Te Whakapapa o LYRIC
Living Your Real Identity Courageously
Hikitia te mauri, puāwai te auahatanga, noho tauana.
Uplift the essence. Blossom the creativity. Create a space of peace.
— Karroll Pere-Veale, 2021
LYRIC was not created simply as a framework to use in my practice. It was born from my own lived experiences.
Its whakapapa reaches into some of the deepest and darkest parts of my own journey and experiences that, for many years, I did not realise still carried energy within me. Turning toward those experiences required courage and heart. Yet, in opening those doors, reflecting on what I had lived through, and finding ways to give expression to what had previously remained unspoken, something began to shift.
What emerged was a pathway toward tau — a place of greater peace within myself.
And from that journey, LYRIC — Living Your Real Identity Courageously — was born.
The Three Pou of LYRIC
Over time, I came to recognise three principles woven throughout this journey: Tuakiri, Aroha and Knowing.
TUAKIRI — Identity
Tuakiri speaks to our inner being — the place through which we make sense of ourselves and the influences surrounding us. Within LYRIC, Tuakiri creates space for the reclamation of identity, whakapapa, resilience and connection to self.
It asks:
Ko wai au? Who am I beneath everything I have experienced?
AROHA — Love and Compassion
Aroha is more than something we offer others. It is something we learn to extend inward.
Within LYRIC, Aroha creates space to look upon our experiences with compassion rather than allowing anger, whakamā or pain to hold the pen. It reminds us that the parts of ourselves that have experienced adversity are also deserving of tenderness, understanding and love.
KNOWING — Inner Wisdom
Knowing acknowledges the knowledge gained through learning, experience, intuition, reflection and lived reality.
There are things we learn from books and from others — and there are things we come to know because we have lived them.
LYRIC honours both.
It creates space to trust the wisdom carried within our own stories and recognises that our experiences can become sources of insight, creativity and understanding.
Mauri Ora — The Continuing Journey
The ultimate intention of LYRIC is Mauri Ora — flourishing wellbeing.
I do not see Mauri Ora as a final destination that we suddenly arrive at. It is something alive, moving and evolving.
What Mauri Ora looks and feels like will be different for every person because each of us carries our own whakapapa, experiences, aspirations and understanding of what wellbeing means.
LYRIC therefore does not tell somebody who they should become.
Instead, it creates space for them to explore who they already are.
Through creativity, reflection, whakapapa, lived experience and self-expression, LYRIC invites us to reclaim our stories, reconnect with our identity and find our own pathway toward greater peace.
KARROLL: More Than a Framework
Today, LYRIC is much more than something I facilitate.
It is something I live and breathe.
It influences how I practise, how I create, how I reflect, how I connect with others and how I continue to understand myself as a living human being.
It reminds me that healing does not always begin with having the perfect words.
Sometimes it begins with a feeling in the manawa.
A thought.
A kupu.
A pen touching paper.
And the courage to allow whatever needs to come next.
Living Your Real Identity Courageously.
That is LYRIC.