Our Purpose

To provide global-leading presence-based holistic therapy that enables the healing, liberation and transformation of rangatahi (young people) and their whānau across Aotearoa New Zealand, with a particular focus on young people journeying through the Youth Justice system and/or engaging in harm with others.

Our name

‘Kairoi’ is the pluralised form of the Ancient Greek word καιρός or ‘kairos’. Kairos translates as the perfect, delicate, crucial moment; the fleeting rightness of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words, or movement. Kairos is the present ‘opportune moment’.

Within the context of life, a ‘kairos moment’ is an opportune moment imbued with significant purposeful or spiritual “mo(ve)ments” (where an experience of movement towards something great becomes possible in a particular moment). Kairoi moments connect you to ‘who and where you are supposed to be’. In the context of therapy, the kairoi® practitioner ‘pans for gold’, sifting through narratives for kairoi moments where the client may be brought back into contact with these opportune mo(ve)ments, permeated with substance for change, growth, problem-dissolution and identity re-construction.

The meaning of “kairoi”, inspires the perfect choice in name for what we hope to achieve both kanohi ki te kanohi, face-to-face, with our clients, but also with our impact company as we grow, seizing our own kairoi moments.

kairoi is also what’s called a ‘bilingual homograph’ (which basically means that kairoi holds dual meaning, one from the Paideian Ancient Greek era through Greek language whilst also holding meaning in Te Ao Māori and Te Reo Māori). In Te Reo Māori, kai- can be used as a prefix for verbs to express a kind of action to form nouns that denote a human agent holding particular expertise (Te Aka, 2024). The suffix, -roi, can be translated as ‘fern root’ (Te Aka, 2024), nourishing the plant as it feeds on the whenua (ground). Kai-roi then takes on a whole new meaning within Te Ao Māori.

As a therapeutic service operating within 21st Century Aotearoa New Zealand, seeking to uphold and honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we believe this name is confirmation of the right direction for us.

kairoi® founder

  • Tihei Mauri ora!

    Tēnā kotou, tēnā kotou, tēnā kotou katoa

    Ko Kōtirana, ko Ireni, ngā whenua o ōku tupuna ara ki a Ingarangi hoki (Ko ‘The Sir Edward Paget’ [1856] te waka i te Ōhinehou – Lyttleton). Te whakapaparanga mai, engari. Ko Tauwharekākaho te whenua tupu. Ko Ōtautahi tōku kāinga tupu. Ko Waikirikiri te awa. Ko Te Tihi o Kahukura te maunga whakaruruhau, te tūpuna maunga o Kāi Tahu. He kaiwhakamahereora au. Ko Joel Agnew au.

    Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa

    Qualifications

    Master of Counselling First Class Honours (University of Waikato)

    Bachelor of Criminal Justice (University of Canterbury )

    Diploma in Te Reo Māori (Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, level 5)

    Certificate of Youth Work

    Professional Associations

    Full-Member New Zealand Association of Counsellors (MNZAC)

    Clinical Member of the Association of Treatment/Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA)

    Associate Member of EMDRNZ

    New Zealand Health Te Whatu Ora Accreditation

    Associate Member of the Institute of Narrative Therapy

    Member of the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association

    Experience

    Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) trained by EMDR Institute

    Gained Masters from first and initially only University globally to teach from a purist narrative therapy paradigm

    Currently Supervised by Alan Jenkins (Australian Narrative Psychologist and global author of “Becoming Ethical”)

    Experience working across and in collaboration with NGOs, Schools, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Justice, ACC, sexual harm (HSB/CSB) and Youth Justice sector