Helen Clarke
Helen is an accredited mediator who is trained in conflict coaching.
Helen completed a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies (Dispute Resolution) from Massey University in 2017. She has been an accredited mediator through the Resolution Institute since 2017 and trained as a CINERGY Conflict Management Coach in 2019.
Helen has provided mediation, facilitation, and conflict coaching in workplaces, schools, and retirement villages, as well as for builders, members of sports clubs, and groups of volunteers. She has assisted people to use conflict to create opportunities and find new ways of doing things, as well as reset relationships and restore enthusiasm and participation.
Helen is a highly skilled communicator; this assists her to understand the issues and underlying needs of the people she works with. She supports people by empowering them and standing alongside them, versus being the fixer of their problem. In everything Helen does she sees her role as providing a process or framework that is respectful and safe for the people taking part.
Helen came to working with people in conflict after a successful career as a physiotherapist. She has raised two sons with her husband Ian. She combined that time in their family’s life with study and various voluntary roles, including serving on sports committees and school boards. In Wānaka Helen and her Schnoodle Mahe volunteer for St John, in this capacity, they visit a rest home to provide conversation and companionship for the residents.
Her understanding of the health sector, through working both in the public and private sectors and her volunteer work, makes her well placed to assist people with conflict in this setting. This might include – retirement villages, aged care facilities, or within families as they discuss the future needs of their loved ones.
Helen is based in Wānaka where she enjoys the opportunities proximity to the mountains offers her. Often she develops her best ideas when she is out on her mountain bike or walking on the trails.
In the last three years, Helen has undertaken her work regularly online either using teleconferencing or audio-visual platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. She is available for work nationwide.
