Nadia Ivanchikov is the Clinical Director of the Institute's Canadian practice. As a Canadian Certified Counsellor, she works with parents, couples, and families – most often parents whose child or teenager is struggling at school, at home, or with friends, and couples whose conflict has settled into a pattern neither of them can break. She sees clients in English and Russian, and works by video across Canada and in person in Edmonton.

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Nadia's work with families follows the Institute's Message-Centered approach: a child's outbursts, a teenager's withdrawal, or a parent's anger are treated as messages about what in the family needs to change, not as problems to be suppressed. Parents leave with concrete strategies, and with a clearer read on what their child's behavior is asking for. With neurodiverse children she builds on strengths while helping the family put accommodations in place where they are needed.

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She came to counseling from education. Before her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology (Yorkville University) she earned a Master of Education (Moscow State Pedagogical University) and spent years as a teacher and home-education facilitator, which is where her feel for how children learn, and how families get stuck, was formed.

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An immigrant herself, she works with refugees, new arrivals, and families from the post-Soviet space who are adapting to a new country while raising children in it – a double transition that strains even strong families.

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She sees adults, couples, adolescents, and children.