About Thrive

Te Pae Ora

Thrive te pae ora is a fully funded face to face professional counselling service for young people (rangatahi) aged 12 to 24 and their family (whānau) living in the lower South Island. It’s safe, non-judgemental and completely confidential. We offer one to six sessions of coaching, talking and problem solving to help you cope with life's ups and downs. We focus on helping you build skills to manage mental health difficulties or substance use. Our aim is to improve your overall wellbeing by enhancing the qualities you already have, so you can bounce back more easily in the future.

Where can I access?

We are able to help young people in South Canterbury, Otago, Central Lakes & Southland. If you live outside a main town within these regions we can often travel to you or meet you some place handy.

Check if we're right

✔ You're aged 12 to 24 years old (inclusive).

✔ You're living within our service catchment area.

✔ Mild to Moderate Mental Health Difficulties: You may be experiencing too much worry which stops you from doing certain things or disrupts your sleep. You may be experiencing some low mood which makes it hard to get up and get through the day. You may feel nervous, tired, sad, flat or angry and this may be stopping you from doing things that you used to enjoy or affecting school.

✔ Mild to Moderate Substance Use Issues: Maybe you would like to cut down or stop using drugs or alcohol, or maybe you just want to have a chat about it.

What can I expect during our first session?

Our staff are all well trained and enjoy talking with young people – we use a lot of youth friendly therapies, not that you'll notice - it'll just feel like a natural conversation (a private one).

In our first session we'll get to know you a little by listening, asking questions and sharing information, finding out what you need. Together we'll focus on how to improve whatever is bothering you and come up with a plan to improve your wellbeing and ensure your safety moving forward. If you're up for it, we may even invite you along to some fun and creative group activities.

There are also a couple of forms to fill in which help us to explain your rights and confidentiality, gain your consent (agreement to continue) plus if you're under 16, we require signed consent from a parent/caregiver.

Our staff are all well trained and enjoy talking with young people – we use a lot of youth friendly therapies, not that you'll notice - it'll just feel like a natural conversation (a safe, private one).

We'll get to know you a little by listening, asking questions and sharing information, finding out what you need. Together we'll focus on how to improve whatever is bothering you and come up with a plan to improve your wellbeing and ensure your safety moving forward. If you're up for it, we may even invite you along to some fun group activities.

Make a Referral

You can bring a whānau member

or support person/friend.

You are welcome to bring a support person, partner or friend to your appointments. They can be part of the counselling process or merely there for moral support - it's completely up to you.

We'll chat about your other rights during our first session and you can ask about them anytime if you’re ever unsure. But it's important to know in the beginning that it's your choice to get support from us and you can change your mind at anytime.

Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights

Other services

If Thrive te pae ora isn't the right fit for you, we have other options within our wider organisation that might be more suitable. There are also other services that we can recommend depending on the region you live in. Please contact us to find out more. If we meet you and think you may benefit from ongoing support, with your permission we can also refer you to another service for; sexual abuse support, support with trauma, family violence support, Oranga Tamariki, to stop being violent, to stop offending, to stop abusing others, to protect yourself from violence, for crisis services, for family (whānau) mental health support and many more.

Advice for parents & caregivers

Wondering how to start a conversation with a young person about their mental health? Or maybe you want to let them know that you've noticed something is up with their drinking or drug use? We've compiled
a bunch of useful resources to help you here.