Toni Finlayson

Whether you are experiencing depression or anxiety, family or relationship issues, or trying to manage work and life stress, it takes courage to ask for help. I can provide you with a fresh perspective on your challenges and work with you to find tools and strategies to help you live your best life.

My specialty areas are:

• drug, alcohol and other addictions
• couples therapy
• trauma and abuse
• anxiety
• depression
• adolescents’ issues
• relationship concerns
• men’s issues
• grief and loss
• medical/health issues
• workplace issues
• work/life balance

Counselling Services

It would be a privilege to work with you to help you achieve your goals for counselling.

One of my areas of interest is addiction. We can look at how your addictive behaviour is affecting your life and that of those around you. We can discuss what changes you want to make and look at what’s behind your using, and in particular consider the effects of stress and trauma in your early years. I also work with Partners and families affected by a loved one with addiction on the best way to support them.

I am excited to work with couples, particularly on how to communicate better, how to improve or rescue your relationship or recover from an affair. I will create the space and ask the questions that enable change to take place. I use a number of couples therapy modalities including PORT.

I also provide trauma informed care in a safe setting, where I will work with you gently and kindly to help you resolve trauma symptoms and relieve chronic stress by resetting your nervous system using mind/body therapies.

Covid-19 has created unprecedented challenges for many of us to navigate, causing anxiety, fear, loss and lack of motivation and purpose. We can work together to make sense of this and make a plan to help you move forward.

Counselling Approach

I don’t believe in a one-size fits all approach. I use a strengths-based, holistic approach incorporating aspects of narrative therapy, CBT, ACT, motivational interviewing and solution-focussed therapy to help people bring about change in their lives and maintain that change. I am also trained in Emotional Freedom Techniques (Tapping) and BrainWorking Recursive Therapy® (BWRT®), a new approach grounded in science that uses psychological processes to recondition neural pathways in the brain that lead to unwanted behaviours. I will work at your pace, in a confidential and non-judgemental manner, supporting you to achieve your goals for counselling.

I welcome people of all ethnicities and cultures.

About Me

I am a Pakeha New Zealander, Mother and Partner and since 2005 have been working in the mental health, addictions and counselling fields, following a career in the business world. I started as a voluntary counsellor at Lifeline and moved onto work as a Gambling Counsellor, Smoking Cessation Practitioner, Mental Health Support Worker, Private Counsellor and Drug and Alcohol Practitioner. I have my own experience of alcohol addiction, anxiety and depression, which gives me an understanding of the pain and suffering these experiences bring and knowledge of what is involved in the journey to wellness.