Your niece has my profound sympathy -- a number of years ago I tried to get into a PhD here -- applied to all the universities but no go.
The University of Otago, particularly, was most rejecting of the idea (see the home page of my website for a link to it http://russwilson.coffeecup.com/
(OK, it's a bit dated now, but the proposal is largely still a worthwhile idea imho). That University is of the "behavioral and brain sciences" type -- snidely rejecting of applied / clinical research, especially in this area) -- although it doesn't even have the people to do the brain sciences stuff. If someone wants to do a PhD one really has to do an "academic" thesis -- but I believe there's real merit in working with some professor from the clinical area, familiar with the theories and practices of clinical work, and there's simply no one, especially in this area at UoO -- but Dunedin and its surrounds are beautiful and the climate is great imho -- coming from Queensland where it's too hot for me. Martin Dorahy at Canterbury, 5 hours away in Christchurch is the best potential supervisor in this area "locally".
And don't my "criticism" of your use of words too much to heart -- I'm just an old codger, and your daughter may see things differently. And also don't forget, Kiwis speak differently, in some ways, to how Aussies do -- and I didn't come here till 2000, and have been to several places overseas since then, but happily settled in Dunedin. So, my own "education" (real world, as opposed to training) has also been somewhat "disjointed".
Must admit, apart from how you use your words, I'm loving the stuff you're writing!! :-)
See here for yet another attempt being made to introduce "TIC" into NZ through the Resilience film -- pity no one's prepared to share this "adverse childhood experiences report submitted to IIMHL"
http://us6.campaign-archive1.c...343&e=7ffb7a1097
"Tauranga woman ..."