Denise, recognised as one of the leading trainers on strengths and wellbeing internationally, has worked alongside Prof. Martin Seligman and Dr. Karen Reivich training educators in Australia and the UK, and also taught strengths-focused leadership to global business leaders at the IE University, Madrid. NZIWR’s strengths programmes draw on Denise’s validated strengths programme, demonstrated to enhance wellbeing, engagement and relatedness. Adjunct senior fellow at the University of Canterbury, her work has been published in international academic journals and edited volumes on positive psychology, wellbeing in education, and restorative practices. She is co-author of of Educators’ Guide to Whole-school Wellbeing, and co-convenor of the Wellbeing in Education NZ conferences.

After working as a Social Worker with older children and adolescents in East London for several years Dr Emma Woodward decided that the only effective way to support children and young people with their mental health was to get in earlier and teach them the protective skills they needed in the first instance. So, in 2006 Emma changed careers and undertook her Doctorate in Child, Educational and Community Psychology at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Emma now has over 20 years experience working with children, young people and their families to support their mental health and wellbeing. …

Adrienne is passionate about taking a psychological approach to enhancing student engagement and teacher/student wellbeing. An experienced teacher (with over 15 years working with adolescents and their families both here and internationally), she has a Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing from the Langley Group Institute. She is currently completing her masters in classroom wellbeing interventions. A curriculum leader in two schools and, with the last 8 years spent in pastoral care, student wellbeing and supporting staff, Adrienne’s deep knowledge of school context and the NZ curriculum, combined with wellbeing and resilience, are key assets for our team.

Paul’s 15 years of youth-centred work began by running camps for marginalised kids and school retreats in Auckland. After completing a joint BA Social Science & BBus Management degree he began working for AUT, facilitating programmes in schools like the Prefect Training Programme. He was also able to develop and lead the MEN Programme (Males in Education Now), supporting year 10 boys to develop intrinsic engagement in their education journeys. Contributing to the foundation of Dilworth School’s Rural Campus was Paul’s introduction to teaching, as well as mentoring and pastoral care in a residential setting. He then went on to lead staff training and organisational change through the development of Dilworth’s Personal and Social Growth curriculum. Paul has a Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing from the Langley Group Institute in Australia and is currently enrolled in the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne.

Sally Murray our Client Services Manager joined us from teaching, bringing to NZIWR her strong relational skills to support our clients, her best-practice pedagogy, and deep understanding of school systems to the NZIWR™ team. She has since completed her Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing.

Sally experienced first-hand a whole-school system change with the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) school accreditation, seeing the changes a shift like that can make for schools, and the long-term benefits for staff, students and whanāu community. Totally wedded to the advantages of taking a strengths-based approach, knowing it takes time to embed meaningful change across an entire system – understanding what helped and hindered that progression from a teacher’s perspective. “Ultimately, it all comes down to making connections and building honest transparent relationships… the foundation of learning, that’s what I loved most about teaching.”

Julie is a NZ trained, qualified and registered Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Her early and mid career were spent assessing and treating people presenting with mild-moderate mental health symptoms, before then specializing in the field of Psychiatric Consultation- Liaison –. Evidence based treatment models were used by Julie to develop individualised management plans for people adjusting to such diagnoses across the specialities of cardiology, oncology, nephrology, respiratory, gastro-enterology.

Julie’s professional life took a change in direction in 2017 when she suffered significant loss in her own life, the deaths of her husband and then eldest son, 2 weeks apart. Part of Julie’s personal recovery has included completing her fourth qualification, this time a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology. Her clinical interest is now in the areas of loss, grief, resilience and adaptation to adversity, through education, inspiration and conveying of the numerous told and strategies within the field of Positive Psychology, in her approach.

Coaching with Georgie is about reaching your potential by working in a collaborative, solution-focused and results orientated way. While she’s well qualified (with a Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing and an accredited Strengths Profile trainer), it’s her eclectic professional and life experience that brings her coaching to life. Originally a registered nurse, she’s worked in property management, pharmaceutical sales and management, been a hospital manager and done an MBA. Alongside her work for the Institute, Georgie is currently a Practice Manager for a Christchurch law firm where she enjoys putting wellbeing theory into practice. Her particular interest is bringing wellbeing into the workplace.

Anna works in everything she loves, including:

• The All Right? campaign, where Anna is the project lead for Sparklers,
• The Kākano app project supporting parents to help their children regulate their emotions (a current research project led by CDHB and University of Auckland),
• And working as a parenting coach and parenting programme facilitator with Real Parents.

Anna’s background is in psychology and English. She is currently working on developing a growth mindset around her skiing. Not easy when her two children are so keen to tell her how terrible she is at it…(sigh!)

Rowan comes to us with 17 years’ experience in the education sector. Her most recent time as a Deputy Principal means she understands the challenge senior leadership roles can bring to team and personal wellbeing. Leading a team, staff, students, and supporting a parent community through change and challenge can not only be very rewarding, but also can test your emotions, energy levels, and resilience. Rowan supports people to discover and utilise their strengths and harness strategies of collaboration, coaching and mentoring, as well as positive psychology, to bring about the change they wish to see, whether it is large or small scale.

The science behind how people think, feel and act has always fascinated Kim. It’s been at the heart of the research insights she’s provided to organisations for 20+ years to help drive growth and success. And since discovering the science of positive psychology in 2005, Kim has been on a mission to share these tools with organisations to drive growth and success by boosting productivity, creativity and motivation. “I love seeing how a shift in mindset makes such a huge difference to people individually, but also how the shared knowledge and practice of the tools creates a wave of positive change across an organisation.”