Counselling for Children, Teens, Adults, and Families
Dominika loves supporting children, teens, adults, and families navigating Autism, ADHD, emotional regulation, neurodivergence, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, family conflict, parenting concerns, postpartum challenges, immigration, relationship difficulties, existential questions, and major life transitions.
Her approach is engaging, compassionate, practical, and neurodiversity affirming. Counselling is not about making someone appear less Autistic, less ADHD, or more “typical.” Dominika helps clients better understand themselves, recognize and communicate their needs, develop useful skills, and create lives that feel meaningful to them. Progress is defined collaboratively according to each person’s abilities, values, circumstances, and goals.
Neurodiversity Affirming CBT and Behavioural Support
Neurodiversity affirming care can include elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Applied Behaviour Analysis when these approaches are used flexibly and in service of the client’s own goals.
Dominika uses CBT to help clients understand the relationships among their thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and experiences. Together, they may explore patterns contributing to anxiety, emotional overwhelm, avoidance, low confidence, or difficulty coping with change. Strategies are adapted to each person’s developmental level, communication preferences, and way of processing information.
Her background in Applied Behaviour Analysis helps her look beneath behaviour with curiosity. Instead of asking only how to stop a behaviour, Dominika considers what it may be communicating. Behaviour can reflect anxiety, sensory overload, frustration, an unmet need, difficulty communicating, or an environment that is asking too much of the person.
Behavioural strategies may be used to make goals more manageable, build meaningful skills, create supportive routines, and adapt the surrounding environment. The goal is not compliance, masking, forced eye contact, or suppressing harmless differences. It is to reduce distress, strengthen autonomy, and help each person participate more fully in the parts of life that matter to them.
Art and Creative Expression in Counselling
Not every experience arrives in words. Dominika incorporates art and creative expression into counselling to offer clients additional ways to communicate, explore emotions, and understand themselves.
Depending on the client’s interests, sessions may include drawing, painting, collage, storytelling, imagery, metaphor, role play, movement, or textile arts. A feeling might become a colour, a difficult experience might be explored through a story, or an internal conflict might become easier to understand once it can be seen outside oneself.
Creative approaches can be especially helpful for children, teens, and neurodivergent clients who think visually, communicate differently, or find traditional talk therapy tiring or limiting. They can make counselling more engaging while reducing the pressure to find the perfect words, sit still, maintain eye contact, or communicate in a particular way.
No artistic experience is needed. Art is not used to judge or analyze artistic ability. It is offered as another pathway toward expression, connection, self understanding, and healing.
Supporting Parents and Families
When a child or teen is struggling, parents may feel worried, exhausted, or unsure how to help. Dominika helps families understand what may be happening beneath a child’s behaviour while developing practical ways to reduce conflict, support regulation, improve communication, and create realistic expectations.
She recognizes that children flourish not only by developing new skills, but also when the people and environments around them become more understanding, flexible, and responsive. Support may include identifying accommodations, adjusting routines, preparing for transitions, and recognizing when a child is overwhelmed rather than intentionally difficult.
An Individualized Approach
Dominika draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, behavioural approaches, mindfulness, narrative therapy, solution focused counselling, and art based therapy. She adapts her work to each client’s age, abilities, culture, communication style, strengths, interests, and goals.
Dominika has more than 24 years of experience supporting Autistic people, individuals with ADHD, and people with diverse developmental abilities and disabilities. She holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Counselling Psychology, a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, and additional certification in Applied Behaviour Analysis. She has worked in private practice since 2007.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Dominika immigrated to Canada as a teenager. Her own experience of adapting to a new country and culture gives her a personal appreciation for the complexities of identity, belonging, and finding one’s place in an unfamiliar world.
Dominika is also an actor and visual artist who helped establish Vancouver’s first Polish theatre, Popular Theatre. Her experience with painting, textile arts, theatre, and storytelling enriches the creative and flexible ways she connects with clients.
Above all, Dominika offers a space where people do not have to hide important parts of themselves to be accepted. She helps clients build skills without losing sight of who they are, receive meaningful support for their challenges, and thrive in their own way, by their own definition.