Sarb’s insightful, relevant and relatable work makes psychosocial support applicable and understandable for ordinary Kiwis. He is a positive and upbeat presenter and his memorable presentations generate excellent feedback. I would recommend his services to anyone in emergency management.

Michael Donoghue

Disaster risk and recovery specialist

We commissioned Sarb to speak to our Civil Defence team and stakeholders to help staff adjust to normal work pace again, after giving everything we had to our Covid-19 response. We were burned out and we needed an engaging speaker to help us find the motivation to get back into the workspace.

Sarb was approachable and easy to listen to, sharing lots of real life examples. The sessions prompted us to share our own stories and experiences with each other, finding new opportunities for connection and greater awareness of the importance of our own health and wellbeing.

Claire Nyberg

Civil Defence Emergency Management Officer – Welfare (Northland Regional Council)

Sarb’s experience and high public profile created a sense of buzz around our stakeholder workshops, resulting in strong attendance and enhancing our ability to get our message heard.

Sarb’s workshops provided a meaningful opportunity to engage our stakeholders and work towards our strategic goal of building resilience. The knowledge he shared has proved a great conversation starter and provided valuable material for future resurgence planning and training. Sarb is professional, great to work with and I would highly recommend his workshops to others in CDEM (civil defence emergency management).

I have drawn on Sarb’s expertise in psychosocial recovery in managing the response to some of the major emergencies of the last decade, from the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, to the Christchurch earthquakes and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those working on an emergency response are often unaware of the importance of psychosocial recovery as part of the steps to be taken when dealing with the immediate issues.Sarb’s work has helped me maintain an awareness of the underlying pressures on people working on emergency responses and to communicate that awareness to staff, so that they in turn could better manage some very difficult situations.

Sarb has an ability to turn complex issues into simple, easy to manage concepts and his workshops are very well received.
I would recommend him to anyone dealing with complex management issues.

Steve Brazier

Former National Co-ordinator, Emergency Planning, Ministry of Health
Former Director, Security and Risk Group, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Sarb makes a real positive difference in people’s lives at times when they need it most. His expertise and guidance (often requested at short notice), has helped us ensure that individuals and communities affected by adverse events get the right support.

One of Sarb’s great strengths is his ability to relate easily to people, to help them make sense of what is going on and to support their recovery with practical advice.He helps people understand emotional reactions to a crisis, recognise the symptoms and face challenges positively.

Sarb has offered quality, relevant advice and psychosocial care to staff and managers facing a range of challenges. We appreciate his strong support and never hesitate to call him when faced with a crisis.

We sought Sarb’s expert advice [regarding] the psychology of communicating important health messages during the Covid-19 pandemic. We needed to connect with many different parts of New Zealand society in a way that was reassuring, cultivated trust and inspired strong uptake of health messaging and behaviours.

Sarb helped us strike the right tone, ensuring New Zealanders knew exactly what they needed to do…. Sarb proved the value of having someone with his expertise embedded in a communications team, particularly in life/death/crisis communications.

Katie Brown

Digital Communications Lead, Unite Against COVID-19

We approached Sarb to help us reach out to our staff during the Covid-19 lockdown. We wanted to offer increased levels of support and were keen to do something that achieved cut-through.

Sarb ran with our ideas, creating professional quality video content on a tight timeframe, and opening the door to new ways of communicating with our staff. Videos of an actual person sharing good advice really helped get the message across and showed that as an organisation we can talk about things like mental health, wellbeing and supporting staff in a timely and appropriate way.

Our health and wellbeing team now meets regularly to discuss how we can better support staff and Sarb’s name and the videos often come up. We have a more coherent programme of work, more impactful internal communications and a better level of staff engagement, so we are starting to gain traction.
In the past, we have struggled with video content producing poor results, thanks to low production values, or long, complex amateurish content. Thanks to Sarb’s work, our view of video has now changed. I have recommended Sarb to many professional colleagues and would happily work with Sarb again.

Paul Brislen

Strategic Communications Manager, Datacom

Over the last decade, Sarb has provided valuable support through several emergencies in the Canterbury region. He is approachable, articulate and adaptable, and has a rare ability to bridge the gap between officials, politicians, policy makers and the community.

Sarb has deep knowledge of psychological and psychosocial processes and an ability to present these simply to a lay audience. He has helped us connect our mental health promotion and community development strategies with trusted theories of psychology and disaster management, and he always offers simple steps individuals can take to enhance their agency, calm, safety and connection. I have learned a huge amount from Sarb and am grateful for his continued support.

During the first Covid-19 lockdown, we approached Sarb to help us understand the implications and how we could best support clients and colleagues during this time.

Sarb quickly understood what we were trying to achieve and created a webinar, sharing valuable knowledge and lived experience of psychosocial recovery and crisis. He prepared us to understand our own responses to the pandemic, and to provide effective support to our clients.

The webinar also created an opportunity to build ongoing relationships with psychologists and other professionals across the country, who joined us for the training.I would recommend Sarb to any organisation seeking expert advice around understanding and managing a significant public crisis.

Sean Versteegh

General Manager Mental Health & Wellbeing
Clinical Psychologist
Explore Specialist Advice NZ
Gains Wellness and Psychology

When a prolonged drought in Northland overlapped with the Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown, we realised that our core staff were becoming stressed and worn out. The cumulative impact of working long hours and responding to unique community needs was becoming increasingly challenging, and staff were beginning to question the value of their work. We knew we needed to take action and with his wealth of experience, Sarb was a natural choice to assist with our wellbeing.

Since Sarb’s workshop, the dynamic of our team has shifted. We all have a greater understanding of ourselves, how we are as a group and how we can assist ourselves and each other.As a manager, I now pay more attention to recognising stress in others, taking time to check in with staff and prompting them to use Sarb’s tools.

Sarb is authentic and puts things into perspective in a direct way, using simple language that is easily understood and implemented. I have recommended his services to others working in emergency management and welfare.

Graeme MacDonald

Northland CDEM Group Manager