The therapeutic space is one of those special situations where the whole person is unconditionally accepted and respected. My psychological approach to therapy is deeply nested in the Person-Centred Approach of Carl Rogers. Rogerian therapy aims to empower persons to discover for themselves as they truly are.

Recently a journalist asked me an opinion for the article she was writing. The question at first seemed easy: What makes a person successful? I opted for the textbook answers on motivation, behaviour, self-actualisation and needs. But then I started to wonder: What will really matter in determining success?

I have placed the full article of Arrive Alive for my students. The article by Adv Johan Jonck is comprehensive and address a wide range of aspects.More than 14,000 people died on the roads of South Africa in 2017. These are only the official road fatality numbers and do not refer to the tens of thousands who are mutilated, injured physically or left traumatised.

Bestuur onder die invloed van alkohol kan fataal wees of in konflik met die reg eindig. Alkohol het verder onproduktiewe fisiologiese uitwerkings op die voertuigbestuurder. Alkoholmisbruik raak die individu op bio-psigososiale vlakke, gesinne en die gemeenskap. Professionele rehabilitasie, behandeling en nasorg is daarop gemik om die persoon se lewensvreugde en gesondheid te herstel.

Most people do have the need to feel safe, accepted, experience life as meaningful and desires a sense of belonging. People want to trust others and be trusted; we engage in efforts to construct a world that is conducive for growth and further development. Humans present with the self-determination and personal power to grow, change and enhance the self in a self-actualising direction. We want to experience the environment as conducive to our inner empowering potential, self-determination and st...

Trauma is a natural reaction to abnormal circumstances, crisis and life events on which the person was not prepared for; as whole beings we react to these, sometimes, unbearable experiences. Trauma responses is viewed as the human ability to protect itself through self-protective stress responses by the brain and body to enhance our survival. Some misunderstanding about trauma exist, the focus should not only be on the incident itself, but also the resilience and potential to make sense, heal an...

Each one of us has the basic tendency to adjust our behaviour according to the urge to satisfy and meet our needs. Persons would differ in their perceptions on how to address unique needs, even if persons share the same needs, they would differ on the ideas associated on how the needs should be addressed.

Abstract The article aims to describe the role substances play in relation to the experiences of the self and sexual behaviour of the substance users, which may be of significance for the rehabilitation process. Based on Carl Rogers’s person-centred approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a voluntary sample of seven participants in a treatment centre in Pretoria, South Africa. The findings suggest that the use of substances assists the individual in relieving psychological ten...

To construct the ‘good life’ is a dance with life itself. My dance is the start of an exciting discovery of self; the willingness to search for my own music and dance with life. Dance is a process. A friend reminded me of a quotation by Wayne W. Dyer: When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor... it is to enjoy each step along the way.

A couple of weeks ago a wonderful and very kind journalist of the local Pretoria newspaper Record met with me to speak on the work of my community project: Mon Ami – Trauma Troops. Andrea Küsel and I also spoke on things to remember when experiencing trauma reactions on a crisis situation. In this Blog I present the verbatim articles as Andrea published our conversations in the Record newspaper (6 May 2016:2).