Ngā mihi mahana nui ki a koutou katoa.
A warm welcome to you all.
Kohikohia ngā kākano, whakaritea te pārekereke kia pūawai ngā hua.
Gather the seed, prepare the seedbed carefully, and you will be gifted with an abundance of food.
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
Ngā mihi mahana nui ki a koutou katoa. Ki te atua -tēnā koe. Ki a papatuanuku - tēnā koe. Ki te kura/whare - tēnā koe. Ki te hunga mate. Ki te hunga ora. Ko Ruahine te maunga e rū nei taku ngākau. Ko Oroua te awa e mahea nei aku māharahara. Nō Kirikiriroa ahau. E mihi ana ki ngā tohu o nehe, o Waikato o nehe nei au. Ko Kelvin Hainsworth tōku matua. Ko Jennifer Hainsworth tōku whaea. Ko Sharn Hainsworth taku tungāne. I te taha o toku whaea, ko Joan Laws toku kuia. Ko Bill Laws toku koroua. I te taha o toku matua, ko Mary Baker toku kuia. Ko George Hainsworth toku koroua. Ko Kevin White taku tāne. Ko Rose taku tamāhine. Ko Jacob taku tane. Ko Vanessa White tōku ingoa. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Nau mai, haere mai, welcome. |
|
As mentioned in my pepeha, my name is Vanessa White. I am the founder of Hello Calm, a specialist educator who has earnt a Masters of Specialist Teaching (gifted and talented), and is on the 'forever journey' of continually developing practices to ensure they are as trauma-responsive as possible, and where appropriate, are embedded within Te Ao Māori - to the best of my ability as someone of New Zealand European decent - and in alignment with Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
I have a deeply personal connection to supporting young people with anxiety, and in particular, those young people who struggle with impacts of a dysregulated stress response. You can read a snippet of our family's story here, in an article published in the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children's Tall Poppies magazine. |
I am passionate about providing guidance to aid any individual, whānau, group or community with regards to better understanding trauma, survival responses, anxiety, resilience, and trauma-informed practices. As a gifted education specialist, my area of specialist interest however, lies in the intersection of giftedness and anxiety, a little-studied and understood niche in it's own right, but even more specifically, the impacts of school trauma and ways to mitigate this, and where necessary, heal from it.
Anxiety is often very much misunderstood as something that is perhaps, 'a bit irritating' and 'something to get over', however those who have experienced the impacts of debilitating anxiety first-hand, can appreciate the implications can be massive; where in the worst scenarios, our young people lose all faith in themselves, and everyone around them.
He waka eke noa.
We are all on this canoe, with no exception.
While there is no such thing as being 'too late' to intervene, there are certainly windows of opportunity which allow for a much greater impact, and these lie with our young people in their years of development, particularly for those in their early years and those in their teens. It is important though, that we never lose sight of the fact that we can never work with just one in isolation. We must work together, across sectors, to support whānau as a whole; working to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and skills within and among communities to draw on the tremendous knowledge and capabilities already present, building on the strengths of those surrounding our young people. It is only when we begin to work at a community-wide level that we will begin to truly see effects that are wide-sweeping and sustainable. It is up to each of us to play a role in this; no matter how small a difference we make as individuals, together, we can start a snowball effect. While I am presently the only person working under the umbrella of Hello Calm, I am by no means the only one carrying out this important mahi. It is only by working together that we truly get to make a difference.
|
© 2020 Hello Calm
|