"Send us a text about this episode!"

Why You Should Listen to This Episode

If you or someone you love has ever felt like an outsider in a world that wasn’t built for the way your mind works, Santiago Dominguez speaks directly to that experience. Diagnosed with high-functioning autism, Santiago opens up about the exhausting daily effort of navigating school, building relationships, and searching for a sense of value in a world that often misunderstood him. His story is one of hard-won resilience - and a powerful reminder that difference is not deficit.

In this episode:

Santiago Dominguez joins Cindy Thompson on A Resilience Project to share what it truly meant to grow up with high-functioning autism in a world that rarely made space for the way he experienced it.

For Santiago, every school day felt like a war - a constant negotiation between who he was and what the world expected him to be. Complex peer relationships and a deep desire to be understood shaped his early years. But through it all, he found his way to something more grounding: a rediscovery of his own value, on his own terms.

Now 24, Santiago is a real estate photographer, a history student at Vancouver Island University, a high school tutor, and a youth coordinator at Maranatha Church in Nanaimo, BC. Through his work with teenagers facing similar struggles, he channels his own experience into something purposeful - helping young people see what he had to learn for himself: that autism is a personality, not a disability.

The PULSE Community Podcasts can be found at: ThePulseCommunity.ca

Cindy Thompson’s website: cindythompsoncounselling.ca

You’ll find all episodes of the PULSE Community Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, TikTok and YouTube.

Episode Sponsor: Tablet Pharmacy

Check out Skookum Kid’s Stories with downloadable colouring pages on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, and YouTube.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter of new podcast releases and contests!

"Like, Share & Listen!"

#SantiagoDominguez #ResilienceProject #VancouverIsland #ParksvilleQualicum #ThePulseCommunityPodcast #CindyThompson #autism #highfunctioningautism #parksvillenews #vancouverislandnews

Support the show