Eligibility For Free ACC Sensitive Claims Counselling

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.

How To Get Started

There are two main options you can take to start the process.

Option One:

Contact Us (click here for a form that will be emailed to us). We will contact you within 24-48 hours to have a confidential chat. The form takes at most five minutes to complete.

Option Two:

View The Team, and request a session with the therapist you would like to work with (availability dependent). We will contact you within 24-48 hours to have a confidential chat and ensure that the team member selected suits your needs.

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

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 have a confidential chat.

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

We will have a chat or email to get the necessary information from you in order to match you with a suitable provider. 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.

You get six initial sessions. You then decide if you want to go for a full claim which if approved, gives you access to ongoing counselling and other support.

If you decide to continue, your provider then writes a report and requests the next steps. At this point the provider will more than likely know if you are eligible for a claim.


You will then be given another ten sessions. Within that time, you will undergo a supported assessment, (we make this as supportive as possible).

Once your claim is accepted, you will then be given 48 sessions for the year, (and this can continue to be renewed), access to support services, and ongoing sessions after that if required. If for some reason it is not accepted, which is not very common, then you will be given some sessions to work out the next steps for you.

But one step at a time.

Let’s have a chat/email, and then get you connected with a provider firstly. Contact Us
PS: you can always change counsellors if you feel you and your therapist are not a good fit.

Online Help

The links below will enable you to understand the ACC process and eligibility.

ACC Ongoing Support
ACC can help pay for counselling and therapy sessions if you need support after a physical injury or after experiencing sexual abuse.

Anyone Can Get Help
Anyone who has experienced sexual abuse or assault in New Zealand, including visitors to the country, can get help from us.

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.

What is trauma? 

Trauma is when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that are difficult to cope with or out of our control. It could be one incident, or an ongoing event that happens over a long period of time.

Most of us will experience an event in our lives that could be considered traumatic. But we won't all be affected the same way. Trauma can happen at any age. And it can affect us at any time, including a long time after the event has happened.

If you've been affected by trauma, it's important to remember that you survived however you could. You're having common, normal reactions. Find out more on our page on the effects of trauma. 

What experiences might be traumatic?

There's no rule about what experiences can be traumatic. It's more about how you react to them.

What's traumatic is personal. Other people can't know how you feel about your own experiences or if they're traumatic for you. You might have similar experiences to someone else but be affected differently or for longer.

Trauma can include events where you feel:

  • Frightened

  • Under threat

  • Humiliated

  • Rejected

  • Abandoned

  • Invalidated, for example your feelings or views have been dismissed or denied.

  • Unsafe

  • Unsupported

  • Trapped

  • Ashamed

  • Powerless

Ways trauma can happen include:

  • One-off or ongoing events

  • Being directly harmed or neglected

  • Witnessing harm to someone else

  • Living in a traumatic atmosphere

  • Being affected by trauma in a family or community, including trauma that has happened before you were born.

Contact Form For ACC Sensitive Claims

How To Contact Your Focus

Ms Sam Mitchell

Ms Rosie Snelling

For Referrals

For Work Enquiries

Online Help

The links below will enable you to understand the ACC process and eligibility.

ACC Ongoing Support
ACC can help pay for counselling and therapy sessions if you need support after a physical injury or after experiencing sexual abuse.

Anyone Can Get Help
Anyone who has experienced sexual abuse or assault in New Zealand, including visitors to the country, can get help from us.

ACC Sensitive Claims