Pumahara Consultants provide expertise for your personal and professional development. This expertise includes meaningful training, professional supervision and mentoring and other workplace focussed consultancy.

"Another great and workshop from Chris as usual. Always interesting and lots of knowledge is shared from Chris. I have a better understanding of anxiety."

"Thinking about what pushes my own buttons to be able to be more self aware was useful. Understanding the different stages and also the different types of anger also great. Plenty of key phrases to take away from the case studies too. Breakaways was fun but very practical."

“Scenarios and looking at real life examples were practical and relevant, learning about pre-screening especially what to ask prior to a visit was so important, and to always plan and prepare before going to a new visit.”

"Case studies and inputs around distinguishing whether a behaviour is a mental health issue or just a behavioural issues were so useful."

“Reinforced that the best way to deescalate a situation is to take the time to show empathy, caring and value of the person. Also I thought it was great advice that you should try and think of 3 options for someone that allows them to feel they have choice in the situation. Stop and purposefully take a deep breathe before responding so you can set aside your own triggers.”

"Thoroughly enjoyed Chris's workshop today. Love all the knowledge she shares with the class and always leave there with lots of valuable information I can use when working with clients and supporting family members. Really got a lot out of the workshop - Dr. Chris was extremely informative and did a fantastic job! Chris was an awesome, engaging and enthusiastic facilitator whose knowledge and wealth of experience were clear and invaluable to adding depth to the workshop I will apply what I have learnt by trying to better support my clients and family who are struggling with mental health issues. So much great information shared by Chris today which can be applied while supporting someone."

"Thank you for allowing us to have you facilitate the MHFA here in Te Teko it was an absolutely stunning wananga and I’ve received feedback from our whanau and they have benefited immensely from your delivery, the dynamic, the setting and feeling empowered to implements the framework around MHFA and particularly ALGEE. I’ve personally spoken to 10 of the 13 attendees and they had nothing be praise and admiration for your openness, life experience and really bringing the level of engagement and understanding through during the wananga. To me those are signs of a stellar facilitator.

From my observations we pulled in all elements to ensure the integrity of the wānanga was maintained in a space of cultural safety which is extremely important given the nature of the wānanga and this could only be upheld by a tohunga and to have our Tāne present."

I was one of your students in 2021/2022. I’m emailing now just to let you know how helpful I have found some of the advice you gave me.

I remember you talking about nursing ethics, and reconciling personal values with practical ethics. You talked about the idea that we don’t give up our values when we work as a nurse, rather, it’s more like holding them in a backpack - they’re always with us, but we don’t have to have them out in front of us all the time.

I have just finished my first nursing placement and today I faced a situation that brought your backpack analogy to mind. In short, the patient is palliative, her family is unwilling to accept this and as a result, has made the legal decision to deny the mum opiates as pain relief. I helped to sponge bath the patient today, and it was incredibly distressing and painful for her.

I found this very confronting, but I remembered your backpack analogy: I felt the patient’s family was making the wrong decision, I was angry about it, but I held all my thoughts and feelings separate to what I was doing in the moment. I was able to work quickly and gently, and I talked to the patient all the time, explaining what we were doing and acknowledging that she didn’t feel good.

Your backpack analogy helped me. I was able to acknowledge, to myself, that I was angry, that I didn’t think this was right. I could also acknowledge that it was not my decision to make, that I needed to abide by the decision maker’s choice, and that my role was to do all I could within my scope to be compassionate to my patient. And I had my backpack, it didn’t change what I believe, and I could unpack it later. I shared this analogy with my facilitator and the rest of my student cohort, and they said they thought it was really useful.

I’m not emailing you to debrief - I have done that, and I am comfortable. Today, one of your lessons landed for me, and I wanted to say thank you.