Dr Monica | Psychotherapy-Informed Therapist

Introduction

I'm a Samoan/Pākehā therapist and former medical doctor.

Before commencing psychotherapy training, I worked across hospital and community mental health services. That experience gave me the opportunity to work alongside people facing a wide range of mental health challenges and continues to shape the way I think about emotional distress, healing, resilience, and recovery.

What drew me towards psychotherapy was a growing appreciation that while diagnoses can be an important part of understanding mental health, they do not tell the whole story. Our relationships, experiences, identities, and ways of adapting to life's challenges also shape how we experience distress and healing.

Many of the people I work with have spent years carrying things quietly. Some feel disconnected from themselves, exhausted from looking after everyone else, or unsure where they fit anymore. Others have spent much of their lives feeling misunderstood, caught between worlds, or adapting themselves to fit the spaces around them.

I have a particular interest in supporting people who are:

• Feeling misunderstood, unseen, or alone in their struggles
• Experiencing intense emotions or emotional overwhelm
• Living with the effects of trauma, loss, or difficult life experiences
• Carrying longstanding feelings of shame, loneliness, or not being "good enough"
• Finding relationships difficult, painful, or confusing at times
• Feeling disconnected from themselves or from others
• Carrying distress that has persisted despite previous attempts to get help
• Living with complex emotional or mental health challenges
• Feeling they have needed to adapt themselves to fit the spaces around them
• Māori, Pacific, and mixed-identity clients

I value being genuine and down-to-earth in the therapy room. My aim is not to analyse you from a distance, but to create a space where difficult experiences can be spoken about openly and explored together.

I am currently training in the Conversational Model of psychotherapy through ANZAP (Australia New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists).

If you want to know more or make an appointment, feel free to contact me.