Originally from The Key, near Te Anau, the Cromwell-based occupational therapist has provided mental health support and coaching for the past five years.
Passionate about seeing people thrive and teaching practical tools to manage stress and support wellbeing, she is looking forward to sharing her wisdom with the farming community at two separate events this month.
Mrs Van Lierop spent more than 20 years working as an occupational therapist. Throughout that time, she was working with people who had suffered the likes of strokes and brain injuries to try to make their life as best they could.
But it often felt like working as the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" and she reflected on the role and all the skills OTs could offer people — tools and practical skills to help manage their wellbeing.
After the birth of her second daughter, Mrs Van Lierop suffered post-natal depression which led to her spending several weeks in Wakari Hospital in Dunedin.
Open about the experience, she said it piqued her interest more in mental health and she later started a role as a health improvement practitioner in Alexandra.
She loved that but she often found people were coming to her "quite late in the journey" whereas it would be easier to work with them earlier.
She came up with the idea of workshops, particularly around workplace wellbeing, saying there was a role for employers to play.
It was about how to capture people as a group and the value of sharing and interaction. She particularly enjoyed helping identify practical coping strategies, enable people to understand the "warning signs" and give them a "tool kit" to deal with it.
Eventually, Mrs Van Lierop decided to put all her energy into wellness and she has her own private practice called Workitwell, which has two streams; facilitating wellbeing workshops for businesses and groups, and one-on-one mental health support for people who were struggling.
Now charitable organisation Will to Live has sponsored a breakfast wellbeing session for farmers at Highlands on April 10 where there would be a focus on the five ways to wellbeing, a small group discussion, discussion about recognising warning signs and where to get more help.
The previous day, Mrs Van Lierop will join a wellbeing panel in Omakau as part of the Time Out Tour with the Rural Support Trust. Hosted by the Otago Support Trust, it also features rural mental health advocates Jack Cocks and Tyler Langford and will be hosted by Matt Chisholm, the television personality, author and farmer who has been open about his own mental health struggles.
Mr Cocks undertook a study on how resilient farmers thrived in the face adversity as part of the 2021 Kellogg Rural Leadership programme after having his own first-hand experience, a life-threatening brain injury in 2013.
Mrs Langford is the wife of Federated Farmers national president Wayne Langford who has become known as the Yolo Farmer. In 2017, the Langford family went through a dark time when Mr Langford suffered from depression. They started their Yolo (you only live once) journey and Mrs Langford now shared the lessons they learned in the hope that it would help others.
