Talk therapy involves meeting a trained professional to talk about the issues you’re experiencing.
There are many different types of therapy that have different goals and ways of helping you to address what you’re experiencing. For example, some therapies may aim to explore what you have experienced across your life and how that impacts who you are today, while others focus on what is happening right now and how to solve it.
How could it be helpful?
Talk therapies can help you to understand what you’re experiencing, why, and identify what you could do to change that experience. There are many different types of talk therapies. You might want to try some out to find which will work for you. There is more information on talk therapies in Te Pou’s guide to talking therapies in New Zealand.
Here are some examples of talk therapies:
Addictions counselling
Addictions counselling is a form of counselling that focuses on helping you make changes to your drug use. This could be for you if you want to focus your discussions on your use of drugs.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Solution-Focused Therapy focuses on your future and identifying immediate solutions rather than focusing on the problems that you’re experiencing. Learn more about Solution-Focused Therapy.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping you to accept difficult thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or avoiding them. It can help you to commit to actions that align with who you want to be, even when you’re feeling distressed. Together with techniques like mindfulness, you will build skills to adapt to life’s challenges and live meaningfully alongside discomfort. This works well for people who use drugs to try and fight or avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that a person's thoughts, emotions, behaviour and bodily sensations are all connected. CBT is a very practical approach that helps you identify specific problems and take clear actions to solve them. It works well for people who learn through preparing and then practicing.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) can help you manage intense emotions. It is an adaptation of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for people who experience high levels of distress and intense emotions, making it useful for people who have experienced trauma (such as PTSD) to build new skills. It focuses on skills like mindfulness, distress tolerance (your capacity to stay calm during emotionally painful situations), emotion regulation (skills to control how you feel), and interpersonal effectiveness (relating well with other people).
Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy is a form of counselling that helps you separate yourself from their problems and rewrite your narrative (story) to help you feel more empowered to make changes. It can help give new meaning to past experiences and shape how you see yourself and the world.
Kaupapa Māori talk therapy
There are a large range of talk therapy approaches that are based on mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge); tikanga Māori (Māori customs); and te ao Māori (a Māori worldview). These include:
- Wānanga – a traditional style of hui (meeting), kōrero (discussion), and ako (learning) that is used for sharing knowledge and practices.
- Models that guide exploration, such as:
- Pōwhiri Poutama – a process that reflects what happens in a pōwhiri (whakamoemiti, spiritual mental preparations, whakatau/establishing relations, whakapuaki/establishing issues, whakatangi/release of emotions or grieving, whakarata/establishing a plan, whakaoranga/engaging in wellbeing actions, and whakaotinga (closure to create new beginnings).
- Pae Tata Pae Tawhiti – a process to support people to explore their drug use and mental health by tiro whāiti (raising concerns), aronga (exploring concerns), tūmanako (encouraging wellbeing), and anga whamua (moving forward).
- Mahi a atua use indigenous knowledge to guide their wānanga and mahi (work).
- Using pūrākau (historic stories), karakia (prayer), and whakapapa (history and genealogy) to explore your situation and connection to others and te taiao (the natural world).
Pacific talk therapy (for New Zealand)
A common approach used in New Zealand is the Talanoa approach. Talanoa is a concept familiar to many Pacific cultures, and refers to traditional processes for having conversations. In these conversations, reciprocal respect is given to the relationships between people, the vā (a physical or emotional space on which relationship is built between people and between people and the environment), and the context of the conversation and relationships in place and time. Some services have created frameworks to guide their work, such as the Matalafi Matrix used by Tupu Services.
Asian talk therapy (for New Zealand)
Asian Family Services use an Integrated Tree model. This model helps to explore a migration journey – uprooting and moving into new ‘soil’ and then integrating into a new environment. This helps identify what support could help to build ‘stronger roots’ and work towards better health and wellbeing.
It can also be helpful to find support by searching for the type of professional rather than the types of therapy they use. These professionals are likely to use some of the types of talk therapies listed above, and many will blend some together to suit your situation.
Here are some examples of registered professionals in New Zealand who provide talk therapies:
- Addictions Practitioners – Registered health professionals who support people with alcohol and other drug, gambling, or other addiction-related challenges.
- Counsellors – Trained professionals who help people explore personal challenges and develop coping strategies.
- Psychologists – Registered health practitioners who assess and treat mental health issues.
- Health Improvement Practitioners – Health professionals based in a general practice (local doctors’ clinic) who provide free, immediate support for mental health, addiction, and wellbeing concerns.
- Psychotherapists – Registered health practitioners who use talk therapy to help people heal from emotional distress, often working with deeper, long-term psychological patterns.
- Psychiatrists also can provide talk therapy alongside mental health assessment, treatment, medication, and other approaches.
How to access?
You can use Health Point or the Family Services Directory to find a counsellor/therapist in your area. The Mental Health Foundation outlines the other ways you can find a low cost or free therapist:
- To find low cost or free counselling in your area search the Family Services Directory or contact your local Citizen Advice Bureau (CAB).
- Your GP or health practitioner can refer you to local low-cost services. They can also support you to apply for a WINZ disability allowance that may include access to up to 10 free counselling sessions or to additional funding, if recommended.
- If you are in paid employment, you may have access to free confidential counselling through your company’s employee assistance programme (EAP) provider – talk to your employer.
- Most tertiary institutes (e.g., universities, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa) offer free counselling services.
- Local Women’s or Men’s Centres may have details of local low-cost counselling practices or offer low-cost counselling themselves.
- Local youth centres often have health hubs that offer counselling services.
- ACC funds support following sexual violence, if it occurred in New Zealand. Visit the Find Support website to find an ACC-registered therapist.
Real experiences
“The big exploration of my childhood and dreams and stuff never really vibed with me. As soon as I tried CBT though it really clicked. The explanation of how my thoughts are affecting my emotions made a lot of sense, and I loved that I had really practical techniques to use. Even though I’m much better these days, I still use those techniques when I’m feeling shitty.”
- Anon