Family Works services

If you feel like you are struggling, or things are becoming overwhelming – we can help.

Anyone facing personal, social or psychological challenges can benefit from counselling. At Family Works, we provide counselling for individuals, including adults, teenagers and specialist children’s therapy, as well as relationship or couples counselling and family therapy/counselling.

Every day, our experienced counsellors help people work through a whole range of issues, including:

• stress and anxiety
• difficult relationships
• family break-ups
• bullying
• anger management
• grief, loss and trauma
• depression
• poor mental health
• family violence and abuse
• addiction or drug/alcohol dependency
• a lack of confidence or low self-esteem
• debt and money concerns
• illness

We can help you to:

• acknowledge and explore your thoughts, feelings and behaviour
• become more self-aware, including thinking about your values and what motivates you
• see patterns and make connections in your relationships and behaviour
• set goals and learn practical tools and strategies that will help you make positive changes in your life, using the strengths and resources you already have.

The number of counselling sessions you will need depends on the complexity of the problem. Everyone is different. Some people benefit from a single session, although most people will need a number of sessions. Please contact us to find out how we could help.

Family Works offers counselling throughout New Zealand. In many cases, the sessions are able to be subsidised or provided free of charge thanks to funding from government and the community.

If we bottle up our feelings we can feel more and more sad or scared, or angry or frustrated – it can feel like we have so much stuff going on that we might explode. Talking about our feelings and problems can help us feel better and work out what to do next.

Family Works counsellors are friendly adults you can trust to listen to you, and help you find ways to feel better. They’re interested in what’s going on for you.

Our team of experienced therapists includes trained counsellors, play therapists, psychologists and social workers who may work one-on-one, with parents or provide support in other ways, best suited to meet the young persons rights and needs.

Kids and teens talk to Family Works counsellors all the time about things like:

• bullies and people who say mean things or threaten others
• problems at school, like struggling with school work or staying focused
• parents arguing or splitting up
• problems with alcohol or drugs
• feeling afraid or unsafe
• wanting to hurt themselves or someone else
• feeling very sad or very angry
• feeling lonely
• problems with friends
• family violence and adult bullies
• feeling confused or upset about their bodies and how they look
• grief and loss, like how you might feel when someone dies or leaves your life.

During a counselling session you might draw, listen to music, play with toys and games or just talk. All of these things will help you and the counsellor understand your problems and feelings. Your counsellor will also help you work out how to ‘be the boss of your feelings’, to find solutions to your problems and to come up with ways of coping.

Restorative justice helps to right wrongs and heal the harm caused by crime.  

Family Works offers a restorative justice service in the Wairarapa through Masterton District Court.  

The service gives victims a voice and supports their healing journey. It also helps offenders understand the impact of their actions and therefore reduces reoffending.  

Restorative justice conferences involve the victim and the offender meeting and, with the assistance of Family Works’ trained restorative justice facilitators, acknowledging the harm caused and talking about how it might be put right. The focus is on understanding the hurt experienced by the victim while holding the offender accountable for what they have done. 

For victims, the restorative justice process is an opportunity to: 

• Tell the offender how you have been affected by the crime 
• explain how you think the harm could be put right 
• start the process of dealing with the effects of the crime
• help stop others from becoming the victim of the offender’s crime.  

For the offenders the restorative justice process is an opportunity to: 

• take personal responsibility for the offending 
• apologise to the victim(s) 
• decide how to put right the harm cause
• find ways to make sure you don’t reoffend. 

Following the meeting, Family Works’ facilitators will write a report to explain what happened during the meeting and outline any agreements made. During the offender’s sentencing, the judge will decide whether to include any of the agreements made at the restorative justice conference as part of the sentence. 

Family Works Taranaki offers Ministry of Justice approved non-violence programmes for both men and women. We will work with you to help recognise unwanted, controlling, or violent behaviours and triggers, and develop positive and empowering non-violent ways of thinking, acting, and speaking.

The focus is on personal accountability, rather than blame. You’ll learn why you may react in a certain way and learn skills for managing your emotions in a supportive and non-judgemental environment.

If you’re ready to accept responsibility for your behaviour, talk about it, and make positive changes, call us today. Programmes are offered in New Plymouth and Hawera.