Our Team
Jannine Verner
Comprehensive Registered Nurse/Therapist
Coromandel/Whitianga/Tairua and Online
Hello, my name is Jannine,
I’m The Director of Pacifico Services and am honored to be able to support you and your needs. I am a proud parent of a teenage boy, wife to my hubby, and a loving Dogo mum. I have worked as a Mental Health Nurse/Therapist for over 30 years and have a range of experience including working with Children and Adolescents, Adults and people experiencing all forms of Mental Distress from mild to acute / severe.
I love living on the Coromandel Peninsular and I’m driven by a commitment to this community, to do whatever I can to support anyone struggling with mental distress, to achieve mental well-being.
I am working hard to ensure this business grows into a fully trauma-informed service, that is filled with like-minded people, who share my business life values and attitudes. I am passionate about understanding trauma and will continue to expand my professional development in this area.
I’ve been specialising in the field of mental health as a comprehensive registered nurse since graduating in 1993 and have worked across different mental health specialty areas. More recently I’ve held leadership positions which has included mentoring others to grow their understanding, practice and knowledge of mental health and wellbeing.
I am passionate about my career and I genuinely love working with people. I am also the clinical lead for Pacifico so you will likely speak to me if you phone with your enquiries. I will do my best to ensure you get everything you need from Pacifico to help you take further steps in achieving peace of mind.
Contracts which I Service include: Brief Intervention via Hauraki PHO (Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki) and Pinnacles PHO (Mercury Bay Medical Centre), EAP and wellbeing checks via Skills/Instep, Oranga Tamariki and Manaaki AMHS. I also hold a private caseload of those who are not eligible for funded services.
Please feel free to browse this website and I am happy to receive any feedback for improvements.
You can email me directly on:
admin@pacifico.nz or 0225006775 during working hours.
Fleur Bethell
Psychologist – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Whitianga/Thames/Coromandel/Hauraki
Fleur Bethell is a Registered Psychologist who has provided therapy and assessment to people across child, adolescent and adult mental health services in both primary and secondary settings.
She specialises in the treatment of anxiety, depression, PTSD and trauma related conditions and is Eye Movement Desensitisation (EMDR) trained.
Fleur previously worked for 5 years in the sexual harm support sector and is passionate about helping people heal from past trauma.
Modalities Utilised:
- Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Trauma-Focused Behaviour Therapy
- Compassion-based Mindfulness
If you are seeking specific child related services, please contact Jannine to discuss options.
Kerstin Meub
Counsellor – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Thames/Tairua/Whangamata
My aim in therapy is to facilitate a space and processes in which the client gets the chance to differentiate between their reactions to their conditioning, to societal expectations, and to the effects of trauma or diagnosis. Achieving in effect an increased sense of self-efficacy, self-sovereignty and self-empathy allowing clear and effective personal choice to operate within their change process.
My primary focus over the past four years since I graduated has been supporting others with a particular interest in people gaining access to their true self. My cultural sensitivity is well integrated as Aotearoa, New Zealand is my chosen home for the past 22yrs, as an immigrant I am well aware of cultural complexities. My formulating framework is psycho-dynamically based.
I am specialised in working with trauma within attachment based frameworks.
I am interested in people who were under resourced during their childhood with emotional-relational skills due to neglect, psychological abuse, family and sexual violence.
I trust in the healing power of healthy relationships. It has been my experience that many men with difficult anger-management have endured abuse themselves. The misunderstandings between men and women are of great concern to me. I believe that therapy can foster healthy and nurturing relationships, leaving the individual nourished instead of depleted.
I therefore enjoy working equally with male and female clients.
Maureen Lorimer
Specialist Child and Adolescent Counsellor
Private Therapy and POC by negotiation
Kia ora, my name is Maureen.
I am a trained Play Therapist and have worked in the field of Child & Adolescent Wellbeing for over 30 years. Following training and travel, including a stint in a residential home in London, I spent 9 years working with the Community Mental Health Team covering the northern section of the Coromandel Peninsula. Then I moved to Christchurch to join the STOP team where I spent the next 26 years working across the entire South Island, growing the team working with children, adolescents and their families/whanau.
Across this time, I was very privileged to bring out to NZ many specialists in the field of Play therapy and concerning & harmful sexual behaviour.
My clinical experience is extensive in the areas of developmental trauma and attachment, self-regulation, parent/child relational difficulties, self-esteem, problem solving, anxiety, grief and loss, low mood, bullying, suicidal ideation in children and young people and concerning and harmful sexual behaviour.
The modalities I use are predominantly creative therapies such as sand tray, small figures, interactive drawing therapy, mindfulness, storytelling, nature-based play therapy, being guided by assessment to engage in what works well for the client. I am well versed in other therapies such as Narrative Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP), Synergetic Play Therapy.
What I like to offer is kindness, compassion and hope that things can be different through engagement and action.
I have a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Services Supervision from Massey University & offer this service to Counsellors, Therapists, Psychologists, Team Leaders and Social workers.
Outside of work I love to read, walk and be in, on or under the ocean. Being back living on the peninsula is wonderful!
Isaac Yeoman
Counsellor – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Coromandel/Thames/Hauraki
I’m a Registered Counsellor within New Zealand Aotearoa and I love nothing more than facilitating the personal development and empowerment of individuals in my community to a level of safety, peace and contentment.
I an trained in Narrative Therapy, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Mahi a Atua (Kaupapa modality), trauma-based interventions, and Mindfulness. I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in AOD treatment and a Masters in the Practice of Counselling, I have also completed a wide range of personal development courses in Counselling modalities. Mindfulness is particularly a passion of mine – I have lived in a Monastery in Nepal and share the skills I learned there with my clients.
I’m trained in sexual harm and trauma treatment having attended intense specialist training with Leah Giarratono that included understanding PTSD and complex trauma. I have further training in ACT (Acceptance and Commitment therapy).
At a personal level, I am a keen sailor and outdoorsman and love nothing more than to be out on the water with my partner. We dream of sailing around the world together when the time is right!
Rachel Benmayor
Counsellor – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Coromandel/Whitianga
I recently moved to the Coromandel after working for six years in an organisation in Sydney providing psychotherapy and counselling, working with clients from underprivileged and ethnically diverse backgrounds. I now work in private practice from three different locations in the Coromandel.
I have a background in many forms of Bodywork, Oriental and Natural medicine, working in this field for many years until I trained in Psychotherapy in my early 50’s. I have also been a Death and Dying therapist and funeral celebrant working with loss, grief and bereavement.
In my work I strive to support those who are facing any of life’s difficulties with the belief that all things can change. There is, in my opinion, no right or wrong way to live our lives if we accept that each choice, we make along the way can be done mindfully. There are only opportunities for which we may or may not be ready for. If I can support others on this journey then it gives me great joy.
On a personal level I have a partner and two adult kids. I love to garden, walk in nature -especially the wild and open spaces, read and hang out with friends. My goal in the next few years is to learn ceramics and to deepen my appreciation of Māori culture and Te Reo.
Shannon Silcock
Arts Therapist – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims and under Packages of Care
Thames/Hauraki
Kia ora, I’m a registered Art therapist, currently working out of a lovely studio space in central Thames. I returned to the area after many years away including four years in Scotland, where I completed my art therapy training in 2009.
I have experience in various settings including Corrections, Mental Health and Addictions, Youth work and Community services. I’m ACC registered to work with clients who have experienced sexual abuse and trauma.
I’m passionate about supporting clients to use their creativity in exploring what is going on for them. Art therapy can be an effective way to address difficult issues, support mental health and wellbeing, and promote self-awareness and empowerment. In a session my role is to collaborate with the client in facilitating a creative, therapeutic experience through art making and discussion.
It’s important to note that there is no need to have any skill or experience in art to engage with art therapy, it is the process that is important rather than the finished product. Clients often rediscover the fun and joy of using art materials, which we can tend to leave behind in childhood.
My approach is client-centered and is rooted in a psychodynamic core training. I find mindfulness to be a natural aspect of the art therapy process and draw on experience working within the Therapeutic Community model and training in Bi-cultural awareness, Māori models of care, Trauma-informed care and Motivational Interviewing techniques. I am committed to ongoing personal and professional development and regular supervision.
On a personal note, I love working and living in this beautiful environment with my partner; raising our daughter, enjoying the community, family, yoga, music, the outdoors – and doing a bit of painting whenever I can.
Debbie Buddle
Counsellor and Clinical Nutritionist – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Coromandel/Whitianga/Tairua
Debbie is a Solutions Focussed Counsellor that provides tools and techniques to support you outside the Counselling space. She is a registered NZAC provisional member.
Being both a Nutritionist and a Counsellor enables her to offer a complete service to her clients, as supporting the body and mind connection is an important factor to overall health and well-being.
Debbie works with Domestic Violence, Trauma, Grief, Anxiety, Life challenges, Depression, Eating Disorders, Women’s health, Addictions, Parenting and other mind and body related challenges.
We all have stress to deal with in our lives and certain types of stress and trauma can trigger a cascade of biochemical changes that help create the perfect environment for ill health. It could be a death of a family member, separation, divorce, personal injury, job pressures, financial problems, change in living conditions, challenges with children or parents, relationships, trauma, grief, purpose in life, illness or food related issues. Anxiety and stress can be sickening but whether we choose to let the stress become distress is the critical issue.
Debbie is also a meditation and mindfulness coach. Learning to respond over reacting is a powerful tool. Debbie focuses on changing the stress inducing environment by providing coping strategies and tools and techniques including mindfulness, meditation, mind mapping and other management techniques.
Qualifications
Bachelor Applied Counselling
Diploma Clinical Nutrition
Diploma Naturopathy
Diploma Mindfulness and Meditation
Interventions
- Person Centred Approach
- Solutions Focussed (SFT)
- Narrative Therapy (NT)
- Focussed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT)
- Positive Psychology
- Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
- Trauma-Informed Care Therapy (TIC)
- Te Whare Tapa Whā
Olivia Marsden
Arts Therapist – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims
Connecting through creative communication to encourage healing and wellbeing.
Olivia is a clinical arts therapist with experience working within community mental health, supported living, corrections and more recently within palliative care focusing on grief, loss and bereavement work with children and adolescents. She provides individual focused therapy as well as expressive, creative well-being groups.
Olivia is an ACC sensitive claims provider, working with clients who have experienced sexual harm and abuse.
Olivia’s passion as an arts therapist is using creativity to enhance wellbeing by using a mindful, client-centered, strengths-based and trauma-informed approach. She is deeply committed to providing clients with safe opportunities to drop into and connect to their inner lives and explore challenges and obstacles, which sometimes there are no words for.
Olivia collaboratively works with clients utilising mindfulness through visual arts making, talk therapy, clay, writing, visualisation, collage, story-telling, play, movement and sensory processes alongside psychotherapeutic frameworks, dependent on each client’s individual needs.
Modalities Utilised:
- Arts Psychotherapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Positive Psychology
- Nature-based Arts Therapy
- Focused Oriented Arts Therapy
- ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy)
- CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
- Somatic Experiencing
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Te Whare Tapa Whā
When working with an arts therapist it is important to know that you don’t have to be ‘good at art’ to engage with arts therapy, no prior art experience is needed. The focus is on what comes into being within the creative process and therapeutic relationship.
Client Types:
- Children, Adolescents, Adults
Registrations and Professional Memberships
- Registered Clinical Arts Therapist (ANZACATA)
Qualifications
- Bachelor in Communications (Expressive Arts)
- Post Graduate Diploma in Creative Arts Therapy
- Clinical Masters in Arts Therapy (Clin) (Hons), AThR
- ACC registered therapist for sensitive claims
Carol McKinnon
Psychologist – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims and Family Therapy under Packages of Care or Privately
Coromandel/Whitianga
Hello, my name is Carol, and I would like to introduce myself to you and give a little information about my experiences and skills in my capacity as a psychologist.
My husband and I have recently semi-retired to a small block at Kuaotunu West overlooking Ahuahu, and Repanga Islands, and the Kuaotunu boat ramp. We are privileged to have located to a property that provides us with our two great joys: working and caring for the land and swimming in the ocean.
I am a registered Psychologist with 17 years of experience working with offenders, youth offenders, conduct disordered youth, and children and youth with diverse and complex behavioural needs. I have worked with the Department of Corrections; Youth Horizons Trust (Functional Family Therapy, FFT), and for the previous nine years, the Ministry of Education Te Kahu Tōī Intensive Wraparound Service (IWS). Prior to registration as a psychologist, I was heavily involved with the Play Centre Association holding multiple regional roles, primarily in education.
These roles have allowed me to develop a range of eclectic assessment and therapeutic intervention approaches to support the referred child/youth and their whanau. I would characterise my work approach as facilitating change within the home domain through strength based ecological assessment, family-lead planning and intervention, and evidence-based intervention approaches. All roles have utilised multi liaison and team approaches with key service providers including Oranga Tamariki, ICAMHS, Police and Youth services, local services, and Iwi services.
My work is grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approaches to intervention, motivational Interviewing, cycle of change and theory of change, narrative in assessment and intervention, Participatory Decision Making, and trauma informed approaches.
I am looking forward to working in my new home region of Coromandel Peninsula.
Dianne Taylor
Social Worker – ACC provider for Sensitive Claims, Private work by negotiation
Thames/Coromandel/Tairua/Whitianga
My name is Di – I’m a Registered Social Worker and a St Johns First Responder. I am also currently studying to become a St Johns Emergency Medical Technician.
I have a Diploma in Mental Health Support Work and prior to studying to become a social worker, I worked in a Respite house for those experiencing acute mental distress. I qualified as a Social Worker in 2014 and worked at Burwood Hospital as a medical Social Worker, across all the rehabilitation wards there, including an older persons’ inpatient mental health ward.
In 2018 I spent a year studying Te Reo Māori by immersion. This greatly enhanced my bicultural practice. From March – June 2019, I had the great privilege of working with the Christchurch Muslim community who had been affected by the mosque shootings. As a community outreach social worker, I was able to support this community toward decreasing the impact of trauma on their lives.
My husband and I moved to the Coromandel Peninsula permanently in 2019, after having spent plenty of time holidaying in Whitianga over the years. We have two adult sons who still live in Ōtautahi Christchurch. We moved to Whitianga for the lifestyle opportunities and we both love being part of this special community.
I am a great believer that wellbeing is enhanced from a holistic approach and I’m a big fan of positive psychology and Martin Seligman’s theories around wellbeing. To relax I love being in my garden with my garden helpers – my two cats. I also love reading. I took up winter swimming this year for my health and try to be active every day.
Ajita Grace
Counsellor – ACC provider for sensitive claims
Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
Thames
I am a counsellor registered with NZAC and I work with adults and young people. Based in Thames, I currently see people all over NZ via zoom.
I am a mindfulness meditation teacher. I teach mindfulness meditation on-line to small groups of people in addition to individual based therapy.
My approach is client centred and trauma-informed. I provide a safe, non-judgmental and supportive space.
I have specialised in mindfulness therapies – in particular Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a mindfulness cognitive behavioural therapy that allows you to accept your internal experiences mindfully and compassionately, as well as gain the clarity to act on your deepest values. I enjoy working alongside people, helping them to connect to their own inner wisdom and inner peace.
I have worked mainly with women in the areas of sexual harm, family violence, anxiety and depression. I incorporate a feminist lens when working with women harmed by sexual violence and family violence. I find it is vital to include awareness of the social context of violence and social conditioning – to support both empowerment and compassion for survivors of abuse.
I have been a practitioner of Eastern meditation practices over the past 40 years. I have studied with Buddhist teachers since 2005 and I have found Buddhist psychology has added a depth of wisdom to the mindfulness interventions used in my counselling practice.
Modalities I use include:
- Client Centred Therapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
- Solution Focused Therapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Trauma Informed Mindfulness Interventions
I am flexible and sensitive in using whatever is appropriate for the client’s needs.
Walter Franks
ACC Provider, Thames/Coromandel/Hauraki
Ko Walter Franks toku ingoa, no te uri ahau ki Ngati kahu ki muri whenua,
tae atu ki te puaha o Waikato, no Ngati Tipa.
My name is Walter Franks. I come from the far north region, from a little place called Awanui, just outside of Kaitaia. I also come from the Mouth of the Waikato river around the Tuakau region.
I am a father of 4 and a grandfather of 8 mokopuna. I have been working in the ACC space for over 3 and a half years in the Hauraki/Coromandel region. My clinical background is based in the addictions field as an Alcohol and Other Drug clinician. I have worked in the social services sector for the last 20 years and am registered with DAPPANZ. I also hold a supervisor Tohu, as a clinical and cultural supervisor. I have a double diploma in Addictions and a Degree in cultural supervision. My focus is from a Bicultural lens and my therapy approach (Oranga pathway) is based on Maori concepts or matapono (values). The basis of my practise stems from Whakawhanaungatanga i.e. creating connection external / internal. I utilise the skills of Purakau, oratory form, to provide context and creative exploration of Trauma (mamae) which leads into the whai ora and sharing Pukorero (your own story). Working in this way allows for a range of different concepts of healing and supports a journey from Te Kore (the realm of Nothingness ) into Te po ( the realm of Darkness ) into ki te wheiao ( the realm of potential ). The final journey, into a space of active wellbeing Te Ao marama (the world of Light ). This journey is based on our own exploration of trauma into wellbeing (tenei to po nau mai te ao ) developing whakaaro insight into whaka piki pukenga (increasing our skills). My working space is often what suits our whaiora. I have shared spaces available in the Paeroa and Thames regions and am working on opening a space in the Waihi region. However, my much preferred space is to work in the Taiao (natural environment) beside Tangaroa (ocean) or inside the Ngahere (forest) o Tane mahuta, where ever is most suitable for the needs of the whaiora. My goal is to work in a way that is simple and easy to engage, I bring with me a number of different skill sets based on lived experiences that incorporate my own journey from darkness into light.
Hei Whakakapi,
Ko te mauri in life
Ko te mauri tu to stand in life.
Ko te mauri in life
Ko te mauri tau to stand in peace.
Ko te mauri in life
Ko te mauri ora to stand in a well life.
Te hei Mauri ora be hold there is life
No rei ra
Te hei Mauri ora
Roimata Taimana
Cultural Support/Kaiawhina
Mihi whakatauki
Ka tangi te tītī
Ka tangi te kākā,
Ka tangi hoki ahau!
Tīhei mauriora!
Ko Moehoe tōku maunga,
Ko Pungapunga tōku awa,
Ko Whangapoua tōku moana,
Ko Ngati Huarere tōku Iwi,
Ko Mangakahia tōku whanau,
Ko Hōne Periri raua ko Mary Mina oku mātua
Ko Roimata Taimana tōku ingoa
No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
Kia ora,
My name is Roimata Taimana, I hail from Te Kawarau-A-Maki Iwi, Titirangi, West Auckland.
But as pathways through life have bumps and turns, so it was that circumstances had given way to a new endeavour in our lives, as I was blessed to become a whangai tamaiti/fostered child, alongside my two younger siblings, we were whangai to our beautiful whanau, the Mangakahia Whanau and was raised in the amazing village called Whangapoua, on the Coromandel Peninsula.
From the age of twelve we learnt to become self-sufficient in the ways of Te ao Māori. Hunting and gathering, bush craft and survival. Living off the land as our Tipuna/ancestors had generations before. The beautiful beaches and the ngahere/bush across this rohe/area was the perfect place for children to grow and learn such skills and it remains my kaiako/teacher to this day.
‘For when the ngahere is fruitful and abundant and the awa flows clean and alive, so too shall the people. But when the ngahere is dry and sparce and the awa flows dirty and dying, so too shall the people. ‘
I am an artist of sorts, poet, actor, singer song writer, I love making music and sharing moments of gratitude within the resonance of sound and lyrics, movements, and beats. Sitting around a fire with whanau and friends and simply being. My artwork, fine ink drawing, reflects the connection to Ranginui, Papatuanuku, Moana, awa, whenua and ngahere. Sky, earth, ocean, river, land, and forest.
I started working in the mental health space two years ago after spending most of my life as a tradie in construction and landscaping and working in hospitality. I love talking with people and finding a common connection – I’ve lived many lives so can usually find something to connect with people on. At Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, as a Māori health provider based in Whitianga on the Coromandel, I have worked with the concept of Mauri Ora to help build healthy whanau by maintaining the core values through my practice. This involves focusing on concepts such as whakapapa, tikanga, mana, mauri, tapu and wairua.