About Us
Te Whaitipu Counselling (previously known as Mid North Family Support) is a Charitable Trust that provides free professional counselling services to survivors of family harm and sexual violence in the Mid North Community of Te Tai Tokerau from the ages of seven years and upwards. We also provide counselling to those suffering from trauma, anxiety, depression, anger, grief and relationship issues.
History
Te Whaitipu Counselling began 38 years ago in 1987 in Kaikohe when a group of visionary women recognised the need to support their community and founded Mid North Rape Crisis. With sheer grit and determination, they secured funding and gathered the people necessary to provide support, a mission that has continued to this day.
In 1995, the counselling service relocated to Kerikeri and changed its name to Mid North Family Support Collective. The service became a registered charitable trust in 2008.
Originally, this counselling service was funded by community donations but it is now bulk-funded through government contracts, thanks to the success of all the individuals who have contributed their time and passion to this cause over the past 38 years.
Today, we are known as Te Whaitipu Counselling.
Whakataukī
We honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and value respect, integrity, manaakitanga, whakawhanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga and aroha.
Mission
Through our professional counselling services, we will empower those in our community to lead independent, safe and fulfilling lives.
Vision
A world free of stress, deprivation and violence where families and whānau can thrive in the secure place they call home.
Our Name
In 2024, after extensive revisioning work with Kipa Munro, Chair of Ngāti Rēhia, the Trust Board, management and our professional counsellors felt it was the right time to rename the organisation to better reflect the mahi we do.
Facilitated by Kipa, we challenged ourselves to create a new identity. Through a brainstorming session, we identified our work as being “A professional service for empowerment.” In Te Reo, this translates to “Ko te tipu, te Atawhai mātangi.”
While this is too long to use as a name, we condensed it to Te Whaitipu Counselling. Importantly, there has been no change to our organisation’s purpose, which is to provide free professional counselling services to the Mid North community.