The Team

By Dr Jeremy Baker, Clinical Director

I am delighted with the team that we have developed at HeartSpace. Two years into operation, and we have
established a tight group that includes specialist nurses, a psychiatrist and GP, and community trainers.

We believe that we have developed something that can support the difficult issues that Covid-19 has put in front of us! We have been encouraged by the collaborations we have developed, with both secular mental health partners and religious groups.

Our programme has been developed according to clinical best practice in community and primary mental health care. It includes important elements of empathy, compassion, emotional resonance and spirituality.  
The overall mental health needs in New Zealand are growing, and not merely because of Covid-19. It is on account of longstanding community and historical issues, economic and financial stress, poverty, inequity, global warming, youth issues, suicide ideation, and overall growing anxiety and depression.

HeartSpace wants to see expanded knowledge and wisdom within mental health as it works alongside faith communities and others who seek to address these types of issues.

The journey so far…

We have now run four courses of HeartSpace Part One, which is the starting point for the Mental Health Coach training programme. These have included nearly 100 students. We also completed our first HeartSpace Part Two programme with 25 students in November 2021. This was designed to deepen the mental health knowledge and practical skills of the Part One course. We advise our students that this will set them on the path towards considering a counselling degree with either Vision or Laidlaw College.

We have been especially grateful to the Chinese congregations in Christchurch who have made a
substantial contribution to our course numbers. We especially thank Pastor Allen Hou who has been
a driving force for Chinese participation, and to psychiatrist Dr Jason Chang (pictured right) who
has joined our teaching team.

We are also immensely grateful for Natalie Frauenstein who has been with us from the start.
Natalie has been a key player in the design and delivery of the HeartSpace programmes.

We welcome Sharon Yule into her new role as administrator, and say goodbye to Sara Kakoi. Sara is deeply
loved by us all and will be greatly missed. However, we are delighted and grateful for the new skills and
enthusiasm that Sharon brings to us.

Our most recent HeartSpace was held in Nelson. This was supported by the Anglican Diocese. We ran a block-course over two weekends in November, and received good feedback from our participants. We look forward to our future relationship with them. We have also had enquires from Hamilton and Tauranga. Let’s see what happens in 2022!