| Margaret Agee |
Margaret Rosemary Nelson Agee is a New Zealand mental health counsellor and academic. In 2014 Agee was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to mental health education.
Agee completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of English at the University of Auckland. While at university she visited a guidance counsellor for help with stress and confidence, and found it so helpful she described developing "an almost missionary zeal" for counselling. The career path for counselling at the time involved working as a teacher first, for around five years. Agee trained as a teacher, and then taught English and social studies at Auckland Girls' Grammar School. Agee was then appointed to Aorere College, where she was first junior counsellor and then head of guidance. She was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Auckland in 1990, where she later completed a PhD.[1] One of Agee's doctoral students is the first Pacific person to graduate with a PhD in counselling from Auckland, Toleafoa Sarah Sala Va'afusuaga McRobie.[2]
Agee lectures in professional supervision, and also researches on loss and grief.[3] Agee has been actively involved with the National Association for Loss and Grief, and was a founding member and serves on the board of the Grief Centre.[4] Agee was a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement.
Agee has co-edited three books and is on the editorial board of the New Zealand Journal of Counselling.[5]
In the 2014 New Year's Honours Agee was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to mental health education.[6] She is a Life Member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors.