About HMA

Formed in the mid 1990s HMA (Hall McMaster & Associates Limited) developed around the work of Ken McMaster. Ken McMaster has a long history of work in the stopping violence, sex offenders, alcohol and drug, and criminal justice areas.

Although initially based in Canterbury, New Zealand, the team has expanded to include trainers, programme developers, supervisors, and writers in the area of human service work from a range of other localities. This includes staff based in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington and Christchurch.

Much of our work occurs in the areas of consultation in criminal justice work, social work with men, family violence prevention training programmes, child protection, the interviewing of children experiencing trauma, abuse issues, and psychological assessment and therapy.

We provide group programme design and training for trainers, group facilitation skills training, social services supervision, and training in motivational interviewing. We also apply our expertise to the design and delivery of training in other fields. Research in areas related to our practice is important to us, and we both write and publish social service books.

For many years we have all involved ourselves in social justice issues and are passionate about making our communities safer and more respectful places, in particular for women and children.

Our mission statement is ‘Working with Passion and Integrity to bring out the best in people’; a statement that is at the core of our philosophy to life. For many years we have all involved ourselves in social justice issues and are passionate about making our communities a safer and more respectful place.

We are committed to social change through the following means:

• Encouraging responsibility for behaviour that impacts negatively on others
• Being accountable to others for our behaviour
• Making the most out of each opportunity
• Our belief that learning is a lifelong task and continuing our own growth and development
• Working to privilege the stories of those who have been silenced
• Working hard and with dedication to bring about change in the lives of people
• Keeping connected with practice
• Integrity in working within our realm of expertise

Each of our partners and associates is actively involved in a range of organisations and initiatives designed to bring out the best in people. While most of our work is about training workers in the human services to work more effectively, we bring that same dedication to individual clients whom we work with.

We work on a project basis for much of our work and seek to bring the best combination of people with the appropriate skills. We are team players and demand a lot of each other. People have come to expect a high standard of service from HMA which we are committed to continuing. When you get an HMA trainer in the room with you, you can be confident of a skilled and passionate person.