Dagmara Levene

Understanding Yourself and Your Neurotype:

• Finally making sense of why you are the way you are. Many neurodivergent people grow up feeling “different” or “wrong” without knowing why. We can work through understanding your diagnosis (or self-diagnosis) – what it means for you, your strengths, and your challenges.
• De-masking and authenticity: Learning to unmask and be your true self, rather than constantly trying to fit in or ‘perform’ neurotypicality, which can be incredibly exhausting. This often involves exploring the cost of masking on your mental and physical health.
• Building self-acceptance and self-compassion: Moving away from self-criticism or shame about your neurodivergence, and learning to treat yourself with kindness and understanding.

Managing Overwhelm and Burnout:

• Sensory overload: Developing strategies to identify sensory triggers and manage intense sensory experiences, whether that’s noise, light, textures, or smells.
• Autistic burnout or ADHD burnout: This is a very real and often debilitating experience. We can explore what leads to your burnout (e.g., masking, over-scheduling, sensory demands) and develop sustainable strategies to recover and prevent it.
• Emotional dysregulation: For example, intense emotions, meltdowns, or shutdowns. We can work on understanding the triggers for these, developing healthier coping mechanisms, and improving emotional regulation skills.

Navigating Relationships and Social Interactions:

• Communication differences: Understanding your own communication style and how it might differ from neurotypical expectations, and learning strategies for clearer, more effective communication – whether that’s with family, friends, or colleagues.
• Social anxiety and misunderstandings: Processing past social difficulties, reducing anxiety around social situations, and developing ways to connect with others authentically. This isn’t about changing who you are, but finding ways to navigate social interactions that feel comfortable and genuine for you.
• Boundaries: Learning to set clear and healthy boundaries in relationships to protect your energy and needs.
• Neurodiverse relationships: If you’re in a neurodiverse relationship (e.g., one partner is neurotypical, the other neurodivergent), we can explore communication patterns and mutual understanding.

Addressing Co-occurring Mental Health Concerns:

• We can work on:
  • Anxiety: Managing intense worry, social anxiety, performance anxiety.
  • Depression: Addressing feelings of sadness, low motivation, or hopelessness.
  • Trauma: Processing experiences of invalidation, bullying, or systemic ableism.

Life Transitions and Daily Living:

• Identity exploration: Whether it’s gender identity, sexuality, or simply understanding who you are outside of neurotypical expectations.
• Coping with change: Neurodivergent individuals often find transitions challenging. We can work on strategies to manage big life changes (e.g., moving, starting a new job, relationship changes).
• Advocacy: Learning to advocate for your needs in educational settings, the workplace, or with healthcare providers.

My way of working is about building a unique neuroaffirming therapeutic approach that truly fits you, honours your neurodivergence, and helps you achieve what you want from our time together. My goal is to create a therapeutic relationship and environment where you feel genuinely safe, understood, and comfortable enough to be your authentic self. This allows us to focus on what you want to work on, in a way that respects your neurotype and truly supports your wellbeing. Whether that might be communication style, sensory requirements, structure and predictability for our sessions, or managing energy and overwhelm, my adjustments aren’t concessions; they are fundamental to creating an effective therapeutic space for you.

I adapt my theoretical approach to your needs and expectations – drawing upon my core psychodynamic model, but also using person-centred and compassion focused therapies. What it means is that I use my deep understanding of how your past experiences shape you (psychodynamic) to help us explore the roots of your feelings,thoughts and behaviour, especially considering how autism and/or ADHD might have shaped those experiences. But, I always do this while listening closely to you and respecting your unique way of being (person-centred), because you are the expert on yourself. And throughout our work, we actively work on developing kindness and understanding towards yourself (compassion-focused), helping you navigate challenges with more warmth and less self-criticism.

BA Sociology

CPCAB Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling

Best Practice when Supporting Autistic Clients – Aspire Autism Consultancy

ADHD in The Therapy Room – Aspire Autism Consultancy