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Touchgrass is a youth specialised team of counsellors, youth mentors and public health advocates who sit within the Problem Gambling Foundation Ltd. We share a space in Kingsland, Tāmaki Makaurau. As the service grows Touchgrass will have locations all around the motu.

Address:
(from 24th August, 2026)
409 New North rd,
Kingsland,
Auckland


Phone:
+64 9 368 1520


Email:

info@touchgrass.org.nz

Map showing Touchgrass Office at 409 New North Road and nearby bus stops.Map showing Touchgrass Office at 409 New North Road and nearby bus stops.

Meet the team

Smiling woman with light hair wearing a blue collared shirt and crossing her arms, with a blurred whiteboard in the background.Smiling woman with light hair wearing a blue collared shirt and crossing her arms, with a blurred whiteboard in the background.

Frances Russell


Clinical Lead for Touchgrass

Frances is a youth mental health clinician with experience working across child and adolescent mental health, youth justice, and foster care sectors. She holds postgraduate qualifications in youth mental health and has trained in family therapy approaches, bringing a systemic perspective to her work with young people and their whānau.


Frances has extensive experience in service development and clinical leadership, with a passion for developing innovative services that improve outcomes for young people and their families.


As a parent of four, Frances understands that raising young people is both rewarding and challenging. While her children may have other opinions, she likes to think she's still young enough to understand youth culture, and relevant enough to know what Touchgrass means (or at least she's trying!).

A man with a beard, wearing a navy blue shirt, smiles with his arms crossed against a dark blue background.A man with a beard, wearing a navy blue shirt, smiles with his arms crossed against a dark blue background.

Eden Carson


Youth Mentor Team Lead

Eden is Touchgrass's Youth Mentor Lead. He leads a team who have been there themselves (they have lived experience). They walk alongside rangatahi as they tackle these challenging issues.


In 2016, Eden hit his rock bottom thanks to years of multiple coexisting addictions, including gambling. He went to a residential rehab and changed his life. During his recovery, he discovered himself, running, and a passion for supporting others through their own journeys of recovery. He has worked in community orgs as an alcohol and drug peer support worker and with the innovative charity 'Speed Freaks' as a support worker helping people recover through running and walking.


Since stopping his addiction to online gambling, Eden says "I found a greater passion in life that fills my cup". Through his work with others, his travelling, and particularly his running he finds joy. He's proud of who he is and sees the future as nothing but bright.

Headshot of a smiling woman with reddish-brown hair and red glasses, wearing a black cardigan and blue necklace against a white background.Headshot of a smiling woman with reddish-brown hair and red glasses, wearing a black cardigan and blue necklace against a white background.

Bridgitte Thornley


Clinical Director

Bridgitte is the Clinical Lead for the whole of the wider Problem Gambling Foundation Ltd. She is passionate about helping people and bringing out the best in her team. She especially enjoys working with complexity, diversity and change.


Bridgitte is a Registered Social Worker with the Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB), a qualified alcohol and drug counsellor and Member of the Drug and Alcohol Practitioners’ Association Aotearoa (DAPAANZ).


She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work in 2011 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Drug Dependence in 1993. Bridgitte has been working in the addiction sector since 1990 and in the gambling sector since 1999.