Conference 2025
Registration
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Early Bird registration is available from 4 March to 4 April 2025.
Multi/group registrations are available for 5 or more attendees from the same organisation, please enquire to mirroradmin@mirrorservices.org.nz.
Please be aware registrations will not be confirmed until your payment has been received. Please note there will be no refund for any cancellations received after 9th May 2025.
Dr Claire Achmad, Chief Children's Commissioner
Dr Claire Achmad is a recognised advocate for children in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, having worked in a wide range of areas relating to children's rights, including from legal, policy and practice perspectives. Claire was appointed as the Deputy Chair of the Children and Young People's Commission from 01 July 2023, and from 01 November 2023 took up the role of Chief Children's Commissioner and Chair of the Commission for a total term of five years.
From March 2021 - to September 2023, Claire served as Chief Executive Officer of Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa, and in that role championed the aspirations and outcomes of children, rangatahi and whānau and community-based social service providers, strongly grounded in a focus on equity, and working closely with social services organisations throughout the motu.
Claire holds a doctorate in international children’s rights law from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and has published internationally on a range of children's rights issues. She also holds degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Auckland and is a University of Auckland 40 Under 40 Honoree. Previously, Claire has worked for children’s NGOs and international organisations in Aotearoa, Australia and Europe, held a senior role within Te Kāhui Tika Tangata the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, and practised as in-house legal counsel in the New Zealand government. She was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 2007.
Claire was born and grew up amongst kauri and kererū in the Waitākere Ranges, went to school in West Auckland, and is of New Zealand and Indonesian heritage. Claire holds a Guest Lectureship in the Child Law Department of Leiden University and is a member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network.
Dr Paul Denborough - Alfred Hospital Child and Youth Mental Health Service
Dr Paul Denborough is a Psychiatrist known for his innovative style in transforming mental health services. With twenty years of extensive experience working in the public health system, he is the Clinical Director of Alfred Hospital Child and Youth Mental Health Service and is responsible for over 200 staff.
Paul has a successful record of leadership, clinical work, teaching, research and working closely with community agencies. He has a strong commitment to best practice, particularly in the youth psychiatry field. He is well recognized for implementing progressive programs and culture change within the mental health system including working with carers to improve family-sensitive practice and implementing a groundbreaking youth early psychosis service implementing resources like the Discovery College and a client-led needs adapted practise.
Paul developed the first Headspace Centre in Australia in 2007 and in 2019 he contributed to the Victorian Mental Health Royal Commission. His specialisation in eating disorders at Alfred CYMHS encompasses a multidisciplinary team including nursing, dietitian, and family and youth peer workers.
Paul has three children: two sons aged 23 and 20 and a daughter 16. He brings a strength-based and solution-focused approach to helping alleviate the mental distress of young people and families who are referred to the service.
Hannah Whittaker-Komatsu
Hannah Whittaker-Komatsu celebrates life outside the box. Her journey into Peer Support began at 22 as a Peer Educator at the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective. Since that time, Hannah has journeyed alongside people in a variety of lived experience spaces and roles. Her thirst for understanding the human experience led her to train as a social worker, however, she believes the most useful knowledge she has gained is that which is societally undervalued and most often completely unacknowledged; the purposeful and intentional processing of one’s own life. A pivotal step in her healing journey has been identifying what was called ‘disorder’ and ‘disease’ were in reality beautiful survival strategies.
As the Programme Director Lived Experience, within Manatū Hauora (Ministry of Health), Hannah supports the Mental Health and Addiction Group to connect to Lived Experience perspectives and movements. In her spare time, Hannah developed Thriving Madly, a creative mutual support community that creates spaces for connection and opportunities to craft wisdom that supports us to collectively weather the storms of life.
Dr Nicola Atwool
Dr Nicola Atwool is an independent contractor offering supervision, training, and consultation. Throughout her career she has worked with tamariki, rangatahi and their whānau experiencing adversity and has a particular interest in trauma-informed practice. Her research has focused on attachment, resilience, the impact of trauma, the experience of children in care and social work intervention with tamariki, rangatahi and their whānau. Her goal as a researcher and educator is to bridge the worlds of practice, policy and academia.
Nicola has an extensive career in social work starting in 1977 in Porirua after completing a Master in Social Work at Victoria University. She also completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences at Waikato University, a Post-graduate diploma in Child Psychotherapy and a PhD from Otago. She worked for what is now Oranga Tamariki for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles including social worker, supervisor, social work educator and child psychotherapist in specialist services in Dunedin. Nicola moved into an academic role in 1994, working as a lecturer and senior lecturer in the Social and Community Work programme at the University of Otago. She spent six years as a Principal Advisor in the Office of the Children's Commissioner from 2006 to 2012 before returning to the Social and Community Work programme at the University. Nicola worked as a senior lecturer and Associate Professor, finishing her time with them in December 2022.
Nicola is Chair of the Family Violence Death Review Subject Matter Expert Committee and has been a member of several advisory groups for Oranga Tamariki. She is a registered social worker and a member of ANZASW.
Nicola identifies as Tauiwi Pākehā and having moved around Aotearoa during her early years she now calls Ōtepoti home. She and her partner raised two sons and now have four mokopuna.
