Ko Te ahu patiki te mauka

Ko Koukourarata te awa

Ko Tahupotiki te takata

Ko Tutehuarewa te Marae 

Ko Kāti Irakehu te hapu

Ko Kai Tahu raua kati porou oku iwi. 

Ko Kuru raua ko Mere Gray oku matua

Ko Wiremu Gray toku ingoa. 

Wiremu has been a Māori specialist counsellor for over twenty years. He has been a cultural and clinical supervisor for several years as well. He supports NZAC counsellors in gaining their cultural competency through the New Zealand association of counsellors.

Wiremu is also a lecturer at Vision College, and he supports the students on the Canterbury Master of Counselling programme as well.  He also works in growing leaders of NGOs, social services, and Schools in growing in their cultural capacity, leadership, and responsiveness. He has successfully led the CAYAD (Community Action, Youth & Drugs) a ministry of health initiative, focussing on the goal of reducing the drug harm to youth at a policy and practice level, both regionally and nationally.

Wiremu has a strong passion for the Hauora of our Rangatahi and has spent many years in supporting young people in social services, suicide prevention and high school settings. He has been contracted to several schools throughout the Waitaha region and is known as a highly skilled effective practitioner in the field.

Wiremu is also a qualified Māori wood carver – training at Lincoln University for four years under the tutelage of two master carvers (Tohunga Whakairo) from Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tūhoe. He has several works locally around the Waitaha area.

In the Hauora space, he was fortunate to have worked alongside great practitioners such as Dr Lucy Hone and Dr Denise Quinlan from the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience. This is where Wiremu developed a keen interest in positive psychology and developed his own framework called ‘Te Whare Mauri Ora.’  This has been further supported by Prof Angus Macfarlane and Associate Professor Sonja Macfarlane. This model was published in ‘The Educators Guide to Whole-school Wellbeing’ in 2020 and in the NZAC journal. It has also been published and featured in many other articles.

Wiremu also provides cultural competency training to health practitioners in both primary and secondary health. More recently, he has been supporting the growth of Mana ake, Whāraurau and Auckland Uni services. He is currently training all the Mana ake workers and managers nationally in their cultural responsiveness and on their healing approaches through the holistic model – Te Whare Mauri Ora. To see a brief on his framework please visit: www.manafacilitation.com.