Our Services
Like any health-related professional practice, I offer face-to-face and remote consulting sessions. The face-to-face consultations are available in Christchurch and Queenstown, while remote sessions can be anywhere in New Zealand. However, how I work is slightly different from what you may have previously experienced when consulting specialists in pain medicine
My unique knowledge and understanding of how biological, psychological and social factors interact and combine to get you ‘stuck’ in chronic pain, mood disturbance or chronic ill-health, means I take a unique, integrative approach to work with you. Single treatment styles applied singly and without a comprehensive understanding of the many factors contributing to pain are doomed to fail.
There are no one-size fits all approach. What I do is to help you make sense of your current situation. At our first consultation:
We will tailor a specific, personalised programme to help you better understand your condition and how to recover
Education and understanding pain is always the first step, we fear what we don’t understand
The relationship of pain and stress, our emotions, thoughts and feelings needs to be understood, and treated specifically
We will also quantify your level of pain intensity, pain interference, and pain related distress using the latest outcome measures
Provide you with the tools to help you manage whatever is going on, and measure your progress
Where appropriate, work with you on an ongoing basis to help you resolve your condition, whether that’s chronic pain, mood disturbance or ill-health
My intention is to make myself redundant, as quickly as possible, so our treatment exit plan will also be included
This approach to health is called salutogenesis – a focus on well-being and its causes, rather than pathogenesis, where the focus is on ill health and its symptoms.
Personal services include:
Single biopsychosocial consultation and basic management plan
Comprehensive pain/illness assessment and detailed management plan
Mindfulness-based stress reduction eight-week group programmes
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse
Family services
Mindfulness programme for adolescents to build resilience, manage anxiety, or flourish academically and in sport
Small family mindfulness groups
Schools services
The UK-developed Mindfulness in Schools programme, which is an introduction to mindfulness, plus nine weekly lessons, using animations and structured class exercises, is suitable for 11-18-year-olds. I currently teach this programme at Kings School, Remuera, Auckland.
For teachers, I offer an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme, which I have delivered at St Kentigern Junior School, Remuera, St Cuthbert's College, Ascot and Christ’s College, Christchurch.
Corporate Services
I provide corporate health and wellbeing programmes, mindfulness-based programmes and one-on-one individual coaching for corporate and government departments. Clients include Crankd Media and Healthlink. The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has endorsed Mindfulness for Medical Practitioners.