Cultural Identity as a Source of Strength in Therapy

Honouring your roots, your story, and your healing

In therapy, the focus is often on healing pain or finding relief from what’s not working. But equally important -  and sometimes overlooked - is what’s already within you. Cultural identity is not just a background detail; it can be a powerful foundation for growth, belonging, and strength.

Whether your culture is something you feel deeply connected to, or something you’re still exploring, it carries stories, values, languages, and ways of knowing that shape how you move through the world. In therapy, these aren’t things to be set aside - they are honoured, respected, and welcomed into the space.

Acknowledging Te Tiriti and Tangata Whenua

This practice is grounded in a commitment to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and uphold the mana of tangata whenua. That means recognising the unique place of Māori as the Indigenous people of Aotearoa - and ensuring that the therapeutic space supports tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), whakawhanaungatanga (connection), and culturally safe practice for all.

Whether through wairua, whakapapa, pūrākau or everyday lived experience, Māori ways of knowing and healing are deeply valued and welcomed here.

Why does cultural identity matter in therapy?

Because healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
It happens in context - shaped by the land you’re from, the people who raised you, the stories passed down, and the spaces you’ve felt safe (or unsafe) being yourself.

Some of us come from cultures that value collectivism and whānau. Others have grown up navigating multiple worlds. Some carry intergenerational trauma. Others carry deep ancestral wisdom.

All of it matters. All of it is welcome.

In our work together:

We honour the worldviews and traditions that have shaped you - not as “add-ons”, but as integral to your healing.

We talk about your lived experience with identity, race, spirituality, language, whakapapa, or marginalisation - without needing to explain or translate your humanity.

We explore how colonisation, racism, displacement, or cultural silence may have affected your sense of self - and how to gently restore that connection.

We celebrate the resilience that lives in your story - the survival, humour, wisdom, and strength that brought you here.

You don’t have to leave parts of yourself at the door to access therapy.
You can bring your full self - and let that be the starting place.

Whether you’re Māori, Pasifika, Pākehā, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Latinx, Rainbow, or come from a blend of cultures and beliefs - your identity is a source of insight, not something to be explained away.

This is your space. We go at your pace.

Book a free 20 minute call if this feels like the kind of support you’ve been looking for.