Rongoā Māori Service

Rongoā Māori practice in the Clearhead EAP setting 

Rongoā Māori is Aotearoa’s longest-standing therapeutic modality - taonga tuku iho - knowledge & gifts passed on intergenerationally. 

Rongoā takes a holistic approach to health by considering mental, spiritual and physical aspects, seeking to restore balance in all realms.  

Rongoā can help address unhealthy coping tools that people develop in response to stresses on all wellbeing areas, enabling the person to handle whatever situation they find themselves in with increased clarity and awareness.

In this way, rongoā is a culturally appropriate framework that can address non-clinical concerns and mild mental health issues suitable for short-term EAP intervention. 

Defined in greater detail in the following section, in a one-to-one EAP setting, rongoā practice may involve: 

In a group setting, this may be delivered as wānanga (group learning). 

Clearhead providers are ACC registered Rongoā Māori practitioners, who may have specialised skills in some of these areas more than others. Additionally, the nature of EAP referrals (mental health) also means that some elements of rongoā may be emphasised more frequently than usual. However, rongoā is taonga Māori, and Clearhead does not dictate that emphasis to any one provider or case.  

Individual provider profiles are the best place to find out more about the expertise of that practitioner. Clearhead reserves the right to determine which providers are available on the Clearhead platform at any time.

Elements of rongoā that may form part of service at Clearhead 

Whitiwhiti kōrero refers to the reciprocal exchange of ideas through open discussion (Massey University, 2017). From a Te Ao Māori perspective, this verbal sharing and dialogue is not only a way of developing understanding and discourse but also serves as a form of talking therapy. This can be helpful for people from all walks of life to enable people to make sense of themselves, the world, and their place within it 

Pūrākau can be woven into whitiwhiti kōrero as traditional Māori narratives that convey ancestral knowledge, cultural values, and lived experiences through storytelling. More than just myths or legends, pūrākau serve as a method of transmitting Māori worldviews (Te Ao Māori), preserving genealogies (whakapapa), and fostering identity, connection, and learning (Lee, 2009). By engaging in pūrākau, individuals and communities reconnect with wisdom embedded in language, land, and lineage, allowing both historical and modern insights to emerge.  

Mātauranga Māori is included in whitiwhiti kōrero and is supported by Health New Zealand/ Te Whatu Ora to underpin health services and programmes. It is the body of knowledge that originates from Māori ancestors, including values, worldviews, practices, and ways of understanding the world. It is deeply connected to the land, language, spirituality, and lived experiences of Māori. Mātauranga is holistic and relational, encompassing both traditional knowledge and its dynamic evolution in contemporary contexts. It informs how Māori engage with the environment, health, education, and community, offering a uniquely Indigenous perspective grounded in Te Ao Māori (Royal, 2009). 

Romiromi & mirimiri are two examples of traditional forms of bodywork healing found within Te Ao Māori that can form an invaluable part of a self-care routine.

When comparing the two, mirimiri is often a lighter touch that invigorates and energizes, while romiromi means to agitate deeply. Both can help to ease and release the emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical pains and strains held within our bodies, accumulated through daily life (Cotter, 2025).

It is important to distinguish mirimiri and romiromi from common conceptions of massage. The objective is not to relax muscles, but to address emotion, thought and experience that we encounter in our lives, stored in various ways within our bodies and minds (Cotter, 2025).

An essential aspect of Rongoā Māori is the connection to wairua, the spiritual dimension of a person, and recognising this as a vital part of overall wellbeing.

Reconnecting with wairua can take many forms, such as being in nature, returning to the moana (ocean), or spending time with bodies of water, all of which help restore balance and grounding. Practices like karakia and waiata are powerful pathways to spiritual connection.  

Karakia, often understood as prayer or incantation, is non-religious and serves to guide and protect the wairua, particularly during times of transition or healing (Te Rau Matatini, 2014). Waiata, or song, carries ancestral knowledge and wisdom through rhythm, tone, vocabulary, and pitch, offering a way to reconnect with lineage, wisdom and meaning (Te Pou o Te Whakaaro Nui, 2009). The spiritual aspect of healing can be deeply supported through connection with the natural world, particularly by spending time in the ocean or bodies of water which can help individuals reconnect with themselves and restore a sense of spiritual wellbeing. 

Rongoā practice may also include rākau rongoā - natural and native plant-based remedies - used to support the body in healing from a range of conditions including colds, flu, digestive issues and muscular pain (Bpacnz, 2008).  

Drawing again from Mātauranga Māori, rākau rongoā stems from knowledge of, and a connection to, New Zealand’s unique environment and ecosystem.

Other healing techniques such as forms of naturopathy (whether offered by rongoā practitioners or not) that do not stem from Māori cultural traditions are not recognised as part of rongoā Māori, and they do not form part of a rongoā (or other) intervention under Clearhead EAP. 

Greater than the sum of many parts 

Understanding rongoā is not just about its various parts, but about the principles and process that underpins all elements.  

While some individual elements of rongoā may not be directly comparable to other EAP interventions offered by Clearhead, the objectives and the process are;

Opening an EAP pathway to rongoā better meets the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and may help to address health outcome inequalities between population groups. 

All together, rongoā represents a framework to address wellbeing in way that is structurally suitable for EAP in an Aotearoa New Zealand setting.

FAQ 

Is this available in both New Zealand and Australia? 

The service will only be available in New Zealand. We are considering ways to offer this to customers in Australia in the future. Before then, we will be looking at introducing registered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners. 

If a client is not Māori, can they book rongoā?  

Rongoā is for both Māori and non-Māori. In fact, ACC data suggests uptake between each group might be around 50/50.

How will clients be able to book rongoā sessions? 

Can people meet with both a counsellor and a rongoā practitioner? 

If they are on standard therapy entitlement settings, people covered by their organisation’s EAP programme would be able to see a rongoā provider and/or an EAP counsellor for these sessions. However, they only have their standard annual allocation (e.g. 3 sessions) to use to meet with either the rongoā provider or EAP counsellor or both. Please ensure you check their session allocation in the Clearhead platform to check if they have sessions available for rongoā.

If they are on a per-issue therapy setting then people covered by their EAP programme, they will be able to get a referral for rongoā without impacting their entitlement to then seek out a counsellor or psychologist. 

In all cases, when someone is seeking support but they have expended their EAP entitlement, you can speak to them about options available outside of EAP, or may request a type of session extension (if the situation calls for it and fits EAP short-term intervention principles).  

Rongoā as an EAP intervention 

Although the methodologies differ, the fundamental reasons for seeking support via EAP may be the same. 

Whilst recognising that rongoā is a framework of its own, EAP standards and controls, including short-term intervention principles and onwards referral protocols, need to be considered for referrals of an EAP nature. This ensures that a comparable and culturally appropriate level of support is provided to all referred via Clearhead. 

How does Clearhead select its rongoā providers? 

ACC registered Rongoā Māori practitioners are able to join the Clearhead network by providing Clearhead with: 

They must also confirm compliance with our guidance on short term intervention principles, onwards referral and escalation protocol and our Provider Terms of Use. 

Clearhead then reviews each application and supports the practitioner to create a profile.  

If you have a local provider in your area who you refer to, but don’t see them on Clearhead – tell us! We’d love to talk to them.  

Please note that Clearhead always reserves the right to determine whether any individual provider may offer services via Clearhead. 

Why are some rongoā provider profiles on Clearhead organisations and not biographies of individual practitioners? 

Ideally, each practitioner delivering services has their own profile on Clearhead. This supports clients to choose a therapist who is right for them.

However, we acknowledge that some providers of rongoā operate as rōpū, meaning that the practitioners work together as an organisation, and aren’t bookable individually or directly.  

These organisations usually have their own intake process steps to help determine who you’ll be seeing in your rongoā sessions. 

For these organisations (sometimes referred to as whare or clinics), we allow for a single profile on the Clearhead platform to represent a booking with the organisation, rather than with an identifiable practitioner. 

Reference List

• ACC, Accident Compensation Corporation. (2025, July). Rongoa Māori Services.

• Bpacnz. (2008, May). Rongoā Māori: Traditional Māori healing (Best Practice Journal, Issue 13, pp. 32–36). Best Practice Advocacy Centre New Zealand (bpacnz).

• Cotter. H. (2025). Romiromi: in practice, [Unpublished Manuscript]. Te Whare Whakaora. 

• Lee, J. (2009). Decolonising Māori narratives: Pūrākau as a method. MAI Review, 2, Article 3.

• Massey University. (2017, February). 224.357 Brief 1 [PDF]. Massey Spatial.

• Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Mātauranga Māori.

• Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Pūrākau – Māori myths and legends. Te Whakatōhea.

• Royal, C. (2009). Mātauranga Māori: An introduction.

• Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. (n.d.). Mātauranga Māori – Māori knowledge.

• Te Kete Ipurangi. (n.d.). Using pūrākau to enhance learning. New Zealand Ministry of Education.

• Te Pou o Te Whakaaro Nui. (2009). Let's get real. The National Centre of Mental Health Research, Information and Workforce Development.