I will be your fervent advocate as you pursue mental peace, joy and freedom.
As an internationally board-certified and registered Clinical Psychologist, I am passionate about the life-changing science and experience of psychotherapy, especially for those who have visited the therapist’s office many a time before, but still find yourself stuck in repeated cycles that you cannot find your way out of. I am resolute in my determination to equip people with truth and understanding, because I believe it is the road to real and lasting change for your life, enabling you to live in a state of true self- and other-awareness. No matter how hard this can feel at first, if you persevere in this transformational pursuit, it yields invaluable fruit. I will be delighted to support you on your journey with unconditional respect, value, and compassion for you and your story, even as we work towards change. For anybody who is considering pursuing therapy for the very first time, it will be a privilege to get to be your guide on the road untraveled for you, and to brightly shine a light on the way ahead.
A glimpse into my professional background:
I have travelled the world and seen many of its wondrous corners. I am South African born and bred, and have had the privilege of being educated and trained up in world-class institutions. I am currently licensed with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as well as the official Dubai government health professional licensing authority: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA). I have had the opportunity of working across vastly diverse environments – from high-risk psychiatric in-patient hospital wards to out-patient community clinics, from missions organizations to running a private practice, from working in the sparse outskirts of rural villages to working in the bustling economic hubs of global cities, Dubai being the latest of these over the past few years. I am currently in my 17th year as a board-certified Clinical Psychologist. I am equipped to work with a variety of clinical needs and reasons for presenting to therapy. These span from severe mental health disorders and serious relationship crises, to the ordinary life adjustment challenges that we may face.
I particularly work with the following groups of people:
Couples in couples therapy who seek help to become better at being together, as well as adult individuals aged 21+. Due to my scope of practice as a Clinical Psychologist, I am diagnostically oriented, and I exercise the belief that a clinical diagnosis is not a label that reduces anybody to any disorder, but rather, serves as an empowering validation of one’s lived experience and personal struggles, allowing us as professionals to accurately attend to and ameliorate distress.
Theoretical orientation: I am predominantly psychodynamic in my clinical formulation, which in ordinary terms means that my clinical understanding of each individual is based on developmental attachments, early emotional environments, and unconscious drives and affects. In the therapy room, this translates into exploring your detailed history, key relationships and the pinnacle experiences that have shaped us, as well as exploring the root affects from our early experiences that powerfully impact us now. In practical intervention terms, I am solutions focused in helping individuals and couples get down to real life remedies for their struggles. This means that therapy with me can be brief, finding helpful resolution quickly, or, it can be much longer-term and thorough in seeking understanding in order to access and mobilise deep-seated affect.
Finally, I am passionate about teaching and educating the public on topics of mental health, and have engaged in a variety of public engagements throughout my career: Live broadcast television, live radio broadcasts, international conferences, and newspaper and magazine print, including here in Dubai.
