About Ayni Wellness

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Ayni (pronounced eye-knee) means “right relationship” or reciprocity. This word comes from the indigenous Quechua people of Peru.  When we live in right relationship, we have balance with self, others, and the world around us. But when we fall out of right relationship, we can battle with so many aspects of our lives. Some examples include struggles with:

- Our past 

- Our body and mind

- Previous trauma 

- Others around us, including family, friends, and partners

- Finances

- Grief and loss

- Isolation from the community

- Our circumstances of life, such as a physical or intellectual disability

- Disconnection from nature 

Strain or rift in these relationships can lead to experiences of depression, anxiety, avoidance, and fear around our future or past. Similarly, trauma and unhealed wounds from our past can affect our relationship with ourselves and others in the present day. 

At Ayni Wellness, we work together with you to treat the whole person. Our approach recognizes the importance of a strong therapeutic relationship, one that is safe, non-judgmental, authentic, and practical. The goal of therapy is to understand your lived experience. This means understanding your story as you have experienced it, and walking beside you as you reconnect to yourself, your family and friends, work/finance, and the community around you. 

At the same time, treatment also incorporates expertise from neuroscience, with practical tools for relaxation, well-being, and healing. We can help you to better understand your mind-body connection, gaining insight into how your body and brain work together so you can feel more grounded in your sense of self. 

Our services include individual counselling for children, adolescents, and adults. 

Dr. Elizabeth Conrad was born and raised in the Chicagoland area in the US, where she originally started her career as a middle and high school history teacher. She lived and taught abroad in South America and returned to the US to earn her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2013.

Elizabeth's training incorporated seemingly separate worlds, as she focused her therapeutic skills in a humanistic, client-centred approach. She walks beside each person on the journey back to self-hood, striving to understand each person's lived experience as they see it. Her style is authentic and transparent, asking questions and listening without judgment. She considers therapy to be one of mutual discovery and her role is largely to serve as a gentle and supportive witness along the path to healing. 

Her other world involved intensive training and research in neuropsychology, where she published and presented internationally on topics such as EEG (electroencephalography), multimodal neuroimaging, and biofeedback. She also has many years' experience in conducting neuropsychological assessment, particularly with children, for diagnoses such as ADHD, mild traumatic brain injury, and learning disabilities. 

This background has afforded Elizabeth a unique understanding of how stress and trauma affect our physiology. Thus, she works closely with people to build their mind-body connection, using bespoke language and practical tools such as mindfulness, relaxation, and self-hypnosis. 

Finally, Elizabeth is a mother. With two young boys, she has come to appreciate the many joys, challenges, and humbling changes that come with parenthood. She moved from the US to New Zealand in 2019 to raise her family, and lives in the Hawkes Bay with her husband. She recognizes that, from wherever we are in the world, each of us has an incredible and unique story to tell, and she considers it her privilege to be able to listen and share in that journey.