
Professional skill development to safely and confidently support others – customers, colleagues and community.
We provide skills and confidence development for business teams and community workers who are regularly having conversations with people experiencing emotional distress or disruption.
We are a division of Lifeline Aotearoa and part of Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN) and work alongside PSN’s other social services, Shine and Family Works.
Services
We provide a range of professional development programmes and ongoing supporting services for employees, team leaders, and community professionals to become more confident and skilled in responding to distress, stress, or crisis among colleagues, clients or the public.


Lifeline Connect: Business
Our professional development for business includes workshop training, counsellor-led group supervision sessions post-training, and the Lifeline Connect Debrief Call Service – formalised downloading and support immediately following a complex conversation with another (client, customer, employee). Other Services available include strategic assessment and advice, and our Wellbeing Check-in Call service (for employees or clients/customers).


Lifeline Connect: Community
Our education programme designed for communities is led by specially trained Lifeline counsellors along with ongoing support provided via the Lifeline Connect Debrief Call Service. Community training is usually provided in conjunction with a sponsor to enable it to be provided free within the community.
Our Background
The concept for Lifeline Connect started in 2019 with a vision to drive early intervention and risk prevention culture and practice in workplaces and communities all over New Zealand. Our aim is to upskill everyday Kiwis and empower them to proactively respond to themselves and others during times of distress or crisis. We have embarked on a mission to build a connected network of human support with the confidence and skills to start healthy conversations around mental health and wellbeing.
Our professional development and supporting services are modelled on an early intervention strategy and are designed and delivered by experienced, qualified counsellors accessing the expertise and knowledge at Lifeline Aotearoa (providing a helpline service and suicide crisis support for over 56 years) and the wider PSN social services group.
Today, we successfully deliver professional development and supporting services to major New Zealand organisations, business sectors, and communities. These leaders are pioneering the way in thinking differently about their approach to mental health and wellbeing support, and risk prevention practices, and are becoming more proactively connected and intentional with their initiatives.
“We deliver a range of training workshops that provide professional development opportunities, as well as providing ongoing supporting services for businesses and organisations”


Our Training Workshops and Supporting Services provide:
- Access to educators who are qualified counsellors and group facilitators.
- Advice and guidance on self-care practices to maintain professional resilience and mitigate burn-out.
- Confidence and skills to notice and have courageous conversations with someone who might be stressed and where to refer.
- Knowledge and strategies to better support people regularly responding to others who are in distress or experiencing disruption or crisis in their lives.
- On-the-job coaching support and debriefing call service for frontline and client-facing staff
- Supervised Peer Group sessions post training to facilitate sharing and reinforce learnings



For information about our training products and supporting services, email us info@lifelineconnect.co.nz