Lisa Cussen, MPCC-Provisional
Associate Counsellor
She/Her/Hers
Lisa is a trauma-informed counsellor in North Vancouver who meets people with genuine warmth, compassion, and a deep respect for the stories that have shaped them. She brings a steady, calming presence to her sessions, offering a supportive space where youth, adults, and families can breathe, feel understood, and move at a pace that feels right for them.
With many years of experience in youth and family counselling, Lisa has supported individuals through a wide range of emotional and life challenges. She has worked closely with youth in care, parents, and neurodivergent children and adults, helping them navigate emotional regulation, identity development, and relationship dynamics. Her time working alongside Indigenous children, families, and communities deeply shaped her commitment to cultural safety, relational connection, and trauma-aware practice.
Lisa also has extensive front-line experience providing addiction and trauma support in the Downtown Eastside. These environments strengthened her ability to stay grounded, present, and compassionate—skills that now anchor her counselling work with clients seeking stability, resilience, and emotional healing.
Her therapeutic approach is relational, somatic, and attachment-based, integrating polyvagal-informed strategies, mindfulness, crisis response tools, and solution-focused techniques. Across all her roles, Lisa aims to help clients untangle what feels heavy, reconnect with their inner resources, and build the confidence and stability they’ve been longing for.
Training & Credentials
• Master Practitioner in Clinical Counselling – Provisional (CPCA)
• Counselling Therapist Diploma – Stenberg College
• Additional training in trauma-informed practice, somatic approaches, polyvagal-informed work, crisis response, couples foundations, sex-therapy fundamentals, and mindfulness
Services
- Individual Counselling (In-Person, North Vancouver)
- Individual Counselling (Virtual)
- Individual Counselling (Telephone)
- Child/Youth Counselling (In-Person, North Vancouver)
- Child/Youth Counselling (Virtual)
- Couples/Relationship Counselling (In-Person, North Vancouver)
- Couples/Relationship Counselling (Virtual)
- Co-Parenting/Parenting Counselling (In-Person, North Vancouver)
- Co-Parenting/Parenting Counselling (Virtual)
- Family Counselling (In-Person, North Vancouver)
- Family Counselling (Virtual)
- Walk & Talk/Outdoor Counselling
Ages Served
- Ages 10 +
Languages Offered
- English
Support Topics
- Abuse (childhood abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse)
- Adapting to lifestyle changes and aging
- Adoption
- Addressing loneliness and isolation
- Addictions (drug and/or alcohol)
- Anger management
- Anxiety
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Authentic Self-Discovery: Unmasking Who You Truly Are
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Bereavement
- Behaviour support services
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image issues
- Body positivity
- Borderline personality disorder
- Career guidance
- Child Mental Health
- Co-dependency
- Colonization
- Complex Trauma / C-PTSD
- Coping skills
- Coping with health changes
- De-colonizing life and practice
- Dementia diagnosis and support
- Depression
- Discovering Purpose and Meaning in Life
- Dissociative disorders
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Dual diagnosis
- Eating disorders / Maladaptive eating
- Emotional disturbances
- Emotional turmoil
- Exercise planning
- Facing end-of-life issues
- Family conflict
- Family dynamics
- First responders’ mental health
- Gambling
- Grief
- Infidelity
- Intergenerational Trauma
- Internet addiction
- Life coaching
- Life management issues
- Life transitions
- Loss
- Managing grief and bereavement
- Marital discord
- Meal planning
- Meditation
- Mood disorders
- Navigating family and caregiver relationships
- Non-ordinary experience integration (e.g., spiritual, extraordinary experiences)
- Obesity
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Overcoming phobias, such as fear of death
- Parenting children with special needs
- Parenting education
- Parenting issues (including child-rearing and education)
- Parent-teen mediation
- Peer relationships
- Personality disorders (narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder)
- Psychosis
- Rehabilitation from trauma
- Relationship and marriage conflict
- School issues
- Self-esteem issues
- Sexual abuse
- Sexual behaviours
- Sexualized violence
- Sexuality (2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive)
- Sleep issues or insomnia
- Spirituality (non-emergency spiritual issues)
- Stress management
- Suicidal ideation
- Trauma and PTSD
- Video game addiction
- Youth Mental Health
Therapeutic Approaches
- Attachment Theory
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Narrative Therapy
- Person-Centered Therapy (PCT)
- Polyvagal Theory
- Psychodynamic Approach
- Somatic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)