This book has a focus on the training and practice of psychotherapy in post-Apartheid South Africa, with particular reference to case studies, controversies and contemplations. The authors' are all South Africans who are trained in the art of psychotherapy and have been working with a diverse population in diverse settings. Some of the authors are academics at universities and are involved in the training of student psychologists in psychotherapy. With their unique histories and experiences, these authors together bring a vast amount of indigenous knowledge to the profession of psychotherapy. Using their own subjectivity and work-experience in the field of psychotherapy, they present different perspectives to the issues, conflicts, problems, what should change, what works well, what needs to be considered in psychotherapy. To this end, this book is about new ideas and new thoughts on psychotherapy. It begins with a chapter on the current training of psychologists in psychotherapy, the critical issues in training such as selection processes as well as the identification of a gap in training leading to the suggestion for the inclusion of transpersonal psychotherapy. In the next chapter, an exploration is achieved of the shifts from the analytical couch to the virtual screen. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has always presumed the presence of the therapist and the patient in a consultation room that is uniquely set for the psychoanalytic endeavor. This chapter aims to trace the journey of psychoanalytic setting from Freud's reclining couch, through the post-Freudian setting requirements, and finally to the modern smart gadgets to which the pandemic forced the provisioning of psychoanalytic treatment specifically in South Africa. An argument is made for the adaptability of the psychoanalytic situation. In a following chapter, the author focuses on the efficacy of somatic experiencing as a treatment model for adult survivors of child maltreatment. In this regard, a proposal is made for the consideration for teaching 'body-based trauma therapies', as opposed to those that focus only on the mind and leave the body out, to trainee psychologists. The somatic experiencing model is described and its value in forging the links between the mind-body gap is shown. Using phenomenological case study methods, there is a demonstration for the effectiveness of somatic experiencing model as an efficient psychotherapeutic treatment for adult survivors of childhood maltreatment. The book also has a chapter on child therapy or 'Theraplay' - a dyadic attachment-focussed psychotherapeutic approach. Based on semi-structured interviews with six Theraplay-trained South African psychologists, this chapter explores these therapists' perceptions regarding the implementation of Theraplay in South Africa. The book also details a 'process-based therapy' and its potential in accommodating a diverse post-apartheid South Africa. A novel meta-framework for understanding evidence-based psychotherapy, process-based therapy (PBT), offers guidance on how to use the science of psychotherapy in a way that is tailored to the unique individual, their context, and their goals for therapy. It includes case studies from the author's psychotherapy practice to show this kind of process and therapy. In the final chapter, the concepts and perspectives on grief and grief theory is examined. Death and grief theory often results in misconceptions and misinformation that leads to the disenfranchising of the experience of loss. Despite the number of individuals affected by grief, the training that psychologists receive in post-apartheid South Africa is minimal across universities. Discussion is offered to address this disconnect through highlighting grief theory from current thanatological literature.

An accessible text for practitioners, students, and non-specialists about the practice of psychotherapy in South Africa. Psychoanalysis as a long term modality is inaccessible to the average South African. In this book the authors describe how psychoanalytically orientated or psychodynamic psychotherapy can be practiced as a short-term endeavour and applied to contemporary issues facing the country. Psychodynamic work is currently undertaken by clinical psychologists, therapists, clinicians, trainers, teachers, clinical supervisors, consultants and researchers working in university settings, state hospitals, community projects, private practice and research. The debates, clinical issues, therapeutic practice and nature of research covered in the book are widely representative of the work being done in the country. The need for shorter term therapy models and evidence-based interventions is as acute in global practice as it is locally. The lessons learned in South Africa have broader implications for international practitioners, and the authors stress the potential inherent in psychoanalytic theory and technique to tackle the complex problems faced in all places and settings characterised by increasing globalisation and dislocation. The book is structured in three main sections. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in South Africa is aimed at local and international practitioners and students, while non-specialist readers will find the text informative and accessible.

This volume collects case studies on the lives of people living in post-apartheid Johannesburg, South Africa. In doing so, it considers how people manage, respond to, narrate and/or silence their experiences of past and present violence, multiple insecurities and precarity in contexts where these experiences take on an everyday continuous character. Taking seriously how context shapes the meaning of violence, the forms of response, and the consequences thereof, the contributing chapter authors use participatory and ethnographic techniques to understand people’s everyday responses to the violence and insecurity they face in contemporary Johannesburg. Each case study documents an example of a strategy of coping and healing and reflects on how this strategy shapes the theory and practice of violence prevention and response. The case studies cover a diversity of groups of people in Johannesburg including migrants, refugees, homeless people, sex workers and former soldiers from across the African continent. Read together, the case studies give us new insights into what it means for these residents to seek support, to cope and to heal challenging the boundaries of what psychologists traditionally consider support mechanisms or interventions for those in distress. They develop a notion of healing that sees it as a process and an outcome that is rooted in the world-view of those who live in the city. Alongside the people’s sense of insecurity is an equally strong sense of optimism, care and a striving for change. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that this book deals very centrally with themes of the struggle for progress, mobility (geographic, material and spiritual), and a sense of possibility and change associated with Johannesburg. Ultimately, the volume argues that coping and healing is both a collective and individual achievement as well as an economic, psychological and material phenomenon. Overall this volume challenges the notion that people can and should seek support primarily from professional, medicalized psychological services and rather demonstrates how the particular support needed is shaped by an understanding of the cause of precarity.

Meet the challenge posed by South African society for community psychology! Prevention and Intervention Practice in Post-Apartheid South Africa presents theoretical, methodological, and training frameworks for violence prevention and interventions in oppressed South African communities following the end of apartheid. Researchers and practitioners examine psychological practices that empower these communities--historically marginalized and lacking in resources--to define and transform the sociopolitical and economic conditions that perpetuate the problems, risk factors, and needs associated with injustice and inequality. The book addresses violence prevention in low-income communities, injury prevention reform, non-traditional leadership alternatives, training procedures, and the use of schools as settings for community-based prevention. Prevention and Intervention Practice in Post-Apartheid South Africa strives to extend effective mental health services to all South African citizens, broadening the definition and scope of intervention for practitioners who respond to public health needs. The book challenges traditional psychological paradigms, putting prevention before curative interventions. Topics covered include: violence prevention in low-income communities using case studies to influence injury prevention reform training women for leadership using school as a setting for community-based prevention using rapid assessment procedures in training practitioners and much more! Prevention and Intervention Practice in Post-Apartheid South Africa is an essential resource for health care and helping professionals working to advance new methods of service delivery and new models of mental health practice within the community.

This book explores the practice of traumatic storytelling that emerged out of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and came to play a key role in the lives of the members of the Khulumani Support Group for victims of apartheid-era political violence. Group members found traumatic storytelling both frustrating and yet also an important form of memory work that shaped how they saw themselves in the post-apartheid era. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author examines how traumatic storytelling functioned not only as a kind of psychological healing and national political theatre, but also as a potent form of social relation, economic exchange, political activism, and expressive practice. With emphasis on the personal, social, and political significance of the act of traumatic storytelling, this volume asks why members of Khulumani, despite their many disappointments, continued to engage intensively in storying their experiences for themselves and others. Examining what powers storytelling held for both group members and their witnesses, and considering the ways in which storytelling enabled new senses of self and new understandings of what was possible in the years after the end of apartheid, this book considers what we might learn more broadly from the experiences of Khulumani about the possibilities—and limits—of traumatic-memory-making as an instrument of personal, social, and political repair. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and criminology with interest in justice and post-conflict societies.

(Post)apartheid Conditions: Psychoanalysis and Social Formation advances a series of psychoanalytic perspectives on contemporary South Africa, exploring key psychosocial topics such as space-identity, social fantasy, the body, whiteness, memory and nostalgia.

Race, Memory and the Apartheid Archive: Towards a Transformative Psychosocial Praxis draws on a psychosocial approach that is uniquely suited to the socio-historical and psychical analysis of racism. The book relies mainly on the memories, stories and narratives of ordinary people living in apartheid South Africa.