Whare tapa whā - the house that heals
Chelita Kahutianui o-te-Rangi Zainey, Waitaha/Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Kahu/Ngāti Haua
Chelita is a māmā, writer, Kai Rongoā, spiritual mentor, and certified breathwork facilitator. Her passion activates and inspires others to heal and transform their lives into one of aligned purpose, love, and joy.
In Te Ao Māori, we have been blessed with the Hau Ora Well-being model Te Whare Tapa Whā, gifted by Professor Sir Mason Durie.
Translated, this model calls forth and identifies the four sides of one’s own ‘whare’ of well-being, a metaphor for our one and truly always present home, the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual vessel and energetic bodies that carry us through this world.
Our whare, and the strengths or weaknesses that dwell within it, inform how we navigate this world and determine our overall sense of well-being.
It’s a delicate dance to balance the demands and needs of all your tapa, and it takes an even greater courage to assess and then commit to the work that may be required to mend the cracks.
As a Kaimirimiri, Kairongoa, and more recently, as a certified Trauma Informed Breathwork Facilitator, my passion is to guide, encourage, and support others as they attend to the distortions of trauma that are causing weaknesses in their Whare Tapa Whā.
The last 10 years of professional practice have been largely informed by my personal healing journey. I’ve navigated through this deep inner inquiry, acknowledging, clearing, healing, integrating, and breathing the healing of my taha into being, healing each crack of trauma as I go.
In Ōtautahi, we know a thing or two about when cracks appear.
Even now, as we glance around the city, the remains of these tragic times are still there on the surface, and this outer world often reflects the inner world of the community that exists within it.
For some of us, the wounding cracks of trauma are deeply debilitating. Fear, doubt, anxiety, stress, pressure, addictions, insomnia, suppressed and oppressed emotions, the list of symptoms is vast.
In my mind’s eye, when I think of this, I get a picture of the ChristChurch Cathedral, once a resplendent home of devotion, but after its collapse and over time, the new growth of Mother Nature has woven its way through the ruins of that once glorious home. New life will always find a way, but what still lies in the rubble beneath?
Our own whare are like this – life will continue, and new things will unfold, but if the deep trauma lies in the rubble and the cracks beneath, over time, it will weaken the ability for the individual to live a fulfilling life.
Te taha tinana – our physical health
Te taha wairua – our spiritual health
Te taha hinengaro – our mental health
Te taha whānau – our family and relational health
We always say, ‘the body never lies,’ and as a somatic practitioner, I know this to be true.
But what I also know to be true is that healing is possible, maybe the deep cracks will never fully go away, but we can learn to acknowledge them, to move the emotions through and release and then integrate the memory in a way that no longer weakens our whare.
If you have a quiet moment today, take a few deep breaths in and out through the nose and feel into the taha of your whare. You just never know what those few breaths might reveal.