Skylight Blog

Let's Talk about it - It's important to hold space for people in their grief. It may be difficult to know how to do this. We can be afraid to say or do the wrong thing and make things worse or feel like nothing we do or say will help. Don't be discouraged - being there for someone is the most helpful thing you can do. Grief is a natural response to loss. These feelings cannot be 'fixed', but supporting someone helps them on their grief journey. Small gestures, sending cards o

We've Got This! Building Your Child or Teen’s Resilience Growing up in today's world offers many challenges for our tamariki and rangatahi. Alongside the stresses of schooling and issues at home, they are also navigating the realities of climate change, social media, economic uncertainty, and the rapidly changing impacts of AI. Parents and caring adults play an important role in helping tamariki and rangatahi build resilience to meet these challenges. Simple things like sho

Kathryn Ross - Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive Skylight Trust I was privileged to be invited to the launch of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2036 and its associated Implementation Plan on Thursday the 6th of August at Parliament. It was great to see the commitment to a youth mental health and addiction plan. For too long we’ve advocated for a greater focus on youth and mental health. With nearly 50% of young people experiencing moderate to high levels of psycho

In July, Skylight's Programmes – Psychology Lead, Bridy, attended a professional development seminar with Karen Young, founder of Hey Sigmund and one of the most trusted voices in child and adolescent mental health. One message from her seminar particularly resonated with us: the insightful way Karen spoke about the brain. She described our brains as our protectors, explaining that when we experience intense emotions, our brains are often responding in an attempt to keep us s

In partnership with Te Whatu Ora and Victoria University, we are delighted to launch and highlight the new site, as the programme celebrates its 25th year. Visit www.travellers.org.nz to view the refreshed look and feel and have a proper first look at Travellers 2.0 which is now being rolled out to schools throughout the motu. We are really proud of it, so do have a click around and send us your feedback. Travellers is a small-group wellbeing programme delivered in New Zealan

This week, Senior Counselling Coordinator, Ben Jensen was invited to talk to Masters of health psychology students at Victoria University on working with clients through loss and grief. Excerpts from Ben’s presentation: Grief is a deeply individual experience, shaped by a person's social context, age, gender, and spiritual and cultural beliefs. Even within the same whānau, different family members experiencing the same loss may grieve very differently — influenced by the type

Pets hold a special place as part of our whānau. Whether it's a dog who greets you at the door every afternoon, a cat who curls up on the bed, or a goldfish faithfully circling its bowl, for many tamariki, a pet is one of their closest companions. So, when that animal dies, the loss can feel enormous. At Skylight, we know that everyone's grief journey looks different. Losing a pet can be deeply felt across the whole whānau — adults included. Whether you're supporting a grievi

Trauma is a response to either a one-time event – such as an earthquake – or to many adverse experiences over time – such as bullying or domestic violence.

Te Korowai is a resilience-based wellbeing programme that has been designed to support tamariki aged 10–13 years (Years 6-8). It helps tamariki cope positively with change (such as moving to intermediate), and aims to improve wellbeing, build resilience, and increase the capacity to cope.

Samoan language week is a beautiful reminder of the strength, warmth and wisdom held within Samoan culture. As a proud Samoan counsellor (working in Canterbury), I often reflect on how indigenous or ethnic practices can co-exist in the counselling space with Western therapeutic modalities.

Last week, the Skylight team had the opportunity to attend a Mitey school visit at Brooklyn Primary in Wellington, alongside Mitey Founder, Sir John Kirwan, Chief Executive Sarah Manley, and the wider Mitey team.

On May 20th, our media coordinator, Maddie, organised a Pink Ribbon Breakfast Fundraiser at our Wellington office. For those unfamiliar, a Pink Ribbon Breakfast is a yearly event hosted by individuals or organisations throughout the country to support the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ (BCFNZ). BCFNZ funds cancer research, provides resources, and advocates for education.

It's important to remember that emotional dysregulation is something that can be experienced by anyone. However, it appears to be more often observed in people with ADHD. Some research even suggests that challenges with emotional regulation affect around 25%-45% of children, and up to 70% of American adults with ADHD (ADDA, Shaw et al., 2014). That is a huge number!

We care about tamariki and rangatahi a lot, and that's why we've made our submission about the Health and Physical Education curriculum refresh to the Ministry of Education.

Skylight's Director of Operations, Amanda, went to a mental health course over the weekend. It sounded like a fantastic day, so here's what she had to say;

Kathryn, our CEO, took some time this week to write about her reflections on an article that came across her desk - Lived experience perspectives on resilience, mental health, and wellbeing: a focus group study of individual, social, and systemic determinants in Aotearoa New Zealand

This blog post summarises and reflects on a journal article regarding transgender people and mental health.

The World Youth Report, a publication created by the UN, looks at youth mental health and well-being of nearly 3,000 young people from 137 countries. Our CE Kathryn gives us her thoughts and reflections on this piece.

We review and reflect on the most recent report of Growing Up. The information for this part of the study was collected in 2025 from more than 4,000 young people and their main caregivers, when they were around 15 years old and in Year 11 at school.

From the most recent NZ Health survey, it was reported that young adults had experienced the highest rate of psychological distress. As measured in 2024/25, 22.9% of young adults (15–24 years old) experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the four weeks prior to the survey. With nearly 23% of young people experiencing high levels of distress, a number that has tripled since the survey in 2014, there is certainly cause for concern.