Meet the Team
Hello! We’re a group of caring, highly experienced experts from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

We’re dedicated to improving happiness and resilience in the workplace. Our mission is to positively impact individuals’ lives while contributing to communities’ broader economic and social wellbeing worldwide.

We bring you the latest research from psychology, neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and behaviour change in the form of easy-to-apply, practical and relevant tools.

We're big on sciencemindsetchange

We’re also big on laughter

Thank you for checking us out as your partner in improving workplace wellbeing. We’d LOVE to make a positive difference for you.

Kim Tay
Kim TayDirector
BA Psyc, DipPosPsyc

Kim founded The Wellbeing Works to bring together a stellar team of experts specialising in wellbeing in the workplace.

Hear Kim talk about the value of wellbeing and resilience

With a background in qualitative research, Kim discovered the emerging field of positive psychology in 2005. She immediately saw its extraordinary potential to transform workplaces. Since then, she has been on a mission to share evidence-based tools and techniques from the fastest-growing field in psychology with businesses and organisations everywhere.

As the former director of online training at the NZ Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience, Kim has delivered hundreds of workshops nationally and globally. She is committed to keeping up with the latest research and best practices in the science of workplace wellbeing.

Kim’s engaging delivery style suits any audience, from accountants to maintenance workers, millennials to baby boomers. She lights up the room (or the Zoom) with her cheeky sense of humour, high energy, and wealth of knowledge.

Downtime for Kim is always active, preferably in nature, and she’ll drag any willing friend or family member (including the border collie) with her to walk, bike, play tennis or fall off a surfboard. She also often gets on the yoga mat to keep those injuries at bay.

“The power of a shift in mindset is amazing – it creates such a positive change in an individual and creates a wave across the whole team.”

Sally Murray
Sally MurrayDirector of Client Relationships
DipTchg, DipPosPsyc

Sally has extensive experience in education, travel, and retail. This rich background equips her with exceptional relational skills that enable her to tailor our resilience programmes to suit your unique needs.

Sally will work with you to create supportive, collaborative relationships that bring out the best in everybody.

Sally’s best-practice teaching skills are instrumental in helping our team deliver first-class training. Her deep understanding of school systems enriches the workshops we run in schools to boost staff wellbeing and resilience.

As a strengths profile accredited trainer, Sally will convey the profound importance to you of what it means to create strengths-based teams.

Sal grew up on the farm and still maintains deep care and interest in the farming community. She loves slow-cooked food shared with friends and family (along with good wine, of course). She is a cold water ocean swimmer, even in the depths of winter, and she enjoys listening to the BBC or history podcasts while walking the dog.

“I love connecting with people, learning about their unique organisation and understanding their needs – there’s nothing more fulfilling than supporting a leader and their team to boost everyone’s wellbeing.”

When you are ready to take the next step towards creating a happier and more productive workplace, contact Sally to find out how our flexible, modular programmes can work best for you.

Ged Robinson
Ged RobinsonLearning & Development Facilitator
DipExcSci, DipPosPsyc, L2 NZ Rugby & L1 NZ Cricket Coaching, DRFSNZ Educator

After a decade of playing professional sport, the transition into retirement taught Ged invaluable lessons about growing, learning, developing, and adapting to different environments.

See Ged demonstrate a unique example of neuroplasticity in this video about growth mindset.

As the Canterbury Sports Development Programme Manager at Tatai Whetu Waitaha, Ged leverages his experience and expertise to equip aspiring athletes with the tools, skills, and resources they need to succeed. His sports expertise translates beautifully to the workplace, where he helps teams identify and achieve their goals and boost their performance.

Ged continues to seek learning opportunities that will benefit those he serves.

Not surprisingly, as a former professional sportsman, Ged’s interests are anything competitive, as well as exercise. He also loves cooking and eating delicious food with and for friends and family.

“Everyone has dreams, wants to be the best version of themselves and succeed in their chosen field – my calling is to help people on this journey.”

Dr Emma Woodward
Dr Emma WoodwardClinical Director
BA ExpPsyc, PhD Chld, Ed & Comm Psyc, FRSA

Emma is a highly qualified registered psychologist with 25 years of experience working across multiple mental health, educational, and organisational settings in NZ and internationally.

In 2014, Emma founded The Child Psychology Service, providing effective mental health support to children and their families nationwide.

Emma brings an energetic, positive, and proactive approach to schools and businesses, supported by her years of experience and research. She’s known for her down-to-earth communication style. The media often call upon her to share practical ways to boost resilience for young people and families.

As the mother of four young boys, in Emma’s rare moments of downtime, she loves heading off to hike outdoors or dancing at a music festival.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl

Mark Jenner
Mark JennerBusiness Strategy Consultant
BMS (Hons) Mgt & Mktg

Mark is an accomplished growth expert with over 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles.

His first career was as a brand builder and marketer for major multinational corporations, including Unilever, GSK, Heineken, and Telecom NZ (now Spark). His second was as a strategist and leader of international marketing services agencies, where he excelled at helping businesses achieve their creative and growth objectives.

Driving growth is widely accepted to be a far more challenging business goal than cutting costs. Mark has a shining reputation for his rare talent in this area. He loves working with leaders interested in personal and organisational evolution. He helps organisations clarify their purpose, identify what makes them relevant and distinctive and identify any internal or cultural changes required to improve performance.

Mark is married to Penny, has two grown children, is a crazy runner and is an enthusiastic tennis player.

“Doing something is almost always better than doing nothing”

Stephanie Rumble
Stephanie Rumble Health, Safety and De-escalation Trainer
MAppSc, Cert.AdultTchg, PGCertOccHlth

With a portfolio career in Health and Safety Education, group fitness instruction & personal training, managing high-performance athletes and consulting in the fashion industry, Stephanie has learnt to adapt to any environment and meet extremely diverse client needs.

Delivering tailored workshops is her speciality. She has masterminded, written and delivered workshops in workplace de-escalation, bullying and harassment and the gamut of health and safety offerings. She has also given extensive talks on self-image and personal branding.

Stephanie’s open, engaging nature means she relates to people from all walks of life. She has a special ability to make serious topics interesting and fun. Stephanie is passionate about health, safety, and wellness. She loves nothing more than sharing her knowledge to help improve other people’s lives.

Outside work, Stephanie runs half marathons, teaches group fitness classes (Les Mills), and practices yoga. She loves reading and listening to audiobooks and is an enthusiastic follower of fashion. You will see this in her colourful outfits and optimistic personality.

“There are two ways to be happy: change the situation or change your mindset towards it.”

Adrienne Buckingham
Adrienne Buckingham Learning & Development Facilitator
BA Psyc & EngLit (Hons), DipPosPsyc, PGDipTchgLn, MA Psyc

Adrienne is a gifted communicator who makes the science underlying everything we do at The Wellbeing Works come alive with real-world language, case studies and engaging stories.

Adrienne spent over 17 years working with adolescents and their families in NZ and internationally. Throughout her career, she has been a dedicated pastoral care practitioner, focusing on behaviour management, student wellbeing, and supporting staff.

Faced with the challenges of helping young people navigate the 21st century, it became clear to her that best-practice teaching must be complemented and enhanced by research-informed strategies for wellbeing. To that end, Adrienne has recently completed her Master’s in classroom wellbeing interventions. In addition to facilitating wellbeing workshops, she is a senior lecturer teaching Health and Wellbeing in the Bachelor of Social Service at Te Pūkenga Otago Polytechnic.

Adrienne has three daughters, a dog, and a cat. She enjoys beach walks and volunteering for the local roller derby club.

“When we know better, we do better.” – Maya Angelou.

Julie Zarifeh
Julie ZarifehLearning & Development Facilitator
BSc Psyc (Hons) (1st class), PGDipClinPsyc, PGDipHealthSciences (Distinction), DipPosPsyc, MNZCCP

Julie is a qualified and registered consultant clinical psychologist. She has spent much of her career assessing and treating people with mild-to-moderate mental health symptoms and developing individualised management plans for people adjusting to acute and chronic physical health diagnoses.

As a research fellow for the University of Otago, she worked on clinical trials investigating no-cardia chest pain, broken heart syndrome, and, more recently, the psychological ramifications of the 2019 Christchurch terror attack on the local Muslim community.

Julie’s personal and professional life changed dramatically with the deaths of her husband, Paul, and son, Sam, just two weeks apart. As Julie worked to accept and adjust to the double bereavement, a passion was ignited in her for resilience psychology, particularly loss, grief and adaptation to adversity. She was featured in the documentary “Camino Skies” and authored a book, “Grief on the Run”.

Julie is passionate about helping people reach self-actualisation. This highest-order motivation drives us to realise our true psychological potential and achieve our ‘ideal self.’

She’s a keen tramper and beach walker, a cold water ‘dipper,’ a proud new (young) grandmother, and a great lover of dogs.

“Walk towards the sunshine, and your shadows will fall behind you!” – Walt Whitman.

Vicky Lewis
Vicky LewisLearning & Development Facilitator
LLB, MAPP, DipBus

After a career in law, Vicky decided to change tack and took on postgraduate study in positive psychology at the University of Melbourne. She’s inspired by simple things such as the impact on our wellbeing of blue and green spaces.

Vicky understands the difficulties of driving engagement, wellbeing and performance in the workplace and the importance of building a thriving culture. She sees her role as translating science and research into relatable and practical strategies for organisations to empower people and improve performance.  

As well as being committed to her mental wellbeing Vicky is committed to her physical wellbeing. You’ll often find her on her paddle board, running in the bush, finding a mountain to climb, or swinging a bat or club, often accompanied by her beloved family pet, Leo.

“Mental health is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.”

Todd Astle
Todd AstlePeak Performance & Mental Skills Coach
BSRM, ANZI life coach & mindfulness coach, L2 NZ Cricket coach

For the past 18 years, Todd has been a professional cricket player, representing both Canterbury and the New Zealand Black Caps. Having faced his fair share of challenges, triumphs, and setbacks, both on and off the field, Todd has harnessed his experiences and learnings.

Hear Todd’s powerful three-in-one technique for performing under pressure.

People can apply the principles of mental skills to all sports and, in fact, to all aspects of our lives. Experience and research show that when people use these basic principles, it is more likely that they will perform their tasks more effectively and achieve a higher level of success.

In his downtime, Todd enjoys physical exercise, reading, yoga, a good pub quiz, connecting with friends and family and quality time with his wife and two kids.

“Set yourself apart from the competition, gain the mental edge”.

“Small actions, repeated over time, transform us”.

Debs Abraham
Debs AbrahamOperations Manager
Debs is our accomplished ‘get things done’ guru. She has over 20 years
of experience in marketing communications. A true master of execution, Debs makes things happen for our clients and team with a winning combination of efficiency and charm.

After beginning her career in public relations and corporate communications, Debs found her niche at the exciting intersection of technology and communications. Her professionalism and expertise keep our team and clients on track. Her worth ethic and dedication to the success of our clients make her invaluable.

Debs enjoys exploring a wide range of interests, from the domestic, (she’ll wow your socks off with her knitting), to the adventurous. She lives a rural lifestyle with her family.

“If you don’t like something, change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou.