Wiremu Niania Cultural Therapy

24/11/2025

Heres some news whānau. (If you havent already received a newsletter from us). We're needing to transition to offer things a little differently for 2026 onward. For those of you who are currently studying with us, nothing changes for you.
Our last FACE-TO-FACE matekite wananga will be February 2026. We will only take 20 on this intake. After that it will be ONLY offered on zoom or digital course in future. Here is the link
https://www.wiremuniania.co.nz/events/understanding-and-developing-matekite
Our last FACE-TO-FACE 3 year Mahi Wairua Practitioners course will be offered in March. We will only take 30 people. You must have done a matekite wananga in person or online with us to be accepted on this course. Future wananga will be ONLY offered via zoom or digital course. The link to register is
https://www.wiremuniania.co.nz/events/2026-march-intake-matanga-mahi-wairua
Nga mihi whānau
Wiremu & Lesley

04/11/2025

“If you see ghosts or spirits, that’s a sign of Matakitetanga. If you hear voices speaking to you and there’s no one around, that’s a sign you may hold these gifts.”
- Wiremu Niania.
Do you:
• smell or see disease
• see colours or orbs or faces or mauri / auras
• see densities, blockages on or in other people
• feel other people's physical or emotional pain in your own body
• talk to or communicate with or receive communication from nature
• travel in and out of time and into other ancient cultures
• see the future or the past of a certain place, or in people
• see other people's trauma.
• Understand other languages without knowing that language
• Talk to and move the elements or physical objects
• work in healing
• travel and work in dreams
• clear the Earth, the environment from negative energies
• see entities, or darkness, or reptiles, or beings attached to people or in places
• hear the cries of the people, the environment
• speak in words of prophesy
• know instantly when someone is lying or can discern a being behind their words, or discern spirits
WE UNDERSTAND YOU!
You are gifted and those gifts were given to you to serve humanity.
Maybe you've been scared, misunderstood by yourself or others.
Maybe there's been no one to help you make sense of what you have.
Maybe you've run from, tried to turn this gift off somehow.
Maybe you've been looking for someone to mentor you in your gifts
Maybe this wananga can help you.
If you, or someone you know have experienced things like this, and maybe you don't have anyone around to help you understand it, we hold a wananga particularly for people like you.
This is our LAST Matekite Wananga for the year. It is on ZOOM November 17-19 (9am - 4pm daily). .

Click the link below to register or to find out more information.

Three day - introduction course to understanding and developing your matekite gift.

23/10/2025

02/09/2025

We've had complaints. 🥹😳😱🫣
Lots. 😯
"I want to come to the Wairuatanga on September 18-19 with Wiremu Niania and Dr Allister Bush but I live.... (overseas, or remotely etc)... "
"This mahi is important for my role as a ( - - - ) because it will help me to have a better understanding of how Wairuatanga is seen in mental distress. But I work in Australia"
So...
WE HAVE DECIDED TO OPEN THIS EVENT UP AS A ZOOM event as well. (There is a difference between watching a sports event on TV and being in arena LIVE though)... AND we'll send the replay links after the event is over so you can re watch.
Now you can come if you live in the South Island, Australia, the 4-WD back blocks of somewhere remote that has a coat hanger to get signal.
Here's some questions for you as a clinician that we answer in this WAIRUATANGA wananga

❓How can I tell the difference between a valid wairua experience (such as visions, hearing ancestral voices, sensing tapu) and a psychotic episode?

❓What signs, patterns, or impacts help me make that distinction in a culturally safe way?

❓How does Te Whare Tapa Whā guide me when taha wairua is presenting strongly in a client?

❓How do I safely bring tohunga, kaumātua, or rongoā practitioners into a care plan?

❓How do I respect tapu, tikanga, and whakapapa while still working within psychiatric frameworks?

❓What questions can I ask clients that acknowledge and validate wairua without dismissing or pathologizing?

❓How do I check whether an experience is shared/recognized by whānau or iwi versus completely isolated?

❓How do I ask about wairua in a way that feels mana-enhancing rather than intrusive or clinical?

❓When a client believes their illness is connected to wairua imbalance, how do I work with that belief constructively?

❓What role do rituals, karakia, cleansing, and whenua connections play in restoring balance?

❓How do I, as a clinician, create space for these approaches alongside medication or therapy?

❓What is the role of my discipline when wairua is central to someone’s experience?

❓When should I step back and refer to tohunga or spiritual leaders?

❓How do I collaborate respectfully without overstepping my place as a clinician?

❓How can whānau guide and support assessment of wairua vs. illness?

❓What are appropriate ways to involve them in decision-making while respecting patient confidentiality?

❓How do I navigate if whānau see the experience as spiritual while I suspect psychosis (or vice versa)?

❓What does it mean for me as a clinician to hold space for wairua, even if I don’t fully understand or experience it myself?

❓How can I strengthen my own wairua awareness so that I can sense when something might be tapu, unsafe, or needing spiritual care?

❓How do I avoid unintentionally causing harm through dismissiveness or cultural ignorance?

In short: You’ll likely walk away with more clarity on how to ask, how to listen, how to tell the difference, and how to partner with Māori spiritual frameworks in mental health care.
Click the link below and get your spots fast! Because the seats are filling up!

A two day interactive wānanga for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists and other mental health clinicians.

01/09/2025

ONLY 12 SPOTS LEFT!
We have only 12 spots left for this wananga coming up September 18-19 in Gisborne with Dr Allister Bush, myself and my wahine talking about Wairuatanga in Mental Health.
https://www.wiremuniania.co.nz/events/wairuatanga-in-mental-health
Designed specifically for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, and other mental health clinicians, this wānanga offers practical insight into the role of wairua (spirituality) and its application in modern clinical practice.
Here's some questions for you as a clinician that we answer in this WAIRUATANGA wananga:
❓How do I avoid unintentionally causing harm through dismissiveness or cultural ignorance?
❓How can I tell the difference between a valid wairua experience (such as visions, hearing ancestral voices, sensing tapu) and a psychotic episode?
❓What signs, patterns, or impacts help me make that distinction in a culturally safe way?
❓How do I, as a clinician, create space for these approaches alongside medication or therapy?
❓What is the role of my discipline when wairua is central to someone’s experience?
❓What does it mean for me as a clinician to hold space for wairua, even if I don’t fully understand or experience it myself?
❓How can I strengthen my own wairua awareness so that I can sense when something might be tapu, unsafe, or needing spiritual care?
What can you expect?
✅ Deepen your understanding of wairua in traditional te ao Māori through the lens of a tohunga specialising in healing and its relevance to modern mental health

✅ Engage in interactive sessions designed to deepen learning in traditional healing models Te Puna Wairua and Ngā Kete Wānanga and their relevance to today's mental health issues.

✅ Explore ways to identify and respond to spiritual awareness and phenomena such as visions, voices, and other perceptual experiences

✅ Strengthen your cultural confidence working with Māori clients and whānau

✅ Learn how to work alongside tohunga, kaumātua, and Māori cultural advisors with integrity

✅ Receive practical strategies to address clinical and cultural dilemmas in real-time
Expect a space of deep respect, shared learning, karakia, and open kōrero. You’ll leave better equipped to walk more confidently clinically and culturally.
For more information and registration, click the link below
https://www.wiremuniania.co.nz/events/wairuatanga-in-mental-health

12/08/2025

Been at least 20 years since we've had a kōrero with this beautiful wahine Kath Akuhata Brown. Lovely to see you, if briefly, as we catch a plane and head up to Tāmaki. Ma te Wairua koe e manaki e tiaki 🙏

12/08/2025

Get yours today whānau! Stock selling fast!

12/08/2025

My wahine is running this powerful FREE 5 day series again starting NEXT WEEK on Monday. 5 hours over 5 days with the 5 topics that whānau struggle with the most. The spots are limited so you will need to grab a place quickly.

5 Topics, 5 Hours over 5 days to level up your life in 2025.

03/08/2025

The Housing Inspector

August 3, 2025.

I saw Wairua with a hard hat coming to homes, vehicles, bodies and undertaking inspections. Not as an inspector that comes to bring anxiety but out of aroha.

Wairua is inspecting, the water pipes, the structural integrity, the filtering system, the waste pipes, the windows, the doors, the door frames, the electricity, the wiring, the pathways, the walls, the insulation, the roof, the foundations, the wardrobes and storage places, even the curtains!

Wairua is gently pointing out in your whare, in your Tinana… there’s some rust here, there’s some mould here, the wall is crumbling here, there’s no insulation here.

These inspections aren’t carried out to bring anxiety or panic! They are being carried out to show you… if these aren’t looked at now, or fixed now (while there’s no emergency) they will cause massive damage in the future creating an emergency!

Now is the perfect time, during these winter months, to inspect your home (take Wairua with you as the Great Inspector). Each part of your home directly reflects your Tinana, your hinengaro., your whanau.

How’s the structure of your home? Your skeleton, your bones?

Your waste pipes? Your digestive system
The water pipes? Any leaks? Urinary tract? Reproductive system? Are you getting water in your system?

The doors to your heart? To your emotions? To your joy? Any locked? Any swinging wide that can’t close? Locks work?

Windows? Eyes? Cleaned?

Filtering system? Your kidneys, liver?

Electricity and wiring? How’s your heart? Emotionally? Physically? How’s your circulation?

Insulation? How’s the coverings? Too much? Not enough? Covering yourself from hurt? Not covering yourself enough? Covered yourself for too long? Too hot! Too cold?

The foundations? Where’s your stability? Does the house creak? Unstable places? Piles sinking? What are you trusting in supporting you?

The storage places, wardrobes. Skeleton graveyard? Too cluttered causing stagnation in your Tinana, in your hinengaro, in your life?

How’s your front door? What energy comes in to your home? Welcome to everyone and everything?

How’s your dining room for your family?
How’s the kitchen fire? A place to nourish your whanau? Clean and healthy?

How’s your lounge? Can your whanau come and be themselves? Or do they retreat to their rooms?

Bathrooms? Toilets? Laundry? Can you “let things go” is it mouldy?

Bedrooms? Can you be intimate here? Is it a place to restore? Or is it a library, study, craft room, cinema?

How’s your car? Your vehicle? How’s your purpose? Your life going? Dented? Rusted? Needs a massive vacuum?

For many, the leaky home, or the rusty foundations have been there over generations and it’s overwhelming to know where to start. Wairua will ask, “I can help you right now, if you want me to 🥹🤗” All you have to say is Yes.. That's it. Help 🙏

For some, the change will be immediate. Because you need it to be immediate.

For others, there will be smalls steps to begin right now to start making changes. A little bit here, every day to create a long term fix. Wairua is there helping all the way.

Now is the time for inspection.
This is not about guilt and piling more “to do” stuff to your list.

Use these winter months to inspect and act. A little bit at a time. Do it before spring comes where you can come out refreshed, renewed and ready. Use this time in the maramataka to prepare yourself for the incoming higher energy season of spring.
Spring is where you emerge and bloom.

It’s time for you now.

Nga mihi
Lesley

10/07/2025

We are going LIVE on this page at 12.30pm today with Dr Allister Bush talking about Mental Health and Wairuatanga. Join us for a LIVE Q and A