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TĀMAKI MAKAURAU | AUCKLAND

Rediscovering joy at Mana Taiohi

Published: July 23, 2025

The team at Real’s Mana Taiohi Youth Respite share this encouraging story of Amanda’s journey towards turning a corner in her life, during her stay. Amanda arrived at Mana Taiohi for a five-day respite, following a period of low mood at home.

Prior to her stay with us, she had been engaged in various activities including competitive wrestling, drawing, and playing guitar. However, the pressures in her life became overwhelming, leading her to withdraw from these activities. While Amanda was with us, she discovered our guitar and started to play again!

She told us she started playing guitar at the age of six, and had six different guitars at home, but hadn’t played since she was about ten. We enjoyed listening to her practice Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven and it was clear she is a talented young lady.

Amanda renewed her love for art during her stay at Mana Taiohi Youth Respite.

During Amanda’s stay, staff supported her with various activities as part of a day programme including Music Therapy. She absolutely loved this, and it helped lift her mood and she felt empowered being able to join in with her guitar skills. During the evenings, staff at Mana Taiohi were able to have sit down chats with

Amanda, which helped her to open up and explore how she was feeling about life, home, school, and her friendship circle. Amanda also opened up to the team about the pressures she has been feeling and together they explored how sometimes this pressure was self-imposed. It turns out she was wanting to be the
best at everything and was thinking, “if I’m not the best, I have failed myself”.

We were able to work through this with Amanda, emphasising that success is just one part of the journey. We encouraged her to focus on enjoyment and being present in the moment. When it was time for her return home, Amanda’s dad picked her up. He was delighted to see the difference in her mood and said he hadn’t seen her smile for months. He was blown away to see the artwork she had made (pictured). Amanda also said that she was going to start playing her guitar again
and continue with her painting and perhaps even start training again.

Mana Taiohi is a Real youth respite/residential service in Tāmaki Makaurau. It provides a safe and caring environment for young people aged 14-18 years who may be going through a tough time. They offer a range of supportive services focused on mental health and Amanda renewed her love for art during her wellbeing for young people.


— This story was first featured in Harikoa magazine (issue 3, 2024).

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