Dragonfly Counselling

By Tish Nel

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Community,



NZ $105 pledged


2 people pledged


Closed


NZ $70,000 minimum target


0 0% Complete

This campaign failed to reach its target by 13/10/2016 at 7:00 PM (NZDT) and is now closed.

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About

Dragonfly Counselling

Project 2016-08-23 10:02:40 +1200

Dragonfly Counselling would like to run a childrens' counselling practice for one year, at a highly subsidised charge to parents. After this year I would become eligible for funds from other sources, and can continue my work in that way.

So many children need counselling to help them deal with their feelings before these issues turn into major problems as they reach their teenage and adult years. Emotional turmoil in children presents as behaviour problems, withdrawal and academic regression. If not sorted early enough, these issues just increase. Often, with young children, problems can be quickly resolved if caught early.

This seems so obvious to me, yet the government, in their wisdom, have insufficient funding for this demographics’ mental health. The money raised will subsidise counselling sessions for children whose parents cannot afford the full cost.  Counsellors usually charge upwards of $60 and hour, but I can work at under $45 a session which includes all expenses such as supervision costs, travel expenses, taxes and resources. I am not looking to get rich, just to make a livable wage while helping children.

 

The bump in this road is that many schools and parents struggle to afford counselling, and there are not that many counsellors who specialise in primary children.

My aim is to offer over 1 350 hours of counselling in a year. If a set of sessions is 8 hours, this means we can reach almost 120 children a year. I plan to work with individuals, siblings and whole families.

 

My goal is to fund one counsellor, but have a stretched goal that will allow me to bring in a second counsellor and so reach more children.

 

A SUCCESS STORY or TWO

(Retold with permission; genders and ages may have been changed to ensure anonymity and privacy)

My client, a twelve year old girl, had been having horrible nightmares in which her parents and two younger siblings were hurt or killed in very violent ways, and she could not do anything except watch them suffer. Her lack of sleep was catching up with her, and her night-time worries had spilled over into her waking life. She was falling asleep in class, and was struggling academically. Her usual easy-going self had become unhappy and erratic, with some severe mood swings. Her friendships were suffering, which just added to her general unhappiness.

 We did some art therapy around her dreams, and it turned out that she had an older sister who was a violent schizophrenic. My client was at an age where  she understood the threat and pain her older sister posed her family, but was still young enough to have no power in the situation. We worked on empowering her to support her family in realistic, age appropriate ways. We also worked on her conflicting feelings of anger and grief and love for her sister. The nightmares stopped.

A six year old boy had been showing heightened behaviour at school, with a significant increase in violent behaviour and a drop in academic performance. He was about to be stood down...in year 2!

I saw him, and used play therapy to connect with him. His play was violent and indicated an unresolved issue. At one point, he had his toy pirate scream “You will die – you have cancer with permission”.

I knew his mother had been diagnosed and was in remission from bowel cancer. He had overheard a conversation about this, but did not understand what he had heard (permission and remission sound alike, and he believed cancer was automatically fatal). His issue was that he believed he was about to lose his mother, and was intensely afraid and sad.

I could then explain the truth to him, work with him to understand his own pain, and help him talk to his mother about his pain. His negative behaviour and poor academic performance stopped almost immediately.

 

 ABOUT ME... 

My Name is Tish Nel, and I am married with two teenage daughters (and am still relatively sane). I was born in South Africa, and have been living in New Zealand for almost six years. Moving to New Zealand is the best thing I have ever done for my family.

I wanted to teach since I was five years old. When I started teaching, I fell, by accident, into teaching mildly intellectually diSabled children with high behaviours (I have a postgrad degree in special education). I soon found that the counselling side of my job did far more good than alll the reading, writing and maths I could deliver. When my students began to resolve some of their emotional issues, their academic and behaviour functioning showed dramatic improvement.

After retraining as a counsellor and family therapist, I found a job with the most amazing agency here in New Zealand. We are a residential facility that offers intensive therapeutic, trauma informed care for children. I want to continue this therapeutic work in my community.

 

ABOUT MY PRACTICE... 

My practice is called Dragonfly as the dragonfly, across many cultures, represents change. The dragonfly is about emotional awareness and bringing lightness and joy into your life.

 

ARTICLES TO READ... 

 

http://www.nzac.org.nz/counselling_aotearoa_news.cfm?articleID=470&page_obj_id=53

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/82498037/Sexualisation-of-children-an-issue-that-needs-to-be-faced

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10416007

 

 

http://www.nzac.org.nz/counselling_aotearoa_news.cfm?articleID=538&page_obj_id=53

Comments

Updates

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We haven't made any updates yet, follow us if you want to be notified when we do.

Pledgers 2

Warrick Isaachsen
18/09/2016 at 8:17am
Lily-Rose Redshaw
14/09/2016 at 7:15pm

"I think this is an excellent idea. Our children are the future and so many are being effected daily with no help available."

Followers

Followers of Dragonfly Counselling

Dragonfly Counselling

Project 2016-08-23 10:02:40 +1200

Dragonfly Counselling would like to run a childrens' counselling practice for one year, at a highly subsidised charge to parents. After this year I would become eligible for funds from other sources, and can continue my work in that way.

So many children need counselling to help them deal with their feelings before these issues turn into major problems as they reach their teenage and adult years. Emotional turmoil in children presents as behaviour problems, withdrawal and academic regression. If not sorted early enough, these issues just increase. Often, with young children, problems can be quickly resolved if caught early.

This seems so obvious to me, yet the government, in their wisdom, have insufficient funding for this demographics’ mental health. The money raised will subsidise counselling sessions for children whose parents cannot afford the full cost.  Counsellors usually charge upwards of $60 and hour, but I can work at under $45 a session which includes all expenses such as supervision costs, travel expenses, taxes and resources. I am not looking to get rich, just to make a livable wage while helping children.

 

The bump in this road is that many schools and parents struggle to afford counselling, and there are not that many counsellors who specialise in primary children.

My aim is to offer over 1 350 hours of counselling in a year. If a set of sessions is 8 hours, this means we can reach almost 120 children a year. I plan to work with individuals, siblings and whole families.

 

My goal is to fund one counsellor, but have a stretched goal that will allow me to bring in a second counsellor and so reach more children.

 

A SUCCESS STORY or TWO

(Retold with permission; genders and ages may have been changed to ensure anonymity and privacy)

My client, a twelve year old girl, had been having horrible nightmares in which her parents and two younger siblings were hurt or killed in very violent ways, and she could not do anything except watch them suffer. Her lack of sleep was catching up with her, and her night-time worries had spilled over into her waking life. She was falling asleep in class, and was struggling academically. Her usual easy-going self had become unhappy and erratic, with some severe mood swings. Her friendships were suffering, which just added to her general unhappiness.

 We did some art therapy around her dreams, and it turned out that she had an older sister who was a violent schizophrenic. My client was at an age where  she understood the threat and pain her older sister posed her family, but was still young enough to have no power in the situation. We worked on empowering her to support her family in realistic, age appropriate ways. We also worked on her conflicting feelings of anger and grief and love for her sister. The nightmares stopped.

A six year old boy had been showing heightened behaviour at school, with a significant increase in violent behaviour and a drop in academic performance. He was about to be stood down...in year 2!

I saw him, and used play therapy to connect with him. His play was violent and indicated an unresolved issue. At one point, he had his toy pirate scream “You will die – you have cancer with permission”.

I knew his mother had been diagnosed and was in remission from bowel cancer. He had overheard a conversation about this, but did not understand what he had heard (permission and remission sound alike, and he believed cancer was automatically fatal). His issue was that he believed he was about to lose his mother, and was intensely afraid and sad.

I could then explain the truth to him, work with him to understand his own pain, and help him talk to his mother about his pain. His negative behaviour and poor academic performance stopped almost immediately.

 

 ABOUT ME... 

My Name is Tish Nel, and I am married with two teenage daughters (and am still relatively sane). I was born in South Africa, and have been living in New Zealand for almost six years. Moving to New Zealand is the best thing I have ever done for my family.

I wanted to teach since I was five years old. When I started teaching, I fell, by accident, into teaching mildly intellectually diSabled children with high behaviours (I have a postgrad degree in special education). I soon found that the counselling side of my job did far more good than alll the reading, writing and maths I could deliver. When my students began to resolve some of their emotional issues, their academic and behaviour functioning showed dramatic improvement.

After retraining as a counsellor and family therapist, I found a job with the most amazing agency here in New Zealand. We are a residential facility that offers intensive therapeutic, trauma informed care for children. I want to continue this therapeutic work in my community.

 

ABOUT MY PRACTICE... 

My practice is called Dragonfly as the dragonfly, across many cultures, represents change. The dragonfly is about emotional awareness and bringing lightness and joy into your life.

 

ARTICLES TO READ... 

 

http://www.nzac.org.nz/counselling_aotearoa_news.cfm?articleID=470&page_obj_id=53

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/82498037/Sexualisation-of-children-an-issue-that-needs-to-be-faced

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10416007

 

 

http://www.nzac.org.nz/counselling_aotearoa_news.cfm?articleID=538&page_obj_id=53

Comments

Hey! Thanks for checking out this project.

We haven't made any updates yet, follow us if you want to be notified when we do.

Warrick Isaachsen
18/09/2016 at 8:17am
Lily-Rose Redshaw
14/09/2016 at 7:15pm

"I think this is an excellent idea. Our children are the future and so many are being effected daily with no help available."

Followers of Dragonfly Counselling

This campaign was unsuccessful and finished on 13/10/2016 at 7:00 PM.