In the latest issue of Te Mahau, we spoke to James Hill (Whākatōhea, Ngāpuhi), a registered Māori therapist currently building my own private practice, Moana Hill Psychotherapy, in Tāmaki Makaurau. James is passionate about providing a hybridised service that incorporates kaupapa Māori approaches to mental health alongside western psychotherapeutic approaches, in order to best serve the mental health needs of whānau today.

We know that our knowledge systems and practices are instrumental to whānau wellbeing. How does your practice hybridise kaupapa Māori approaches to mental health with psychotherapy?

My thesis was on creating hybrid psychotherapy. I had done this eurocentric style of learning, therapy and research and I got hoha having to adhere to their principles and expectations, being marked on a pākeha model – I felt I was being put on the back foot before I could even take a step forward. 

But I realised I could take that pākeha teaching, run it through my own cultural experience, and out came my hybrid approach – which was its own stand-alone thing. 

When therapists talk about empathy – I provide Māori empathy. For example, I can sit with prisoners who don’t have to feel pressured to say much. Just sitting together – there is a deeper level of whanaungatanga. They don’t feel the need to explain themselves as much as with a pākeha therapist. They know that I know where they’re coming from, that I can relate to the cultural, societal pressures and barriers unique to Māori. That’s a big difference I find unique to my style of therapy – we can get down to the mahi you came here for. And this crosses over to my Pasifika and LGTBQ+ clients – there are parallels they face that are similar to what Māori face. That’s the beauty of this type of therapy.

I keep my hybrid approach as accurate as possible to the Te Wheke model,  a living being that remains fluid and moves. I do everything I can to keep up with the way it moves. Te Whare Tapa Wha is useful, but it’s rigid in its structure. At times I think it caters more to the pākeha ways of understanding health.

I’m also concerned by the amount of funding that prioritises organisations founded on pākeha and Christian belief systems, to support everyone including the fringe communities they historically oppress. Things like NZNA. We need to provide alternative supports that aren’t dominated by conservative methods, that aren’t so black and white. I seek to be inclusive in my practice, of Māori spiritualism, Christianity and any religion my clients bring. That’s real whanaungatanga.

What do you aspire to achieve through your unique approach to mental health?

I will never forget how fortunate I was to have Whākatōhea, offer funding toward my study. I just had to register and share my story. My whānau were forced out of their land, made sick, because of colonisation. That led to me and my Father coming to Auckland where the oppression carried on. Even being limited in their ability to support, Whākatōhea thought it was important to fund my research.

I just want to let people know that I exist, and to share what my practice can offer. To kōrero and liaise with the community trying to serve our people. 

My ultimate goal is to build my reputation, to promote what I’m doing so I can get the funding to open a private clinic in South Auckland. If you search online for private practices, the closest you’ll find is Clevedon. I cannot understand why people in South Auckland only have access to counsellors – I’m based in Remuera because the only rooms I could hire to see patients were in Central Auckland. I’m tired of our people being short-changed. My dream is to make the money to have a practice ready to go here in South Auckland, where I can work for the people who need it. 

That might look like Māori first, because we’re always being put last, but then I’d love to expand to Pasifika, LGBTQ+ – my practice is already growing from people marginalised in society. I guess the reason why is that people can resonate with me, being one of the only male registered therapists advertising on the primary websites, that actually say they are Māori.

I actually find that quite unsettling. I think the reason it’s so hard to find us is that being required to register, so that your mahi can be ‘legitimised’, is oppressive, it’s not Māori. At times I wondered if I was being a sell-out, but I thought I’d try to get registered to influence from the inside. Maybe that’s our generation’s approach – Infiltrating and influencing from the inside. The sad reality is being registered gets my voice across more clearly to funding and pākeha organisations. So if it means I get to service more Māori, I’ll register.

What are your biggest concerns for Māori mental health as we emerge from covid 19?

I actually think the current focus on Covid is missing out on all the other traumas our people are still stuck with – suicide risk, drugs and alcohol, depression and continual societal oppression. Their mental health needs haven’t gone away, people are still suffering from everything else – like poverty caused by the effects of Covid inflation. This focus is igniting further flames to what Māori have already long suffered and lived with since colonisation. I don’t want us to lose sight or focus on the massive issues rising in intensity, because covid is the ‘flavour of the month’.

Even now if you look for funding – it’s all for Covid. Where’s the putea for everything else? Māori are continuing to be left out because organisations are ‘too busy’ with something else – it’s the same old story our generations have heard time and time again.

What message do you want to leave any aspiring Māori wanting to work in this sector?

If there are any Māori out there thinking ‘Am I good enough to give it a shot, to be in private practice?’ – you are. You are enough, just by being Māori and offering a type of therapy so rare in the private sector. I’m from South Auckland, Clendon – I want to represent that you can achieve what I’ve achieved, from a place where we don’t get to see examples of ourselves achieving. 

And having gone out on my own, I can say nothing beats freeing yourself from the controls of pākeha power and authority. To have full freedom to implement my Māori way of therapy, to do what I know is tika for our people, to be by-Māori-for-Māori. All the workshops, studying, networking, income reporting – I would take that any day over a pākeha organisation trying to dictate what I’m meant to be doing and who I am as a therapist. 

Check out Moana Hill Psychotherapy here