Meet Our Team
Debbs Murray
Founder and Facilitator
Debbs was a victim of serious family violence and harm. Upon navigating a pathway to a life free from violence, she has dedicated her career to the family violence sector. For more than 20 years, Debbs has unashamedly pushed for greater local and national victim survivor and sectoral awareness, while striving to increase systemic and workforce capability. Debbs is the very proud mother of four amazing adult children (and Sox the cat), nanny to five precious grandbabies, a partner, a daughter, a sister, a sister-in-law and an aunty. As a survivor of family violence, Debbs recognises and presents an interconnected perspective of victim-survivor and practitioner in a professional, healthy, engaging, and informative manner. Debbs is passionate about improving outcomes for whānau through increasing professional family violence capability and organisational accountability. Debbs understands the resistance that our victim survivors engage, the strength, and mana that exists within the hearts of those trapped in the cycle of family violence. She believes in supporting these strengths to be recognised in practice and allowing clients to be self-determining. Throughout Debbs’ career, she has built a diverse skillset and cross sectorial knowledge. Debbs has worked in numerous roles and organisations in the sector, including crisis response work, management, and developing systemic processes and capability. Debbs is now at a place in her life where she is choosing to stand by her story and experiences. She has written a soon to be published book of her journey through family violence called “One Women, One Soul, One Survivor” and recently shared aspects of her personal journey in the New Zealand on Air Breaking Silence 2021 documentary series.
Keino Smullen
Facilitator
Keino is a victim-survivor of family violence who is dedicated to bringing the victim-survivor voice into practice. Keino is passionate about the family violence sector and is striving to make informed, positive change in the sector. Keino’s specialist career in the social work sector has spanned over 19 years, allowing her to establish a high level of theoretical and practicable knowledge. Keino has extensive experience as a social worker and social work supervisor, and worked predominantly at Oranga Tamariki. Keino worked very closely with the multidisciplinary Child Protection Team and other local agencies to ensure immediate child safety protocols were implemented, which led to successful prosecution of offenders and perpetrators of child abuse. Keino runs Holistic Supervision and Consultancy and facilitates ECLIPSE's Child Protection in the context of Family Violence training.
Braden Clark
Business Development Manager
Braden is a registered social worker and has extensive experience in the child protection and family violence sector. Braden is passionate about supporting tamariki and whānau wellbeing and is currently completing his Doctor of Social Work degree in this area.
Braden has joined ECLIPSE Family Violence Services as our part-time Business Development Manager to help us to take ECLIPSE to the next level. Braden was previously working as the Kaiwhakahaere Chief Executive for the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers.
Jacki Rowles
Facilitator
Jacki's lived experience of being raised in a violent country, fraught with racism and sexism, entrenched in her home by a patriarchal-dominant father led to her work in family violence. Since 2007, she has worked with women and children, providing counselling, group programme facilitation, assessments and individual programmes for both predominant aggressors and primary victims of violence. Currently, Jacki works as a family violence practitioner and clinical supervisor. She contracts with a local agency offering programmes in non-violence and safety. In her private practice, she provides clinical supervision across Aotearoa for people responding to those impacted by family violence. Her supervisees include refuge workers, counsellors, psychologists, restorative justice facilitators, community support workers, police, and victim support workers. Additionally, she offers group clinical supervision, training and education in family violence. Jacki is passionate about improving social responses to family violence. As a doctoral student at Massey University, her research focuses on understanding support services responses in the context of family violence. She feels driven by a responsibility to all the women who privileged her with their stories of lived experiences of harmful responses. She is motivated to offer insights and awareness into how we, as support workers, can become "Response-able" when responding to those impacted by family violence, which is the primary focus of the education she provides.
Karen Cherry
Facilitator
Tēnā koutou katoa, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Ko Rātāroa te maunga Ko Pūkorokoro te awa Ko Tainui te waka Ko Ngāti Paoa te iwi Ko Makomako te marae Ko Karen Cherry tēnei. As a mother, grandmother and a survivor of childhood abuse and family violence Karen passionate about whānau wellbeing. Karen has a long career in social work practice, with a belief in ensuring the right of tino rangatiratanga for tamariki, rangatahi and whānau Māori. When we stand strong in te ao Māori, we live a life that is built on aroha, free from violence. Karen is a registered social worker, an educator and a kaitiaki. Karen has ten year’s experience working in social work education and is passionate about supporting people to understand their rights and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Karen is excited to join the ECLIPSE team and contribute to the family violence workforce by sharing knowledge on building cultural capability and competency.
