Our Rongoā Māori Service

Prepared with the support of our founding rongoā practitioner partners. 

Rongoā Māori practice in the Clearhead EAP setting 

Rongoā Māori is Aotearoa’s longest-standing therapeutic modality - taonga tuku iho – knowledge and 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. 

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

FAQ 

Will this be available in both New Zealand and Australia? 

In 2025 the service will only be available in New Zealand, but we are considering ways to offer this to customers in Australia in the future.  

Before then, (in 2026) we will be looking at introducing registered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners. 

I’m not Māori, is this for me?  

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

How will employees be able to book rongoā sessions? 

How will I know if staff are using the service? 

Access to rongoā practitioners is protected by our usual levels of EAP confidentiality. We will be making one change to reporting in Q4 2025 so that you will be able to see the total number of rongoā sessions accessed by your organisation, but it will not be broken down into departments or locations (this will be displayed in a similar way to uptake of financial advisers or career coaches if you have these services switched on). 

Will people be seeing both a counsellor and a rongoā practitioner? 

If you are on standard therapy entitlement settings people covered by your EAP programme that would like to see a rongoā provider will be choosing to do so instead of an EAP counsellor. 

If you are on a per-issue therapy setting then people covered by your EAP programme 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, we will speak to them about options available outside of EAP, or may request a type of session extension from you (if the situation calls for it and fits EAP short-term intervention principles).  

Can I expect my costs to go up?  

For most clients, there will be no change in total expected costs. For clients set up on a “per issue” basis, there may be a slight increase in costs, depending on uptake. Speak to your account manager if you have questions about this. 

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, 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. 

I can’t see any providers in my area – what's the story? 

At launch (22 September 2025) we will have only a handful of options available, and demand may be high due to limited availability. Profiles are sometimes hidden when practitioners cannot take on additional appointments. Over time we will have more providers and we expect this to take several months.  

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

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

Ideally each practitioner delivering services will have their own profile on Clearhead. This is because it 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.