About

I'm Lisa

Certified Havening Techniques® Practitioner. Red Beach, Auckland.

Lisa smiling at the camera in a green corduroy jacket, standing at a marina with boats and a sunny sky behind her.

The short version

I trained in psychology and counselling. I spent a long time in the world of talking things through, and I still believe in it.

I also came to believe that talking was not always getting people all the way to where they wanted to be. You can understand something completely and still feel it in your body every time it comes up. That gap is what bothered me, and it is what sent me looking for a different way of working.

Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score put words to that gap better than I had managed to. I bought it in a bookshop in Raglan. Fast forward three years and I was on the Havening course in Raglan, right next door to the shop I had bought it from. I am not sure what to call that other than serendipitous.

How I found Havening

I heard about it on a podcast, of all places.

What caught me was that it did not ask people to go back through the worst of it out loud. That is a lot to ask of someone, and it is the reason plenty of people never walk into a room like mine in the first place.

It also seemed flexible in a way I liked. It meets people where they are rather than putting them through a process.

And it hands people something they can use themselves. In all honesty that was one of the most important parts for me, long before I found Havening. Having the skill in your own hands rather than only in mine mattered to me. I will say the honest version too: for the bigger things, it is better done alongside a practitioner than on your own.

Then I experienced it myself

This is the part I did not see coming.

I went in curious and professional about it. I tried it on something I had kept hidden for years and had never spoken about to anyone, a thing I carried a lot of shame about. I was not expecting to be laughing about it while telling my husband later that same day.

I signed up for the course, and for a session of my own, the next day.

I do not think you can offer someone something you have not been through yourself. Not properly.

What I bring

A background in psychology and counselling. I am not using it officially here, but it does shape how I listen, how I think about what you bring in psychological terms, and how I use compassion in the room. All of that came out of the training, and none of it switched off when I changed what I offer.

And the other thing, which is harder to put on a qualifications list. I have had my own difficult stretches. That is where the compassion comes from, and it matters more to me than technique does. Technique is learnable.

Sitting with someone without flinching or fixing is a different skill.

What I believe

That no one should have to face their hard things on their own. That is where the name Thrive Together came from, and it is not a slogan, it is the actual reason I do this.

I work with people from all walks of life. I am not here to judge what you bring, rank it against anyone else's, or tell you it is not that bad.

Qualifications

Certified Havening Techniques Practitioner. Trained October 2025, certified April 2026. Certification and practitioner standards are at havening.org.
Postgraduate qualification in counselling and guidance
Bachelor of Arts, majoring in psychology

I am not a registered health practitioner under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act — not a psychologist, psychotherapist or counsellor. Havening is not psychotherapy, and I will always tell you when something belongs with a registered professional rather than with me.

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