Catherine Hanson

Catherine Hanson
Role: Counsellor/Social Worker/Trauma Therapist/ Certified Havening Practitioner®/Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator

Practising Since: 1990

Languages Spoken: English and Solomon Islands Pijin.

About me:

I am an experienced, mature, clinical, Registered Social Worker (NZ-SWRB) and Counselling Professional (Master of Health Science); Trauma Therapist / Health Professional having practiced for over 35 years as a Social Worker and therapist/counsellor in the UK; the USA; the Solomon Islands; Thailand and currently in my homeland of New Zealand, most recently specialising in trauma-informed work.

Over the entirety of my practice, I have worked within:

a) the Health Care sector, including with:

• Trauma/PTSD/Sexual Abuse clients;
• Hospice/Palliative Care / Cancer Psychosocial patients and whanau/family, providing End of Life therapy; Loss and Grief therapy; Life-Story/personal history work [as a therapeutic tool] and therapeutic interventions with Assisted Dying patients;
• Traumatic Brain Injury patients/family;
• Elderly and Dementia Care and
• the three components of Mental Health, namely: cognitive health, emotional health, and behavioural health;

b) the Children and Families sector:

• predominantly in the Child Protection sphere (including Statutory and Family Court work);
• in fostering and adoption work (including adoption reunion work and step-parent adoptions);
• in humanitarian/volunteer work (including with child-sex-trafficking practices) assisting in advancing effective Child Protection practices in developing areas of the world, including the Solomon Islands and Northern Thailand.

As an advanced practitioner, an integral part of all my roles has been the undertaking of complex and comprehensive psychosocial assessments, including assessments of people with sexual abuse histories.

In addition to my formal Social Work/Health Science and Counselling qualifications I have attended/participated (and facilitated) multiple trainings, workshops and other Professional Development forums to enhance, embolden and strengthen all my skills.

I am also a fully qualified and certified Havening Practitioner®, with Havening Techniques® being backed by neuroscience and being evidenced to benefit many health conditions especially anxiety, depression, stress, chronic pain, anger, panic attacks, phobias and past or present trauma. This revolutionary psychosensory therapy provides some with a way to make the most of their neural plasticity and can assist in providing freedom from unnecessary fears, blocks and pain.

Each of my therapeutic interventions come laden with respect, acceptance, compassion, appreciation, connection, inclusivity and safety, all whilst working with the client on their stuck emotions/frozen feelings/buried trauma and overwhelming anxieties.

I embody my knowledge of, and experiences with, various cultures and communities within my work and fully embrace any opportunity to educate and empower people to remember that their own healing potential is mostly deeply seated within themselves.

Being from New Zealand, I fully embrace and bring the effective, all-encompassing, holistic Māori Hauora (Wellness of life) model/dynamic, Te Whare Tapa Whā ** to all my work, ensuring all the dimensions/elements of a person are observed, recognised and respected, in order to sustain hauora (health and wellbeing), namely:
• taha hinengaro – mental health and emotions;
• taha wairua – spiritual health;
• taha tinana – physical health, and
• taha whānau – whanau, as the epicentre of one’s wellbeing.

{** Te Whare Tapa Whā model was developed by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984.}

Based:
Invercargill, Southland, NZ and will travel to surrounding areas, including Gore and Winton.

Online sessions available