Donna Cruikshank

About Donna

I have a wealth of experience from my over 3 decades of helping people with various psycho-social and emotional issues. I offer counselling in a comfortable, and confidential office. It is important to find a good fit between yourself and your counsellor, so please don’t hesitate to contact me for a free 15 minute phone or in-person consultation.

I am an authorized counsellor for BC Crime Victim Assistance Program, First Nations Health Authority and ICBC.

Are you experiencing the despair, confusion, and guilt that sometimes follows a loss? This can be the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a beloved pet, or the end of a significant relationship. I specialize in grief and loss. I bring over 30 years of experience working with depression, anxiety, stress and healing traumatic life events. I worked in the palliative care field as a social worker for over 15 years and as a result understand the health system challenges and the roller coaster of emotions that come with waiting for a loved one�s death. I won�t talk around your loss, instead I will walk alongside you as you attempt to make sense of life after loss.

As a social worker, I also have experience working with oppression and the experiences of inequality that are embedded in our political and social realities. These can show up in our daily lives influencing how we feel and relate to others. Working from this framework I assist clients shift their self-esteem, communication styles and increase their ability to stand up for themselves in their relationships.

My approach to counselling is an in-depth one, using compassion, warmth and acceptance to support your mental health and well-being. I feel respectful relationship is key to helping people. I use an approach to counselling called the Satir Model (Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy): While we cannot change what happened in the past, we can change how those past events affect us in the present. I also use a trauma-informed, humanistic and strengths-based approach. I provide holistic care (includes behaviors, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, spirituality) taking the whole person, including intergenerational impacts, into consideration during our work together. Through experiential counselling and collaborative goal setting, I aim to assist you to have a more satisfying and fulfilling life.