My Story

By profession I am a qualified early childhood development teacher with my major being special needs, I also have my psychology 1, 2 and 3 which I did after completing my teaching degree. However I did not go the part of following my degree and becoming a teacher but instead I chose to go the route of becoming a volunteer mental health counsellor and a post natal depression support group leader.  My view is that individuals are not alone but form part of a bigger picture. I seek to expand “helping” beyond traditional psychotherapy to promote wellness. I also engage in action-oriented research to develop, implement, and evaluate programs. I base my work on a scientific foundation to better understand the multiple influences of the social environment on health and wellness. I build collaborative relationships with community members, groups, and organizations to solve social problems. I consult with and provide tools to organizations to build capacity to address social problems such as exploitation and victimization. I also try to analyze government, civic life, and workplace settings in order to understand and improve fair and diverse participation. As well as help to fight oppression, work to reduce social inequalities, and work with marginalized people toward their empowerment.

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I have come to realise that the problems of the individual can so quickly become the problems of the whole group. The support of a community improves both the physical and mental health of its members, increases feelings of safety and security, producing better outcomes for children and helping economically through close local networks of contacts. Nurturing and enhancing the many positive benefits of vibrant community life is what I would like to implement personally and professionally and now more than ever, it is vitally important in a country like South Africa that is so unstable with so much crime and economical down fall and such an unbalance in the population where the majority of clinical psychologists work in private practice serving the needs of the minority, while the majority of the population has no access to mental-health services and where pressing social issues such as violence, crime, trauma, poverty, substance abuse and HIV Aids are compounded by an overburdened public-health system. I see it as a major need to help these people and the poorer communities, this is why I volunteer with the South African Depression  and Anxiety Group (SADAG) to try and help where I can. Also I see needs for support groups in communities that cannot afford private health care to care for their mental health now more than ever, and this is why I am starting my own group for mothers with PND and will eventually go on helping dads too.