DR lee hooper
Psychotherapy & Counselling
Certified Imago Relationship Therapist
About me
For me, the psychotherapeutic journey offers an opportunity to examine both the conscious and unconscious processes that influence how we feel, think, and act. Sometimes this is done in a gentle, empathetic, and non-direct way. Other times, a more focused and direct approach is effective. How therapy unfolds is a very personal experience, which is unique to each individual’s life story. To help you decide whether my approach would be a good fit for you, I want to share some of my life story.
As a teenager I wanted to find a holistic way of creating a balanced and healthy life, so I studied Naturopathy for three years and learnt how physical health is intimately tied to emotional and psychological well-being. While this course gave me a solid grounding and introduced me to different healing modalities, such as herbal medicine, nutrition, and massage, I felt like there was something missing. At this stage, I wasn’t sure what it was, so I decided to start a solo-travelling expedition, which spanned five years and took me across Europe, Asia, and the Middle-East. I was hitch-hiking from city to city and often experienced bouts of stress and anxiety at not knowing where I was going to end up and if I was going to find a place to sleep. These uncomfortable experiences highlighted how important it was for me to understand and explore how my internal processes influenced the way I felt and the choices I made in my life.
During this time, I also experienced an existential crisis and I began exploring Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as listening to philosophers, such as Alan Watts. My concept of self was continually shifting as I searched for a meaningful existence. Returning back to Christchurch, I enrolled in Gestalt Psychotherapy to deepen my understanding of self and how to operate with moment-to-moment awareness. By this time, I had also completed postgraduate study in education (counselling and guidance), and was about to begin studying towards my Masters in Education. My life experiences thus far had helped me settle on a topic that was close to my heart – exploring how teachers could use empathy, compassion, and self-reflection to connect with each other, as well as their students.
Once I completed my Masters, I began my PhD and started lecturing at the University of Canterbury on topics, such as self-regulation, emotional intelligence, stress, neurobiology, and statistical research. At this stage, I was honing my knowledge and had purpose, as well as direction. For my PhD, I wanted to embrace and explore my playful and creative side. Throughout my life, music had been such an inspiration and often allowed me to connect to my emotions without needing words. Sometimes I have found that it is the ‘simple’ things in life, like ‘speaking’ through sound and movement, which allows people to share a connecting and transformative moment together. I decided that I would work with children for my PhD, as I believe they have a natural disposition to allow themselves to play.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when I began studying Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy, which provides a framework for analysing personality, unconscious beliefs, and social interactions. This approach gave me a complete system to understand how our psyche develops in childhood and is shaped in adulthood. During this time, I also began studying Imago Relationship Therapy, which helps couples build trusting, intimate, and conscious relationships together. This approach uses structured dialogues to provide space for each partner to communicate in a way that creates empathy, attunement, and honesty. I had finally found my passion, which was to work with people in a creative, connecting, and deep way. Having the opportunity to really meet people is such a wonderful gift and I am so grateful for realising my life’s purpose.
In my current practice I work with adolescents, adults, and couples, and depending on who I am working with, I draw on different modalities. When working with adolescents, I weave talk therapy with creative-arts techniques to help them discover their strengths in a positive and uplifting way. When working with adults, I draw on transactional analysis, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapies to support meaningful self-exploration. With couples, I mainly use imago relationship therapy and psychodynamic couples therapy modalities to support the couple gaining insight and intimacy. Throughout all my practice, I maintain attention on how we, as the therapeutic couple (or triad), co-create a safe and empathic space that honours the complete individual – within our mind, body, spirit, and our relationships with those around us. I also offer animal-assisted therapy sessions with Bailey.
For more information about our services, click here.
Qualifications and Training
Current: Certification in Transactional Analysis (and subsequent registration as a psychotherapist).
PhD (Health Sciences). Research topic: Child psychology, earthquakes, post-traumatic stress, and mind-body therapy (University of Canterbury).
Master of Education. Research topic: Non-violent communication, empathy training, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation (University of Canterbury).
Postgraduate Diploma in Science - Child and Family Psychology (University of Canterbury).
Postgraduate Diploma in Education - Counselling and Guidance (Massey University).
Bachelor of Arts - Social Anthropology (Massey University).
Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy Training Programme (Physis Institute).
Imago Relationship Therapy Training Programme (Imago Institute for Relationships).
Certificate of Gestalt Psychotherapy Experience (Gestalt Institute of New Zealand).
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Couples: Foundational Training (Nellie Education).
Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD: Foundational Training (Nellie Education).
Narrative Exposure Therapy for PTSD: Fundamental Training (NET Institute).
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy for OCD (Cognitive Behavior Institute).
Habit Reversal Therapy for OCD (Cognitive Behavior Institute).
Reaching In, Reaching Out (RIRO) Child/Adult and Leadership Certificates - (Canadian Resiliency Programme).
National Certificate in Complementary Therapies (Naturopathic College of New Zealand).
National Certificate in Natural Therapies (Naturopathic College of New Zealand).
National Certificate in Massage (Naturopathic College of New Zealand).