Our approach
At Stand Tū Māia, our focus is to protect children and their families from further trauma, support their recovery, and enhance their safety and wellbeing.
Our approach is grounded in three principles:
Healing through relationships: Harm caused by relationships is best healed within safe, supportive relationships.
Whole-of-community support: A child’s home, school, community, and friendships all play vital roles in their recovery and must be engaged to improve their quality of life.
Transformative environments: Therapeutic settings that foster belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity accelerate healing and resilience.
These principles are backed by Te Ao Māori, contemporary brain science and the evidence base of Multisystemic Therapy and the therapeutic community movement.
Our services
Stand Tū Māia is a secondary specialist service that works as an alternative option to state care for children on the edge of care.
Across Stand Tū Māia, each region brings the concept of a Therapeutic Environment to life in its own way—working in partnership with tamariki mokopuna, whānau, and the wider community. At the heart of this approach is a commitment to collaborative, culturally grounded care that supports children and families affected by complex trauma.
A Therapeutic Environment is a safe and nurturing approach enhanced with traditional Te Ao Māori values where professionals work together to restore hope and wellbeing. It offers trauma capable support to reduce toxic levels of stress, promote a sense of safety and provide structured routines that calm the central nervous system, opportunities for relational healing, and evidence-based therapies that strengthen attachment and trust and build the brain’s core executive skills. Services are integrated across our healing and family support centres, home, school, and other community settings to restore identity, resilience, and a sense of belonging.