Suzana Sagadin

I specialise in trauma informed counselling for children (7+) and their parents/caregivers, adolescents and individuals. My work is person-centred, and I use a range of different therapeutic approaches, most often a mixture between Brief Solution Focused Therapy and Internal Family Systems.

My work is underpinned by Te Tiriti’s principles of Partnership, Protection and Participation and the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) Code of Ethics.

Common issues I can support you with are:

• attachment issues
• parenting through and after the separation, issues with different parenting styles
• school refusal, self-harm, sleeping problems, separation anxiety, abandonment issues
• grief, anxiety, sadness, depression, anger
• challenges with mental health and wellbeing including mild and moderate trauma issues (see description bellow)

Trauma robs you of the feeling that you are in charge of yourself, of self-leadership. The challenge of recovery is to reestablish ownership of your body and your mind – of yourself. This means feeling free to know what you know and to feel what you feel without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, ashamed, or collapsed.

For most people this involves:

• Finding a way to become calm and focused
• Learning to maintain that calm in response to images, thoughts, sounds, or physical sensations that remind you of the past
• Finding a way to be fully alive in the present and engaged with the people around you
• Not having to keep secrets from yourself, including secrets about the ways that you have managed to survive.

I am ready to offer my support and guidance to you on your journey through these stages that most often overlap as well as with recognising, validating and healing the imprints of the trauma on body, mind and soul:

• the crushing sensations in your chest that you may label as anxiety or depression;
• the fear of losing control;
• always being on alert for threats and rejection;
• the self-loathing;
• the nightmares and flashbacks;
• the fog that keeps you from staying on task and from engaging fully in what you are doing;
• being unable to fully open your heart to another human being.

(description of trauma taken from the book The body keeps the score by Bessel van der Kolk)

About Me

Originally, I am from Slovenia and I immigrated to New Zealand with my two children (now adults) 15 years ago. I started literally from zero – as a vineyard worker in Marlborough vineyards, with no NZ recognised education and I worked my way up to Masters in Counselling at Canterbury University. I worked as a guidance counsellor in primary and secondary schools in Christchurch. I was a Clinical Leader and a counsellor at Skylight Trust in Wellington as well as Programme Clinical leader in a well-being project Brave Waves.  This project sought to provide a framework and baseline programme for schools, communities, whanāu, hapū and iwi. I am a facilitator for Parenting through Separation courses (Ministry of Justice) in Wellington and Lower Hutt. Right now I am working to become Internal Family Systems certified practitioner.