Safe Network

18/12/2025

Safe Network wishes all our community a Merry Christmas. The past year has seen us work with over 800 clients and their families, helping them live safer, healthier and more balanced lives.

We want to acknowledge and thank those Government agencies that make this possible through their funding and support, including Oranga Tamariki/Ministry for Children, Department of Corrections and Ministry of Social Development. Without the long-term commitment and support of these organisations, it would not be possible to do what we do.

May Christmas be a time of refreshment, reflection and hope for everyone in our community.

Safe Network offices will all be closed over the Christmas and New Year period from Monday 22nd December 2025 through to Friday 9th January 2026. During this time there will be no one available at any of our offices to take calls or respond to emails.

If you need immediate help or support for a crisis, please contact the most suitable service. The following may be helpful for you.

Information and Support

Sexual Harm
NZ Police 111
Safe to Talk
0800 044 334
Text 4334
https://zurl.co/gH8Y

Children and Youth
Oranga Tamariki
0508 326 459 - 24 hours
https://zurl.co/5r9r
Kidsline
0800 KIDSLINE
Youthline
0800 376 633
Text 234
https://zurl.co/YLas

Mental Health Lifeline
0800 LIFELINE
https://zurl.co/jqid

Su***de Crisis Helpline
0508 TAUTOKO

Depression Helpline
0800 111 757
Text 4202
https://zurl.co/iIWW

Victim Support
If you are a victim of crime, no matter how serious, support is available.
Find out more by visiting https://zurl.co/IGxL

15/12/2025

Referring young people to Safe Network has just got easier with our new online referral form for youth clients aged 13-17 years. The online form replaces the previous PDF form that required printing off or emailing.

With better security around the client’s personal information, the new online form helps ensure we get all the information we need to review the referral, reducing the need to contact referrers with queries for follow up.

The form can be accessed on https://zurl.co/1iByq with various links at other places on the site.

16/11/2025

Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) is a model we use at Safe Network to support children to recover from trauma and disrupted attachments through parenting, education and therapy. A second cohort of our clinicians have recently attended Level 1 DDP training to develop their skills in supporting parents and caregivers to:

▪️ensure that the child and their behaviour is understood, and that the child feels as safe as is possible at home, in school, and in social activities.

▪️support those who are involved in parenting the child to develop the most effective ways of helping and supporting the child, to manage behaviours that are concerning to the child and to others.

▪️support the child to develop as much attachment security as is possible through consistent and attuned parenting, having a safe place to live in a home that is as permanent as possible.

▪️be proactive with foster and adoptive families, and the networks around them, in promoting the most effective supports and interventions to be in place for the child and the parent(s), such as educational, social, practical as well as therapeutic.

▪️enable whoever is in the most permanent, safest, consistent and attuned primary parenting role with the child, understand the child in the context of their history and experiences.

Our aim, through DDP is to help parents and caregivers to feel safe and connected through the development of healthy patterns of relating and communicating, and staying emotionally connected with their children, especially through times of challenging behaviour.

02/11/2025

Delivering Results

Our focus at Safe Network is on helping our clients develop skills and strategies that will keep themselves and others safe from concerning or harmful sexual behaviour. Every client is different, and we tailor therapy to their individual needs.

Feedback across all client age groups confirms the benefits of this approach for improving client’s skills and reducing risk for the future.

Visit our website for more information about the impact of our services on clients, families and communities https://zurl.co/029xu

20/10/2025

Safe Network’s Kaituhura Explorer programme is designed specifically for children aged 5-12 years. Working closely with the child’s family, whanau and other professionals ensures every child has the best possible support to change behaviours and move towards a more positive future.

The referral form for our Children’s Service is now online, making the referral process more efficient, accurate, and allows our team to focus more on direct client care.

If you are concerned about the sexual behavior of a child, go to https://zurl.co/FlW6b

09/10/2025

We have moved!

We are delighted to announce that we are now operating from our new premises at 6A Nugent Street, Grafton.

The site was blessed on 22 September by our local iwi, Ngati Whatua Orakei. This served to cleanse the space, provide spiritual protection for our team and clients, and foster positive relationships within our new environment

Our new offices are designed specifically to fits the needs of our clients and provide an enhanced work environment for our team. We are excited to welcome all our clients, whanau, and community to our new premises.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

29/09/2025

Join the Safe Network Team!

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Psychologist to join our multi-disciplinary team based in our Grafton office.

If you’re passionate about providing therapeutic services that help people to live safer, balanced, and healthy lives, we’d love to hear from you!

Interested? Learn more and apply on our job board.

https://zurl.co/jzoWN

23/09/2025

In August, we sent a team to the International Childhood Trauma Conference in Melbourne. This was a great opportunity for practitioners to share practice, knowledge, and wisdom about how to transform the lives of those people who have experienced childhood trauma. From their experience, the team shared a few stories...
“The sessions on polyvagal theory and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy offered powerful ways of thinking about connection and regulation for children. They highlighted the importance of system work and culturally informed practice in the work we do. Hearing about people's lived experiences around immigration, adoption, and how this links back to trauma highlighted the depth of impact these journeys have on children and the importance of sensitive, attuned care, bringing an important perspective to consider in our clinical learning”.
“The conference offered learning across areas such as neurodivergence and trauma, applied polyvagal theory, expressive arts, grief, and the role of mindfulness and self-compassion in practice. I particularly appreciated the focus on moving from ‘head to heart’ - shifting from understanding trauma cognitively to engaging with clients in an embodied, relational way. The sessions reinforced the importance of modelling co-regulation, integrating somatic and creative approaches to support emotional regulation, and prioritising self-care to sustain our work”.
“The biggest learning from the conference for me is how trauma can impact your senses, namely the vestibular sense. Giving clients the knowledge about the impacts of childhood trauma and of polyvagal theory, helps clients to get insight into what is going on for them in their brain and nervous system and why they might respond the way they do. Once this knowledge is there, the work can now start on building safety for clients and their nervous system”.
“The conference offered a choice of interesting speakers presenting insightful work, and lived experience that I feel can only improve and enhance my clinical practice. I attended sessions around neurodivergence, lived experience and brain development. The main take away was the knowledge that many people across many different systems wanting better outcomes for children and adults who have experienced trauma, and that we should continue to collaborate and work together for positive outcomes”.
“The conference provided me with greater insights into the realities of our clinical work and the significant and lasting effects of childhood trauma. As a non-clinician working alongside a clinical team, this knowledge is vital in helping me to better support our clinicians, to effectively guide policy and system development, and to optimise our client care. The following quote from Conor Pall who shared his lived experience of family violence really summed it up, “because if we don’t change our practice to center children and young people, who will?”

07/09/2025

For the past year, fresh baking has been delivered to our offices in Whangarei, Grafton, Hamilton and Tauranga, for our clients to enjoy while they are with us.

This baking has been donated by the bakers extraordinaire at GBB (Good Bi***es Baking).
GBB is a network of volunteers all over Aotearoa who bake treats in their own kitchens, with their own ingredients, to give to organisations that work with people having a tough time.

Baking is simply a mechanism for spreading kindness, whether it’s talking to their kids about why they’re making treats for someone else, cooking up a family favourite recipe for someone else to enjoy, or spending a little extra time to write a thoughtful message on the enclosed flyer.

GBB don’t judge or question anyone’s interpretation of ‘tough time’ - everyone deserves a treat, no matter their circumstances. They don't claim to fix anyone’s world, but their recipients tell them that knowing someone cared enough to make them a treat means a whole lot. It lets them know they’re not alone, that they are a valued member of the community.

Read more about who Good Bi***es Baking are and what they do on their website:

https://zurl.co/Epejl

26/08/2025

At Safe Network, we have recently updated our Child Protection Policy to ensure the welfare and safety of children is of primary importance. This policy guides our actions where current harm or risk to children is identified, including risk of harm to self of others. It also ensures the appropriate safety checking is in place for all staff engaged in work that involves contact with children.
To read our Child Protection Policy, please go to https://zurl.co/3mCJT

Children Children - Most children engage in and display a range of sexualised behaviour that is healthy and normal for their age, but sometimes it may be concerning and age-inappropriate Safe Network's Kaituhura Explorer programme is a specialised service for children aged 5-12 years whose sexualise...

11/08/2025

Congratulations to Hayley from Best Start in Waiuku.

Hayley and the team from Best Start attended the Great Childcare and Education Expo in May. While at the Expo, Hayley visited the Safe Network stand, entered our prize draw, and was the lucky winner!

If you would like to know more about the work we do with Tamariki, go to https://zurl.co/t7vs2

27/07/2025

We are delighted that Johnathan Bruning has achieved full membership with the New Zealand Association of Counsellors. Johnathan has been a clinician with Safe Network for 3+ years, working with our rangatahi to ensure they have the support needed to discover new ways of thinking, change behaviours, and move towards a more positive future.

Johnathan says he was "drawn to this work because he believes every young person is more than what they’ve been through or what they’ve done. At the heart of counselling is the chance to help someone feel human again, especially when shame or stigma has stripped that away. It’s a privilege to walk alongside rangatahi as they begin to trust, reconnect, and realise their own worth.”

Congratulations Johnathan, on achieving full NZAC membership!