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Kirsten Taylor
 

Kirsten Taylor (OGHS Guidance Counsellor) awarded Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasian Fellowship.

Jane Smallfield —

Congratulations to our Guidance Counsellor Kirsten Taylor who has been awarded the prestigious $10,000AU Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasian Fellowship to fund the Whaiora Project: Culturally Appropriate Interventions for 'at risk' High School Girls.

The Alliance offers an annual fellowship of AUD10,000 to support outstanding educators from member schools to investigate topics or issues related to girls’ education. This project has been developed for use with the students of Otago Girls’ High School and it is part of the school’s wider strategyto ‘reach’ at risk Maori/Pasifika students in a culturally appropriate way. Ms Taylor,  will be leading the project and will be supported by her adviser, Jolie Davis, an expert partner and Kaitiakitanga, who will provide advice and guide cultural practices.

The Whaiora pilot aims to design and implement culturally responsive group therapy practices that enhance the mental health of at risk Maori and Pasifika students and will involve a collective approach to wellbeing, utilising a group focused approach rather than the traditional individually focused counselling approach (which is counter to Māori and Pasifika cultures). 

The underlying premise is that the learning available to us from an indigenous wealth of known practices is something that we need to be able to access and utilise in a contemporary setting, as the methods we have been using to date are not answering the needs of our young people. The project itself is called Whaiora. It is a Māori concept that refers to a person seeking wellness, which is an active and empowering process. The qualitative study will involve twelve students who have been identified as 'at risk'. These students will participate in a group therapeutic practical series of days being led by cultural experts, Manawa Ora in a Marae based setting. The beauty of this project is that it also involves the families of the girls who will be invited to participate in a workshop independently in order to ensure that the benefits of the work that is done are shared within the communities that the girls come from.

Ms Taylor writes that I am really excited by the possibilities that this project may have for other girl schools in both New Zealand and Australia. The hope is that we will be able to show that a group-based approach that is grounded in authentic cultural practice allows students to safely explore their trauma and through that process become increasingly whole and empowered. If students are shown to be more engaged in their learning and their suicidal ideation and harming behaviours reduce, then we can consider introducing these culturally informed group practices into a school setting. This project has the potential to significantly reduce the need for Pastoral teams to work in a reactive capacity and promotes resilience and healthy connection between the school and the families themselves and empowers the student to take an active role in their own lives