Elizabeth Florance
Director & Manager
Kia ora.
Our Motto/Pepeha is to Heal the Broken Hearted – Purea te Manawa Motumotu.
Our kaupapa is to provide professional services to ACC sensitive claims clients/whanau. We operate from our Values of Respect, Integrity, and Professionalism.
My roles as Director and Manager are to oversee and manage these services.
We serve Tairawhiti (Gisborne and the East Coast) and Wairoa, and our counsellors and other professionals come from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.
We are funded through the ACC sensitive claims contract to provide counselling, assessments, whanau support, and social work support. When clients/whanau achieve an accepted ACC claim, we can provide Group Therapy, Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dietitian, Registered Nurse, or Speech Language Therapy in addition to counselling.
It is a privilege to serve our clients and whanau in this space.
Nga mihi nui.
Elizabeth Florance
Counsellor
Kia ora
I have enjoyed living in Gisborne since 1993 and consider it my home. I started my career as a teacher and retrained as a counsellor when I felt a calling to this pathway. My counselling qualification was completed in 2007, and I was employed at Family Works before starting my own business in 2013. My specialist area is trauma work, with a focus on historic sexual abuse and attachment trauma. I work with adults.
I enjoy working collaboratively with clients / whanau to bring healing and wholeness, to restore mana and dignity. My approaches include EMDR, Structural Dissociation (Parts work), IDT (Interactive Drawing Therapy), and other evidence-based approaches. Together, we choose the approach that will best fit the client/whanau.
For fun, I enjoy cooking, comedy, making cards, walking, travel, and spending time with friends and family. My Christian faith is important to me.
I am available Monday-Friday. My office is on Childers Rd, near the CBD.
Nga mihi nui
Sindy van Zyl
Counsellor / Group Facilitator
My family and I relocated to New Zealand in 2017 and happily decided Gisborne would be our new home. Prior to moving to New Zealand, I spent 6 years working for the South African Police’s Psychological Service, assisting members of the service, their families and the public,with their various life challenges. The South African Police Services provided me with in-depth knowledge and experience in the treatment of trauma, depression, grief, anxiety, substance dependence and anger management.
I enjoy working with adults and adolescents using a variety of therapy models. My approach to therapy is flexible based on the client’s needs. I believe effective counselling and support begins and ends with the client’s needs and goals as a top priority. I also believe counselling should be a collaborative process that can facilitate healing through a process of trust and authentic communication.
Clients have internal and external resources that they can draw upon when constructing solutions to the challenges they face. I use different interventions at different times during the counselling process based on the client’s journey.
I remain open to my own growth and journey as a counsellor with the outlook that there is always room to learn more and develop further.I see clients at my office in Salisbury Road, Gisborne.
As a wife and mother of 2 boys, I love life and enjoy an active lifestyle. My personal stance to the all-allusive “success” in life, is balance. Too much of anything is not a good thing. I have a holistic view of life and believe true happiness comes from balance: physically, spiritually, psychologically and socially.
Martin Hiha
Counsellor
I was born in Gisborne, and I whakapapa to the East Coast and Wairoa/Napier.
The age group I work with is children 10yrs and over, teenagers and adults. Therapies are mostly CBT, Gestalt, and Narrative therapy; as well as use of my own model He Timatanga Hou. Approach is a mix of strengths based, behavioural models, with a view to building the foundation of the person where appropriate.
My workplace is in Childers Road, near Harvey Norman.
If home visits are necessary, this can be worked out at the outset of the counselling
Hours: Monday to Friday 8 - 5, late appointments to fit around work can be arranged from 5 - 7pm
Kath Shanahan
Counsellor
I joined Living Waters - Waiora in March 2017, coming from an extensive background in Mental Health (12yrs.) I am originally from the UK, immigrating to New Zealand with my family in 1973. I have two adult sons and a long-term partner. My interests are reading, watching movies (mainly drama) and listening to a wide variety of music.
In my practice I work from a Client Centred, Strengths Based model, with a strong focus on the empowerment of the client. I am adaptable in my approach to working with people and am happy to meet with them wherever they feel the most comfortable. My hours are also fairly flexible (weekends and after hours, if needed), and I have experience in working with family/whanau, and across all ages and cultures, with a strong emphasis on Maori (who generally make up 80-90% of my client base).
Aana Donnelly
Group Facilitator
Counsellor Sindy van Zyl and I facilitate Freedom Through Movement group therapy. Participants are women aged 18+ who have an accepted ACC sensitive claim and are currently seeing an ACC therapist. Freedom through Movement group therapy helps them to maintain their wellbeing and personal goals in conjunction with their current ACC counselling sessions.
I am dedicated to helping individuals reach their full potential through mind-body somatic therapy. An experienced practitioner, I incorporate body-orientated modalities such as breathwork and movement to facilitate relief from tension, stress and trauma stored in the body. With a PG Diploma in Psychology, I am a certified Yoga Teacher, Reformer Pilates instructor and Personal Trainer. My experience and passion lie in the interconnectedness of mind and body, with a wide range of tools to support individuals in their healing journeys. My therapeutic approach is based on reconnecting people with their own innate wisdom, their bodies, and empowering clients to move forward in a way that feels aligned and purposeful to them.
Daniela Astengo
Counsellor
I am originally from Chile where I trained in Integrative Psychotherapy. Back home I worked in a community service as well as in private practice where I saw clients from different backgrounds. I have experience working with adults, adolescents, and children. I am fluent in English and Spanish.
I arrived In Aotearoa in 2014 after some time traveling and I have been living in Tairawhiti since 2015. At that time, I had no idea that this beautiful country would become my home.
My private practice is in Grey Street. I use diverse therapy models depending on the client’s needs. What guides me in my practice is the belief that wellbeing is a product of balance and connection. I am convinced that we can always improve in every aspect of our life through being open to try new paths and learn new things that would help us to gain the skills we need to adapt to constant motion and changes in life. What I enjoy the most about working as a counsellor, is that it provides me with the opportunity to walk alongside the client in their healing journey and to witness the uniqueness of every process and individual truth.
When I’m not at work I enjoy spending time with my family, friends, surfing, and nature.
Andrew Randall
Counselling
Ko Andrew Randall toku ingoa.
Ko Tūranga-nui-a-kiwa toku turangawaewae.
I was born in Gisborne and call it my home…
I am a father of four amazing children and two beautiful mokopuna. I started my employment
journey in the Health and Fitness industry, owning both a Gym and Cross Fit facility and
working in the industry for around 25 years. In my early forties I decided to have a change in
career and went back to school. I completed a counselling degree then studied for a Masters
degree in Professional Practice and Leadership. I started working at Tauawhi Mens centre
and now have a private practice called Restore Therapy.
I am trained in a variety of counselling therapies with a strong focus on client-centred,
narrative and strength-based models but am happy to work with a variety of models that will support my clients. I am also a registered practitioner for Brain Wave Recursive Therapy (BWRT).
I am passionate about helping my clients cultivate greater self-awareness and discover their own strengths and innate wisdom for growth and healing. I consider the client to be the expert in their own lives. I value building a safe and supportive healing environment for my clients and will bring an open, accepting, non-judging, and authentic presence to our therapeutic relationship.
There are times in our lives where we feel trapped in old habits, beliefs, and fears that do not
serve us anymore and get in the way of authentic and meaningful connection with ourselves
and others. As we journey together, we will work holistically by strengthening your emotional,
mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
I look forward to connecting with you and supporting you with the next step in your healing
journey.
Rosina Pennell (Rose)
Counselling / Social Worker
I te taha o toku papa no Ngati kahungunu ki Wairarapa
I te taha o toku mama
Ko Hikurangi te Maunga
Ko Waiapu te awa
Ko Ngati Porou te iwi
Ko Horouta te waka
With a background in social work, I started with Stand for Children Services while in the first years of my study. On the completion of study, I wanted to broaden my skillset and went to support Mama & Pepi within an iwi organisation. Working for the iwi and giving back to our people is a passion.
I love the challenge therefore I worked in a few different secondary services finding learnings where it became restricting and creating spaces for me to grow.
I am passionate about connecting to oranga whakapapa, our purakau and matauranga Maori.
Identity and finding connections to our environment and culture is healing for me so love working in a holistic way to support our tamariki, Rangatahi and whanau in distress.
I am privileged to be working alongside a great team within the ACC space and also alongside our whanau.
Mauri ora,
Mahala Reynolds
Counselling / Social Worker
Ko Bounty te waka
He uri ō Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
Ko Norfolk Island tōku turangawaewae
Ko English me Tahitian ōku iwi
Nō Turanga āhau
Ko Mahala Reynolds tōku ingoa
Building a trusting relationship is important in therapy and my experiences in this mahi has allowed the privilege of working with many people from different backgrounds. My 20 years of social work and therapy has included work in child protection and whānau support here and overseas, and as a behaviour specialist focusing on behaviour change for those impacted by disability, neurodiversity and/or trauma.
I value a strengths-based approach, looking for and utilising individual and collective strength to support a healing journey. I’m trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Solution focused brief therapy, and I use an understanding of trauma to support a therapeutic process. I use lived experience alongside academic learning to support those I engage with. My hope is to work with others towards growth and transformation.
Having whakapapa connection to Pacifica has given me a passion to embrace and integrate indigenous understanding to therapy and I seek to I understand Māori/indigenous models of practice, including Te Ara Whakamana, Kaitiakitanga and valuing Purakau; stories of our Tipuna that give us wisdom for today. My whanau values/motto include “Inasmuch”, which reminds us that what we do for other’s has a higher purpose
I have a beautiful space with vineyard views just out of Gisborne to meet and this provides a private and peaceful setting to begin a healing journey.
Barbara Nia Nia
Psychotherapist
Kim Bunyan
Clinical Psychologist
Ka tangi te titi, Ka tangi te kaka, Ka tangi hoki ko ahau. Tihei Mauri Ora!
Kia Ora Koutou
Ko Jakobs Kop tōku māunga
Ko Vaal tōku awa
Ko Cathay Pacific tōku waka
Ko Pākehā tōku iwi
Ko afriki te tonga tōku hapū
I te tahi o tōku matua
Ko Elizabeth tōku kuia
Ko Jack tōku koroua
Ko Peter rāua ko Virginia ōku mātua
He huatahi au.
Ko Kim tōku ingoa
No Kirikiroa ahau
Ko Paul tōku hoa tane.
Ko Tipene taku tama
Ko Felicia taku kotiro
Mahi ahau hei tohunga hinengaro.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
I am a South African trained clinical psychologist who has worked mainly in New Zealand, I initially lived in Gore in Southland and then the lovely Invercargill and Oraka Aparima, now I have a home in Tairawhiti and in Hamilton.
I have been fortunate enough to work in various settings. I have had the opportunity to work with many different people since I moved to Aotearoa in 1996. My clinical experience includes children, adolescents, adults and people with physical disability and developmental delay.