One young person he had been working with decided to take on a robotics class which they had heard about — and it worked.
"It is important to provide positive activities for young people", was how Harris simply put it.
And that could be done, although as Harris said the world of technology was an expanding one, and accordingly technology had become a very important part of a young person's world.
"We like to engage young people in a positive way in terms of that technology," he said, adding that the domains of social media and the internet as a whole was no different from the real world.
"It is all out there — it is just that social media and Facebook and blogs can expose people to a lot more stuff, and of course some of that can be negative."
For Harris, it came down to a pursuit of "getting in there and exposing the positive stuff".
One positive of the great internet landscape was that many young people had gathered a lot of knowledge.
Harris said his generation had not grown up with the internet and many people initially felt they had let their youngsters, who had, down because they had not been able to understand it like the kids could.
The bottom line when it came to controlling what had the potential in some hands to become uncontrollable was simply "use it positively".
Which was where he stepped in.
He and the team at Directions had encountered young people who had been "on devices all the time" and had worked with them.
One of the unwanted effects which the health team worked on was the sleep aspect, as it had been established that using "blue light" on the edge of bedtime would affect sleep patterns.
It went back to looking for other ways to involve people and their time.
"It is important to provide positive activities for young people — it is important to replace the internet with other opportunities."
However, that did not come down to a total closure, as the social media and internet had its pluses for young people.
There had been an emergence of online games which were effectively built around therapy for some issues.
And young people could seek initial answers to things like anxiety and depression if they were reluctant to speak up about it — although more and more were.
As were their parents who sought advice.
Every situation was different and Harris had worked with parents on the issue, and results had been good.
"It comes back to using it [technology and devices] positively and there will be trends of course — I can't say all young people are using it wisely."
He said parents with concerns should seek advice and direction as changes could be made, and the heart of that change was the finding of a balance, and other creative or entertaining alternatives.
Before taking up his role at Directions Youth Health Centre, Harris worked as a social worker with mainly intermediate and high schools and had been involved in several workshops and talks.
Parents and teachers were keen to know how they could help, and what could be done, to help and advise young people in the expanding world of technology.
That was continuing today in his Directions role, and part of the latest initiative was the staging of three workshops this month, with one of them focusing on young people and technology.
The three-hour workshop would be presented by psychologist and professional speaker Michael Hempseed and was aimed at understanding the signs of problems excessive screen time would spark, and exploring the supports that could be put in place.
Harris said he was seeking sponsorship to assist with the costs of staging the workshops, as they required an admission cost which he hoped sponsorship could reduce.
He had seen the positive outcomes in many cases of initial concern and said it was an issue which demanded openness and honesty.
But in the expanding world of technology and the equally expanding landscape of devices to embrace it, there was plenty of work to be done.
"And we are happy to facilitate conversations between young people and their parents — it comes down to exploring the positives."