HPSS Counselling

Victoria offers counselling full time at HPSS.  She is also the Head of Wellbeing.  Alongside counselling, Victoria runs the HPSS Rainbow Group.  To make an appointment with Victoria, please use the appointment link at the top of this page. 

Courtney offers counselling full time at HPSS.  Alongside counselling, Courtney runs the HPSS KickIt program, supporting students to make positive changes with drug and alcohol use.  To make an appointment with Courtney, please use the appointment link at the top of this page.

Jess offers counselling full time at HPSS. Alongside counselling, Jess helps run the HPSS Peer Mediation Service.  To make an appointment with Jess, please use the appointment link at the top of this page

Te Ara Manaaki is situated on the ground floor of the school.  There is a corridor to the right of the school canteen/tuckshop.  Go down this corridor and turn right at the end to find the entrance to Te Ara Manaaki.  This is where you will find the counselling rooms, the school nurse and the physio.  Read more about the HPSS Health Centre, school nurse and physio here.

When you arrive at Te Ara Manaaki, please take a seat in the Mauri Tau Space.  Please do not come down to Te Ara Manaaki before your appointment time.  When your counsellor's door opens, you are welcome to make your way down to corridor to their office.  If their door is closed, please wait for them in Mauri Tau.  They will come and collect you when they are ready for you.

Is counselling confidential?

What you share with the HPSS counselling team will remain confidential unless you indicate any of the following situations:

• You are gong to hurt yourself.

• You are going to hurt someone else.

• Another person is hurting or is going to hurt you or someone else.

• Any of the above is happening to another person.

If any of the above is discussed, the counsellors will talk with you about what will happen next.  

Counselling sessions are generally 35-40 minutes long.  Occasionally they may go longer if there are safety issues present but if this is the case and your counsellor is still with a student at the time of your appointment, they will come out and tell you that they are running late.  

Counselling sessions generally take place once a fortnight.  Your counsellor might need to see you once a week if there are concerns about safety.  This will be discussed once you meet. 

You are welcome to talk with the counselling team about anything and everything.  There are no right or wrong things to talk about and there is also no right or wrong way to talk about what is bothering you.  If you are someone who finds it hard to remember what you were going to talk about when you made the appointment, write some notes in your phone and take these out to talk about when you meet with the counsellor.  It can take time to build up trust to talk about difficult things and that is OK.  If you are really struggling to know where to start, let your counsellor know this and they can start with asking you some questions to get the conversation going.

Once you start with one of the HPSS counselling team, you will see the same counsellor each time you meet.  This is to save you from having to explain everything from the beginning each time you have counselling.  There can be times when you feel like you don't really connect with the counsellor you are seeing.   If this is the case, you are welcome to ask to see one of the other counsellors.  You won't get in trouble if this is the case and we won't be offended if you ask to change.  Please note, there may be a short delay before you are able to see another counsellor.  

Counselling usually happens on a one-on-one basis.  If you are feeling particularly anxious or nervous about your first session, you can bring a friend with you to support you.  After that first session, you should be feeling comfortable enough to meet by yourself next time.  If you are having an issue that involves another person, joint counselling sessions can take place.  Please let your counsellor know if you are making a time for more than one person when you contact them.  

If you are absent from school and you have an appointment booked, please make sure you email the counsellor and let them know this.   This allows us to offer the time to another student.  If you have an assessment, will be out on a school trip or can't miss class during the time of your appointment, please email the counsellor to let them know this too.  We will reschedule your appointment time if this occurs. We will do our best to see you that same week but this is not always possible. 

No. If you are with the counsellor at the beginning of a block, an 'I' will be marked in KAMAR - our attendance system - so your teachers know that you are somewhere internally in the school.  'I' is used for a number of reasons for attendance, eg: you are at a meeting, at a sports practice, helping in the library, you are assisting with another class or you are in the sickbay/seeing the nurse. Due to this, no one will know that you are with the counsellor when this is entered.  

We are required to take some notes of our counselling conversations.  These notes are confidential to the HPSS counselling team and are stored in special note-taking software.  The only people who can access these notes are the HPSS counsellors.  If you have any questions about these notes, please don't hesitate to ask - we are happy to answer them.

There may be times when there is a short waitlist to see a counsellor.  If you request an appointment and we let you know that we have a waitlist, please let us know immediately if you are worried about hurting yourself, hurting someone else or someone else is hurting you. In these situations, we will do our very best to  meet with you as soon as possible.