A wild journey began a while ago when seeking change and taking responsiblity for creating the life I want, I sold my house, quit my job and took to the road in Hilda the Bus.
Following a quest that begain when I was 11 years old, I had a knowing about the destructiveness of the modern patriarchal culture that we live in and the harm it causes to humanity. At that time, I remember writing a 4 page essay on my abhorrence of war. Even though there were no ethical values or religion in my childhood home, I had an intuitive knowledge that everyone in the world has brothers & sisters, mothers & fathers, sons & daughters, so I thought how could anyone purposely harm or kill some-one else’s beloved family member.
I’m sure now that I brought this knowledge from many lifetimes before. War to me is one of the crimes against humanity, and domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual abuse is akin to war in the home.
Uncles, fathers & grandfathers inflicted the girls and women in my family with abuse and I, along with my sister and mother, became targets. The suffering of women at the hands of men was a catalyst for me to become an agent of social change.
There was always within me a combination of a love for humanity and rage, sadness and fear for the crimes committed against people, especially women and children.
I began running away from home after I was expelled from High School where I was branded a trouble-maker at the age of 15. My family of origin home was in an industrial area of Christchurch. I gave birth to my first son when I was 18 then another son 5 years later. My dream was to raise my boys in the countryside, away from the concrete jungle and I realised this dream when I moved to an intentional community at 21 yrs old in Golden Bay.
Fast forward another 40 years after many powerful healing experiences, I had trained and qualified as a Psychodramatist while completing a degree in Psychology. After meeting
3 main influences in my Life:
1st Influence Feminism.
In my 20s Feminism which we then called Women's Liberation influenced me to rebel against all that was expected of women. It gave me the confidence to carve out a life for myself without being in bondage to a man, like my mother was. However with 2 sons, who I loved dearly, the love of men was also alive in me.
“We can make a revolution with a smile in our eyes and love in our hearts” was a motto from one of those early feminist books. I was never a ‘man-hating” kind of feminist but there was definitely a rage in me.
2nd Influence Spirituality and Buddhism
At a young age I would ask if I could go to the church down the road. I love to sing hymns and was always seeking something spiritual, always looking for a better way to live. At 21 I changed my name to Renee, which in my mind meant reborn and baptized myself in the waters of the Anatoki River. Although I couldn't go along with the hypocrisy in the Christian church, I was guided for a while by some Bible study. There was a scripture in Revelations that promised a new body, a new mind and a new heart and the life of the spirit. I was up for that.
I have taken vows in the Mahayana tradition. A person I much admire is his holiness the Dalai Lama who is our root teacher. He inspires me because he and his fellow Tibetans have suffered so much at the hands of the Chinese government and yet have suffered so much at the hands of the Chinese government and yet for the nuns and monks who were tortured terribly; the greatest fear was that they would lose compassion for their torturers.. I have always loved books and one of my favourites is the Book of Joy where his holiness and Archbishop Tutu from South Africa were celebrating his 80th birthday. Such joy they had in being together and so much had they and their people suffered. The African indigenous people under apartheid and the Tibetan people under the Chinese regime.The two them giggled and teased each other as if they were eight-year-old innocent friends. Hearts open and full of joy. Here it is, exactly what has always been alive in me, the spiritual love and compassion in the face of atrocities. What huge hearts these two men have and I have a sense of that huge heart and me.
3rd Influence Healing of the Human Heart,Body, Spirit and Mind.
After 25 years of practice as a Psychodramatist, 10 years as a DBT practitioner and Sex Therapist and a familiarity with Imago Therapy & Couples Counselling and a BA Psychology. The most life changing thing I have ever done was to attend an introductory training called Expand the Box and there I found an exciting new path exploring the Power of Conscious Feelings and Radical Responsibility. This path has opened up many doorways for my growth and expanded my world view which has catapulted me out of my old life into something completely new. Hence selling my home, winding up my practice and joining forces with a group of open hearted, highly skilled people who are committed to creating a sustainable, abundant,radically honest culture.
Healing, Growth and Evolution
Nowdays I am working part time as a Coach, Counsellor, Psychotherapist with a background in Psychodrama and as an Agent of Transformation courageously exploring both my own inner world and that of others. I love to co-create a space where adults can heal and become truly responsible for themselves, their relationships and this planet.
Passionate about biculturalism I have a deep respect for Māori culture in Aotearoa NZ.
I offer a skillful approach to the problems of Anxiety and Depression, Coaching for Couples and Living Fully Groups for Women to Heal from Sexual Abuse.
Continually I open my heart wider and wider, feel and express my feelings and speak my truth continuing to empower myself and heal from a childhood where abuse and neglect were the norm.
In these last 20 or so years of my lfe, my passion is to offer deep healing to those who have experienced trauma, and to assist parents to be the kind of parents they really want to be.
My professional Background
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