Peter Bray is a senior educator and professional lead (academic) in the undergraduate counselling programme at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute, in Tauranga, New Zealand. He also runs a small counselling and supervision practice and is an editor of the New Zealand Journal of Counselling. Prior to his current appointment, Peter was programme director for the postgraduate counselling degree programme at the University of Auckland and has served as an associate professor at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke’s Bay. He was also a school counsellor and the director of a student support centre at Mangere College in South Auckland. Earlier in his career he taught Drama and English in the United Kingdom.

Since completing his PhD in 2005 on the dynamic confluence of traumatic grief and spiritual experience in adolescent bereavement, his professional work as an educator and his scholarship have been dedicated to counsellor training and practice in New Zealand.

Peter is happily married to Jen, and they share a large global whanau, rich in children and grandchildren.

• https://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?user=950m8E4AAAAJ&hl=en
• Research Gate
• Academia

Peter has worked as a secondary educator and counsellor trainer for the last 50 years. His scholarship and research reflect his continuing interest in client-centred counselling practices, spirituality and consciousness, the management of loss and trauma and the transformational aspects of post-traumatic growth.

More recently he has been exploring the influence that being a professional, wounded healer has on professional helper identity, and specifically where it intersects with the concept of everyday heroism.

• Everyday Heroes Project – ongoing research with Emeritus Prof. Scott Allison of the University of Richmond, V.
• A qualitative phenomenological investigation into the influence that experiences of transcendence have on counsellors and psychotherapists in practice with Peter James (University of Auckland & Manukau Institute of Technology).
• Special Interest Group on Spirituality – Project and discussion group facilitated at Springhill Treatment Centre (Hawkes Bay District Health Board).

Books

• Bray, P. (Ed.), (2019). Voices of illness: Negotiating meaning and identity. Brill/Rodopi. ISBN: 978-90-04-39606-7 https://brill.com/abstract/title/54074
• Bray, P. & Rzepecka, M. (Eds.), (2018). Communication and conflict in multiple settings. Brill/Rodopi ISBN: 978-90-04-37367-9 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004373679

Book chapters

• Bray, P. (2019). Working with addiction and trauma: Mental health therapists reflect on their use of spirituality. In D. Schaub, J. Lindner, C. V. Zanini, S. Tam and K. D. Novak (Eds.), Topography of trauma: Fissures, disruptions and transfigurations (pp. 78-111). Brill/Rodopi. ISBN: 978-90-04-40794-7 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004407947
• Bray, P. (2019). A shared story of professional practice: Therapists make meaning of spirituality. In P. Bray (Ed.), Voices of illness: Negotiating meaning and identity. Brill/Rodopi.
• Bray, P. (2019). Grief, loss and critical autoethnography: The father’s tale. In S, Farquhar, and E. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Innovations in narrative and metaphor. Methodologies and practices. 2013-219. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6114-2
• Bray, P. (2018). Holotropic Breathwork as a therapeutic intervention for survivors of trauma: An autoethnographic case study. In D. Schaub and E. McInnes (Eds.), ‘What happened?’ Visual representations of traumas and healing(pp.187-218) Brill/Rodopi ISBN: 978-90-04-38593-1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004385931 https://brill.com/abstract/title/39211?rskey=imYKoS&result=3
• Bray, P. (2018). Presenting the patient: Through a storytelling, illness and medicine lens. In J. Holmqvist (Ed.), The patient-doctor dynamics: Examining current trends in the global healthcare sector. (pp. 68-80). Brill/Rodopi. ISBN: 978-90-04-38656-3 https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004386563/BP000006.xml?rskey=2iLvOD&result=25
• Bray, P. (2018). Beginning to breathe. In J. Holmqvist (Ed.), The patient-doctor dynamics: Examining current trends in the global healthcare sector. (pp. 81-90). Brill/Rodopi.  ISBN: 978-90-04-38656-3
• Bray, P. (2018). ‘We all act better than we know how’: A dramaturgical treatment of beginning counsellors’ performances of self. In P. Bray and M. Rzepecka, (Eds.), Communication and conflict in multiple settings. (pp. 82-112). Brill/Rodopi ISBN: 9789004373679

Articles

• Bray, P. (2023). The hero’s journey and positive transformation. In AS T. Allison, J. K. Beggan, &

  1. R. Goethals, Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies (pp. 1-6). Springer.

            https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125- 3_269-1 and

            https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_269-1

• Bray, P., May, J., & Flanagan, P. (2023). Editorial. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 43(1), 2-6.

            https://nzac.in1touch.org/site/communications/journal/overview?nav=sidebar

• James, P. & Bray, P. (2022). Therapists’ experiences of transcendence: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. (In Press) https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jhp
• Bray, P. (2021). Considering beginning counsellors’ development of ‘self’ in a person centred and dramaturgical space. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 41(1), 59-84. https://www.nzac.org.nz/publications/new-zealand-journal-of-counselling/
• Bray, P. & James, P. (2019). Reviewing the heroic experience: a humanistic and existential counselling perspective. Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 4(1/6). ISSN 2573-7120. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/heroism-science/vol4/iss1/6
• Bray, P. (2019). Wounded heroes and heroic vocations: Heroism and the storied lives of therapists. Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal 4(2/1). pp. 1-36. ISSN 2573-7120. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/heroism-science/vol4/iss2/1
• Bray, P. (2017). The hero-journey, Hamlet and positive psychological transformation. Journal of Humanistic Psychology (Online First) 1-31. DOI: 10.1177/0022167816689357

• ‘Dangerous places’: Everyday heroism and the lives and work of counsellors. NZAC Mini-Conference – Recent Research and Innovations in Practice: An Update for Counsellors. University of Auckland, Thursday 4th April 2019.

• Everyday heroism, personal story making and growth: Observations from humanistic counselling and critical autoethnography. Second Biennial Heroism Science Conference. University of Richmond, Virginia, USA. Thursday 4^th to Friday 5^th October 2018.

• Living critical autoethnography: The making and presenting of an account of a difficult life event. Critical Autoethnography Conference, 2018, ‘Critical Autoethnography and Wayfaring/Wayfinding’, University of Auckland, 9^th -11^th July 2018.

• The making and presenting of an account of a difficult life event. NZAC Biennial Research Conference, Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC), Hamilton, 7^th and 8^th December 2017.

• Presenting the patient: Through a storytelling, illness and medicine lens. 5th Global Conference: The Patient:Examining Realities. Monday 5^th to Wednesday 7th September 2016, Mansfield College, Oxford, England.

• ‘One eye watching our backs’: Therapists share personal stories about practice. 11th Global Conference of the Health Project: Storytelling, Illness and Medicine, Budapest, Hungary, Monday 14^th to Wednesday 16th March 2016.

• Campbell’s monomyth and the journey to post-traumatic growth: Hamlet, the hero, and the client. 6th Global Conference Trauma: Theory and Practice, Budapest, Hungary, Friday 11th March to Sunday 13th March 2016.

Presentations by invitation

• Submitting and article to the New Zealand Journal of Counselling. New Zealand Association of Counsellors webinar with Janet May and Paul Flanigan, 2021 https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/ynUX5ROZ6J_0QDAbD-UtDcljEmGcfqnWwvLruyTxbXNr_CMmrUmChwfK40U7_as4TMze12Ps8RI5NJQ.LEtCcPrdIgt0Adal?startTime=1635910233000&_x_zm_rtaid=fZJt9ukEQXegjAAWFZFaMA.1650936502513.a4808675707a6547c2734fcf56164d0d&_x_zm_rhtaid=885
• Trauma, story making and heroism. Guest Lecture, New Zealand Association of Counsellors, Narrative Interest Group, Auckland Branch, 2nd October 2019.
  The Death podcast. Newshub podcast series about grief 2019: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/podcasts/2019/06/the-death-podcast-peter-bray.html
• Writing a narrative on grief. Guest Lecture, Narrative and Metaphor Special Interest Group, University of Auckland, 8th June 2017,
• The loss of a family: A post-traumatic growth perspective. Guest Lecture, New Zealand Christian Counsellors Association, Auckland Branch, 3rd March 2017.