I am a Clinical Psychologist practising in St Ives Sydney. We immigrated to Australia in 2017. I have been practising for more than 30 years. I am an AHPRA registered Clinical Psychologist and Supervisor to students and registered psychologists.

As a student I was trained in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and the Person Centred approach of Carl Rogers focusing on empathy and congruency. After completing my training at the University of Stellenbosch I did internships at the Groote Schuur Child Psychiatry Unit and the Stikland Psychiatric Hospital, as well as the students unit at the university. During the two years as a psychologist in the defense force, I became much more interested in working with various trauma presentations, acute and incident related trauma, as well as the effects of chronic trauma on the human psyche.

Since being a student I had an interest in clinical hypnosis. After starting my private practice in 1994, I started specialising in clinical hypnosis. The solutions orientated approach of Milton H. Erickson really got me excited about practising psychology. The approach focusses on guiding clients to access resources and experiential wisdom in hypnosis to facilitate change. I had the special privilege of receiving training from Dr Jeffrey Zeig from the Milton H. Erickson Foundation.

At around the same period, I became very interested in the Ego State Therapy approach of Prof John and Helen Watkins. EST provides an understanding of the self as multi-dimentional. It presents the understanding that the self develops different systems of the self in the neurophysiology. These aspects or parts of the self developed through our life experiences and the influences of significant others to shape the development of my experience of self. Even though this is how we organise our inner world, chronic trauma disrupts integration and causes the self to become more divided.

In 2000 Dr Woltemade Hartman founded the Milton H. Erickson Institutes of South Africa (MEISA) and approached me to be one of the founding directors. Since then I have been involved in training psychologists and health care workers in clinical hypnosis and Ego State Therapy for 17 years, before immigrating to Australia and continuing the work here. In these roles I am involved in presenting workshops and organising various congresses and trainings in clinical hypnosis, trauma and psychotherapy. In 2016 I was awarded the Fuma award for my contribution to Promoting Clinical Hypnosis and Psychotherapy in South Africa.

I realised that we need to have top down and bottoms up approaches as the mind and the body is one system. Through the years I have become interested in the Somatic Experiencing approach that works with trauma in the physiology. These body orientated approaches in psychotherapy are specifically helpful in managing the effects of trauma through allowing the neurophysiology to discharge, complete the uncompleted physiological responses and restore the nervous system. I have completed the extensive training in SE to become an accredited Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) through the Somatic Experiencing Institute in the USA.

Through the years I also completed my training in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) as well as Eye Movement Integration (EMI) for processing trauma.

Since coming to Australia in 2017 and starting my own private practice, I have also founded the Australian Institute of Clinical Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (AICHP) and the Ericksonian Institute of Sydney in 2018. AICHP was launched in August 2018 at the world congress of the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) in Montreal, Canada.

Over the last few years I have established and presented the comprehensive clinical hypnosis training program. The hypnosis training program teaches the principles of clinical hypnosis in the management of depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosomatic and pain conditions, addictions and habits, as well as various difficulties related to children.

I have also established the Ego State Therapy for trauma training program with Dr Woltemade Hartman. This is an international training in which we teach techniques for safety and stabilisation, strengthening the self, accessing resourceful aspects as self, but also working with aspects of self that relate to symptoms and trauma and how to resolve inner conflicts and promote inner peace and harmony and integration of the self.

Currently, I am serving on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) and serves as the Chair of the Council of Representatives of the constituent societies. I also served as the founding Co-chair of the Crisis and Intervention Committee of the International and European Societies of Hypnosis to support health care professionals in countries in the crisis of war or disaster. I am still serving on the board of Hypnosis without Borders (HWB). To this effect I have contributed to presenting workshops to the professionals and health care workers in various countries experiencing war and disaster, including the Ukraine war and the war in the Middle East.

I am a registered supervisor and trainer with Ego State Therapy International (ESTI). Recently I’ve also started my term as the President of Ego State Therapy International (ESTI) to develop EST internationally. 

I have presented at various international congresses over the years. Lately, I have presented on hypnosis, Ego State Therapy and somatic approaches at the ISH Online congress in 2021, the Italian Society of Hypnosis congress in 2022, the Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis online webinar on trauma and war, and two workshops at the world congress of the International Society of Hypnosis in Krakow, Poland in June 2024.

There have been many new developments in the field of psychology. Over the last few years I have specifically become more interested in the Polyvagal theory of Dr Stephen Porges and the importance of connection with others for co-regulation, establishing a sense of safety in the neurophysiology and processing through freeze and fight/flight responses to help clients get back into their window of tolerance where clients can feel themselves again.

Mostly, it is a privilege to be part of a persons journey towards health, growth and actualising the self!