About Clare
Kia ora | Hello
I’m a Māori and Pākehā therapist, inner development practitioner, and researcher based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington, and online.
I was born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), and today live and work in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), on the whenua (~land) where some of my Ngāti Mutunga ancestors settled, after travelling south from Taranaki in the early nineteenth century. It feels meaningful to practice here, in this place. Particularly given the dual meaning of whenua in te reo Māori: both land, and placenta. That which holds, nourishes, and gives life.
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in eudaimonia — human flourishing. After completing an Economics and Philosophy degree, and with some early counselling training under my belt, I started my career in the public service at the New Zealand Treasury, drawn to questions of collective wellbeing in Aotearoa. What would enable us to be a truly prosperous, thriving country? Fairly early on I began to recognise the need for intervention at both the inner and outer level of our systems, but at that point the inner dimensions of change and transformation weren’t widely recognised in the public service. I also sensed that my own early life and the broader structures I was born into required me to engage deeply with my own healing. My questions shifted. How do human beings become more capable of participating wisely in life? So I began my haerenga (~journey) of investing in my own healing and retraining in various modalities, eventually leading me to start working in private practice six years ago.
I see my interest in psychotherapy and psycho-spiritual transformation as a natural development of this unfolding journey, as these practices invite us to understand and gradually move beyond the deeper patterns that shape how we experience life, and to develop new ways of being in the world. I’m currently training in the Conversational Model of psychotherapy, and I’ve been a student of the Diamond Approach for over four years.
Today I see my role as creating spaces for transformation. I accompany people through periods of transition, uncertainty, suffering, complexity and creation. Whether someone arrives because they are struggling with themselves or in a relationship, navigating burnout or grief, questioning the life they have built, moving through a spiritual awakening, or simply sensing that something deeper is asking for attention, my hope is to offer a space where we can listen carefully together for what is emerging.
Education, Memberships, Research, Awards
Princess Bay, South Coast of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
© Clare Rousseau
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Master of Science (Distinction) in Consciousness, Spirituality, Transpersonal Psychology; Alef Trust, Liverpool John Moore’s University
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Philosophy; Massey University
Diploma of Adult Psychotherapy: Conversational Model of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; Australia New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy (ANZAP) — currently a student in the second year of a three-year training
One Year Introduction to the Theoretical Framework of the Conversational Model of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; Australia New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy (ANZAP)
Family Estrangement as a Collective Trauma Pattern — One-Year Lab; The Pocket Project (Thomas Hübl) — currently participating
Wairuatanga Wananga; Wiremu Niania Cultural Therapy
2-day Te Tiriti o Waitangi Training; Groundwork Aotearoa, (completed twice)
Te Reo Māori level 4; Te Wananga O Aotearoa
Internal Family Systems Six-Month Online Circle Training; IFS Institute
Getting to the Heart of Kleinian Thinking and Practice, 11 week seminar; Rachel Blass Psychoanalyst
Neurobiology and Treatment of Trauma; the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM)
Essentials Training; Psychosynthesis South Pacific Trust
Presencing 4-day Foundation Programme; The Presencing Institute
RYT 200 Yoga Teacher; Yoga Alliance
Compassionate Communication Transformative Mediation 4-day Training
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (one-year practice group); The Center for Nonviolent Communication
1-year personal development and counselling training; Youthline
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Australia and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy (trainee member)
Association of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand (student member)
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Master of Science Dissertation: Leading from Beyond: Awakening Beyond the Separate Self in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Sector—An Intuitive Inquiry
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Exemplary Dissertation Award for Master of Science Dissertation (recognises MSc research that demonstrates academic rigour, originality, and relevance to transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies).
Outstanding Achiever Award for Bachelor’s degree (>A average in final year)
My Philosophy and Approach
Fiordland National Park, Te Waipounamu (South Island)
© Clare Rousseau
I believe that at the heart of a good life are good relationships. And most of life happens in relationship.
We come into the world through relationship.
We learn ourselves through relationship.
We are shaped, hurt, healed, surprised, challenged, and transformed through relationship.
And when we leave this life, our legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of those we’ve touched.
So the cycle continues.
For me, inner work is less about fixing something that might appear wrong and more about creating the conditions where something new becomes possible. Often the symptoms or struggles (or simply the stasis) that bring us to invest in ourselves are not simply something to overcome, but invitations into a different way of relating to ourselves, to others, and to reality itself.
Underlying my work is a commitment to aroha.
One way of understanding aroha is through the whakapapa of the word itself: aro — to turn towards, to pay attention; hā — the breath, the essence of life. In this sense, aroha is not simply love, affection or kindness. It is the practice of attending carefully to what is most alive, both within ourselves and within another.
Approach to Therapy
I understand that opening up about certain parts of your mind or life can feel uncomfortable, sometimes even shameful. Many of us carry beliefs, passed down through our families and culture, that certain emotions or experiences are bad or wrong. Or we might feel that deep down, we are bad or wrong. While it’s important to acknowledge how we impact ourselves and others, these judgments can make it difficult to seek support. Our early experiences shape us profoundly, and while healing is our responsibility, much of our psyche is a reflection of the systems, structures, and generations before us.
The irony is that the very places we feel discomfort or shame are often where the greatest transformation happens. I commit to holding a non-judgmental, open, and expansive space where all parts of you are welcome. Your thoughts, emotions, sensations, experiences, dreams, stories, beliefs, desires, essence, and the parts that may be hard to name.
Supervision, Personal Psychotherapy and Inner Work
My work is grounded in ongoing supervision and a strong commitment to my own therapeutic process.
I believe we can only accompany others as far as we have developed and as far as we are willing to continue developing ourselves. I currently undertake regular supervision with three registered psychotherapists in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, including a Jungian analyst and two Conversational Model practitioners, one of whom brings a background in British Object Relations. I also engage in ad-hoc consultations with other specialists where needed, to ensure my work is well supported. Between the start of 2022 and end of 2025, I participated in fortnightly group supervision, in-person, with a small group of psychodynamic psychotherapists.
Alongside formal training and supervision, my work is shaped by my own personal psychotherapy and wider healing journey over many years.
My early life included experiences that have required me to engage deeply with the impacts of trauma held in the body-mind-psyche, particularly in very early, pre-verbal stages of development—my mother’s pneumonia during her eighth month of pregnancy with me, and being dropped when I was only five days old. But also the impact of being disconnected from my indigeneity. As a result, my journey has extended and continues to extend beyond classical psychotherapy to include work with practitioners in areas such as psycho-spiritual development (which often, naturally requires a person to move through the earliest layers of their development), perinatal trauma, and kaupapa Māori.
These experiences have allowed me to begin to cultivate the kind of presence needed to meet these non-verbal layers of experience—where shock, terror, helplessness, and grief are often held outside of language.
Doing this work myself, I am better equipped to offer a steady, patient presence for any parts of you that may find it difficult to trust, feel safe, or put words to what is happening. I am comfortable sitting with the wordless layers of intensity that may arise, and supporting a gradual movement toward integration and a more settled sense of self.
Creative Practice
Taranaki Waters
Beyond Private Practice
Ready to Begin?
If you’re curious about working together, I invite you to reach out. Let’s explore whether working with me is the right fit for you.