Kym Daley B.A., M.A. CP, PPS

Kym has 13 years experience working for individuals, couples and families. Her area of concentration includes a mindfulness and body-centred approach in her work. Kym incorporates Response-Based Practice, body centered psychotherapy, Family Systems therapy, Nature therapy, and Mindfulness approaches within her approach. Most importantly, Kym honours the inherent knowing and dignity in each and every person. In the last 6 years Kym has become certified as a nature-based mindfulness teacher and has been leading training sessions in mindfulness, as well as mindfulness in nature retreats, for individuals and teams.

Kym became interested in the study of Buddhism when she was 23, and living in the jungle in Mexico. Her passion for mental wellness through a connection with nature has followed her throughout her life and into her current work as a counselor on the Round Valley Indian Tribes Reservation in Covelo, California. She has a private practice in the Mendocino National Forest, and leads nature retreats while also working in the High School with a predominantly Native
American student body.

Kym also offers clinical supervision with other professionals. She recognizes value in ‘caring for the carer’, creating a safe place for professionals to receive help, and overcome challenges. Ultimately, this is in everybody’s best interest.

Bren Balcombe: Aotearoa / New Zealand

Kia ora..! greetings from the land of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The Island I reside is known by tangata whenua (people of the land) as “Te Ika a Māui” (the fish of Māui). This originates from the legend of Māui who pulled up the land on his fishing hook. English colonialists uninventively renamed this place the “North Island”. The tribal area we live in is called, “Te Matau a Māui” (the mouth of the fish) or Heretaunga (Here, ‘to tie’, taunga, ‘to come to rest’, i.e., the resting place of the canoe) and is the tribal lands of Ngāti Kahungunu. Despite these perfectly adequate place names Colonists re-named this area Hawkes Bay. The great geographical curve of Hawkes Bay is Māui fishing hook. The township we reside is Ahuriri (aka Napier). My ancestors settled in Aotearoa in 1871 and came from Norway, Scotland, and England. I am connected to this land by birth and whānau (family). I am cis-gendered hetero male in partnership with Kelly Forrest with whom together we have helped raise seven children.

My mahi (work) is counselling. I operate a private practice and have worked for many years in both Māori and Pākehā (non-Maori) led social services agencies as a counsellor and consultant. My beginnings in counselling originated from Vipassana meditation as taught by S. N. Goenka which I have studied and practiced since 1990. This interest in the mind / body experiential learning handed down from Siddhartha Gautama over 2500 years ago led to a desire to help others. Having traversed many personal difficulties in life which I felt provided me with a richness of life experience and therefore in 1999 I began Psychotherapy training. Initially, Narrative therapy was influential to me and over time I have come to appreciate many ways of understanding. My tohu (qualification) is a master’s degree in professional practice and my focus is Response-based practice for counselling, EAP, and supervision. I am not a specialist in one area, but I do a lot of work in the area of sexualised violence, grief, oppression, and working with couples. Finally, I am Director and co-founder of RBPAotearoa along with Donny Riki (Ngāpuhi & Ngāti Paoa) and my Hoa Rangatira (life partner) Kelly Forrest.

Kelly Forrest: Aotearoa / New Zealand

Ka nunui te mihi aroha ki ōu Atua, me ōu whenua, ā, ōu tupuna hoki. Ka korero ahau i tēnei mihi i te reo māori tuatahi nō tēnei whenua, kei mua te reo pākeha tuarua. Ko tēnei te mihi ki te wāhi o tōku kainga. I nga wā o mua i tae mai ōku tūpuna kei te noho rātou ki te whatumanawa o Kahurānaki, te wāhi whangāia o Heretāunga i te taha ō Tukituki. I tae mai rātou nō uropi kei runga i ngā waka City of Auckland rāua ko Westland, a, he Pākeha ahau. Ko Kelly Forrest toku ingoa. E tipu ana ahau i Heretāunga, ēngari, kei Ahuriri e noho ana inaianei.

I greet you this way to tell you that from under the eye of the mountain Kahurānaki in the East of the North Island of Aotearoa, and alongside the Tukituki river is the land where I was born and that I call home. My ancestors are from Poland, England, Germany, Scotland, and the Shetland Islands. Some of these ancestors were brought to Aotearoa by two ships called “Westland” and “The City of Auckland” finding their way to the Hawke Bay. My name is Kelly Forrest. With my husband and children, I now reside in Ahuriri/Napier in Aotearoa.

I am a registered Psychotherapist and Certified Hakomi Therapist (CHT) with a particular focus of partnership, as required by the principles of Tiriti O Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. In my therapeutic approach I weave together knowledges from Hakomi therapy and Response Based Practice which draw collectively on principles of awareness, mindfulness, non-violence, and dignity. I have been strongly moved by my training in kaupapa Māori approaches, for both their strength, and holistic appropriateness for working within an Aotearoa context. Alongside my private practice I have also worked within agencies that have strong kaupapa Māori frameworks. All these frameworks lend themselves to gathering an understanding of how we are consistently responding to the world & others and how we make choices to live.