Anyone who has experienced sexual abuse or assault in New Zealand, including visitors to the country, can get help from ACC. They may also be able to help if you're a New Zealand resident and have experienced sexual assault or abuse while travelling overseas.

If you're not sure if this includes you, we encourage you to still seek support. If it turns out that you're not eligible for help, your first sessions will still be free, and we can help you to find other help. You will not be charged for any sessions you have already had.

Talking with a therapist can help you understand what's going on and look at practical ways to deal with it.

It doesn't matter if the event happened recently or a long time ago. You don't need to have told anyone or have reported it to the Police. There's support available when you're ready.

Help for children and young people

If you're seeking help on behalf of a child or young person, we can connect you with a therapist who has experience working with children and young people.

Help for family and whānau

There's support available for your family and whānau. This includes friends, parents, spouses, partners, siblings, flatmates and any other people supporting you.

They can get support sessions to help:

• educate them about the effects of sexual abuse and assault.

• process what's happened.

• identify coping strategies.

• work out ways to deal with younger clients' behavioural changes.

• find ways to support their loved one who has trauma.

Social Worker assistance

Once you have an ACC claim, you can access free social work assistance, if needed, with issues such as: housing, WINZ, protection orders etc.

Your therapist will work with you to identify what support your family and whānau may need.

They'll only be involved if you want them to be.

How we work

The Director of Your Focus and the administration team are all either therapists themselves or therapeutic minded people. We are committed to supporting you to get the help you deserve, treat you with respect, keep your confidentiality, and to match you with suitable provider.

We understand that it takes courage to pursue therapy, but it is worth it. You do not have to struggle on your own coping with the effects of something that has been done to you. Something illegal. Something that has had a negative impact on you. The sooner you seek professional trauma therapy, the sooner you can get on with creating the life you deserve, free of the impact of the abuse you endured.

You can either:

Contact Us (click here for a form that will be emailed to us). We will contact you within 24-48 hours to and connect you with an available provider to match your requirements. The form takes at most five minutes to complete.

View The Team, and request a session with the therapist you would like to work with (availability dependent)

Your Focus has a range of ACC registered therapists throughout Aotearoa and online.

The Process

Once we receive the form on the email you filled out above, we will match you with an available provider, and we will let you know the details of the provider available. If you agree to this provider, we will send them your contact details. They will contact you within 24-48 hours to set up an appointment. Please be assured that all communication and information is confidential.

You don’t need to do anything prior to seeing a provider, in order to make a claim. At the first session with your provider, they will fill in an engagement form (similar to the ones when you go to a physiotherapist). This is automatically submitted via a highly confidential gateway to the ACC sensitive claims unit. No abuse/assault details needed at this stage, just date ranges. This generates a claim number for you (or retrieves your existing claim number if you have had ACC counselling in the past) and assigns you to a case manager.

ACC sensitive claims counselling is FREE to you. The provider will not be adding a surcharge.

Your provider will explain the process and options to you in your first appointment.

But one step at a time.

Contact Us PS: you can always change counsellors if you feel you and your therapist are not a good fit.

About Trauma Resources

Trauma is defined as the experiencing or witnessing of events in which there is actual or threatened "death, serious injury, or violence" (American Psychiatric Association).

Bessell Van der Kolk is a leading trauma therapist/trainer/educator. Here’s a short video below.

A book we recommend also is What Happened to You, a very readable book that gives good explanation about trauma and recovery.