Practitioner: Anita Vlasic Manaia
Anita Vlasic Manaia is of Dalmatian, Scottish and Maori descent with ancestry to Corcula in Croatia and the Tainui tribe of Ngati Haua. She has degrees in Applied Social Work and a Masters in Clinical Arts Therapy. She has studied and published research on therapeutic processes for working with clients using Kaupapa Maori and Arts Therapy.
She was previously an Intensive Case Social Worker in a Teen Parent Unit at Taonga Education Trust in Manurewa, Auckland and has worked with Maori and Pacific Island teenage mothers who live in low socio-economic communities with high and complex needs.
Her passion is working with indigenous people to strengthen identity and build resilience using arts therapy. She is also committed to acknowledging ancestral, spiritual and intuitive knowledge and using this as a resource when working with the impacts of colonisation.