual therapy: $175/session
Couples therapy: $190/session (50 min) | $265/session (80 min)
$5 discount when paying by e-transfer.
Insurance: As an RCC and CCC, my services are covered by most extended health plans in Canada. I provide receipts for insurance reimbursement. Limited sliding scale available for financial need.