Schmid's (2012/2014) reflection on the relationship between psychotherapy and politics challenges psychotherapists to engage as political (human) beings, reconnecting divisions promoted by reductionist thinking. If the human being is a political being then psychotherapy is undeniably a political venture. As an Indigenous emerging therapist practising in Aotearoa New Zealand, I strongly resonate with Schmid's propositions. His movement towards social justice and emancipation call to me, mirroring the Indigenous voices which have influenced and informed my personal and professional development. In the spirit of a discussant paper, this article responds to Schmid's argument by exploring his ideas from an Indigenous, Māori perspective -at least an Indigenous position specific to me. The article challenges and redefines his analysis to reflect an Indigenous reality of practising psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This paper explores the relationship between the experience of colonisation and the experience of self for Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. As we celebrate the formation of Waka Oranga in 2007, and its work in the years since, the publication of this paper is particularly fitting, drawing as it does on research originally undertaken at the time of the roopu’s formation. It is based on the lead author’s 2008 Master of Psychotherapy dissertation research in which he undertook a modified systematic literature review located within a kaupapa Māori research framework, in order to explore the experience of self for Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa and its relationship to colonisation. The paper examines the process of racialisation: The construction and resulting interiorisation of Indigenous peoples as Other’. The paper contends that this process has the effect of disrupting indigenous ontologies creating a divided and alienated experience of self for Indigenous peoples. Within Aotearoa, the phenomenon of whakamā and mate Māori are hypothesised as the indigenous experience of this alienated and divided self. The paper suggests that arguably all psychological distress for Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa arise to some degree fromthese experiences. Implications for psychotherapy are considered. Psychotherapy and psychotherapists are challenged to re-evaluate both the underlying positivist conceptualisations of self, and ongoing processes of colonisation, in order that they may be more fully equipped to effectively work alongside indigenous communities in Aotearoa.

This article describes the history, philosophy, and development of Ngā Ao e Rua, an organisation of indigenous and non-indigenous therapists, psychotherapists, counsellors, and health care providers working in Aotearoa New Zealand. The article, co-authored and edited by members of Ngā Ao e Rua, traces its beginnings and its development over the past ten years. The article discusses the development of a bicultural process reflected in an organisational structure whereby members meet separately as Māori and as Pākehā and Tau Iwi (non-Māori), and then together, and the personal and political learning that has derived from this.

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The 2012 New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) Conference in Wellington included a panel discussion which addressed the topic: “How culture creates other: Traversing difference or fractured divide”. The panellists were Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Donna Orange, Wiremu Woodard, and Jeremy Younger. Their speeches are presented in this article alongside edited highlights from the ensuing discussion, with introductory and reflective comments from myself as the panel chair. Waitara I te hui a te NZAP 2012 i Pōneke he rōpū matapaki, ā, e whā nga kaikōrero manuhiri: Wiremu Woodard, Donna Orange, Tess Moeke-Maxwell rātou ko Jeremy Younger. I tono atu te Komiti Matua kia huri ki te kaupapa: “Pēhea te Whakaatanga Ata Atu ā-Ahurea: Whakawhitinga Rerekē, Wehenga Whati rānei? E tuku atu ana tēnei tuhinga i ngā kōrero a ngā kaikōrero tokowhā, ā, me ngā miramira āta arohia mai i nga matapaki whai muri mai; me ētahi whakaaro whakataki, whakaata a te kaitaki o te rōpū.