Help Gay and Maria get to ‘Come Play With Me Fiji!

Gay Puketapu-Andrews and Maria Davey, are two of our wonderful contractors at Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP.

They plan to do some amazing child therapy training in Fiji. The conference, "Come Play With Me Fiji!" runs over 6 and 7 August and will feature presentations, keynote addresses and workshops facilitated by world-class experts in the fields of trauma, play therapy and attachment.

Gay and Maria are currently the only two Maori providers working with children referred to Wellington HELP and two of only three child counsellors available to do this work within our organisation. They are asking for all our support to help them attend this important hui.

We all know these events are expensive to cover even when they are inside New Zealand - and how beneficial they are. The knowledge and experience they stand to gain from the conference will be utilised to inform their work with Maori whanau in particular, given our shared connections with the Pacific nations. They are also keen to make a presentation about the conference on their return.

Here's more detail about the conference:

‘Come Play With Me Fiji! Trauma is the Fun Killer – Educate, Invigorate and Capacity Build’ is the very first one in Fiji and will be held 5th – 10th of August 2018 with a pre-Conference Masterclass, post-Conference workshops and Educational Tour. The Conference over the 6th and 7th of August will feature presentations, keynote addresses and workshops facilitated by world-class experts in the fields of trauma, play therapy and attachment. These presentations and workshops will aim to introduce participants to the world of trauma, and work collaboratively in developing and exploring creative and innovative interventions that are suitable to diverse practice contexts. We will aim to engage participants in developing innovative, culturally sensitive and evidence-based responses to traumatic natural and human-made events. This conference will provide a space for the exploration and adaptation of evidence-based trauma and play therapy to unique cultural contexts of both Fijian and Australian participants. We hope to build bridges between Indigenous healing practices and Western trauma recovery process, and create a dialogue between participants of diverse and rich professional experience.

Funds given through this Givealittle page will be received by HELP and direct credited on to Gay and Maria to assist them with their expenses.

Noho ora mai,

Conor

Chief Executive

Wellington HELP