HANEKE JONAS

I founded Jonas Occupational Therapists back in 2004, as a platform to empower people to overcome whatever difficulties they have. I truly believe that individuals deserve to lead a life of purpose, with freedom and fulfilment. I love working in teams, to treat clients holistically and assist them to be as skilful, functional and thriving as they possibly can be. I believe OT’s role in mental health includes upskilling and empowerment for day-to-day difficulties. We don’t work much in the past; our role is to assist in the “here and now” and create a healthier platform for the future.

Many clients who have been through our various treatment programmes, have learnt skilful behaviours to overcome emotion dysregulation and addiction, and discovered purpose in life (again).

I have 20 years of clinical experience, more than 7 000 hours in group-session facilitation, more than 4 500 hours of individual occupational therapy sessions. I have reported on over 1 500 assessments, including medico-legal assessments and functional capacity evaluations. Over the past 4 years I’ve presented / co-presented 25 workshops and talks, aimed at empowering fellow occupational therapists and the public.

I am currently developing my position as Skill Trainer for the South African DBT Institute and have developed DBT-Informed programmes to powerfully serve more clients at a time, in a cost effective and skilful way.

✓ B Occupational Therapy (University of the Free State)
✓ Post Graduate Diploma in Vocational Rehabilitation (University of Pretoria)
✓ Dialectical Behaviour Therapy trained
✓ Demartini Method facilitator
✓ MARI practitioner
✓ Sensory Intelligence Adult Therapist
✓ WorkWell Certified Practitioner
✓ BrainGain HEG Neurofeedback practitioner
✓ Progressive Goal Attainment Program (PGAP) Practitioner
✓ Membership: OTASA, INSTOPP
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services),
✓ I also serve the profession as the Chairperson of the Institute of Occupational Therapists in Private Practice (INSTOPP) and as a member of the Coding and Procedures Committee of the Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa. (OTASA).

ADRI BADENHORST

“To develop a complete mind: study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything.” Leonardo da Vinci. This ties in perfectly with my desire within Occupational Therapy: using both the sciences and creativity to help clients to live life according to their connections, passion and purpose.

With over 14 years in this industry and more than 3 500 hours in psychiatric group facilitation, I have witnessed many individuals overcome limiting beliefs and emotions, and achieve a more balanced perspective on life, and learn to think in new ways. I specifically enjoy applying creative and innovative methods to help clients explore the actions, beliefs or thoughts that hold them back and guide them through a process of empowerment.

✓ B Occupational Therapy (University of Pretoria)
✓ Counselling Certificate (Unisa)
✓ Group Therapy Training – including Experiential Group Therapy, Projective Techniques for groups, Groups with the Elderly, Groups with Children and Psychodrama Techniques
✓ Trained in Play Therapy principles
✓ MARI practitioner
✓ Life Coaching Certification
✓ PSYCH-K® facilitator
✓ In-service DBT training
✓ Courses in: Art Therapy, Jungian Psychology, Sand Tray Therapy, Creative Journaling, and Biodanza
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)

CANDICE MES

After completing my community service year at a state hospital in Johannesburg, I worked for several years with special-needs adolescents. I facilitated a wide selection of vocational and socio-emotional training programs while working at special-needs school in Gauteng.

I have now been working full time in mental health since 2012. I run experiential and DBT based Occupational Group Therapy, individual therapy sessions and regularly assess client’s functional ability to return to work.

I experience a deep sense of fulfilment when I witness the transformation in a client through the holistic programmes I present. I enjoy creating the just right challenge with sufficient support to inspire personal growth.

✓ B.Sc. Occupational Therapy (University of Cape Town)
✓ Post Graduate Diploma in Vocational Rehabilitation (University of Pretoria)
✓ Sensory Intelligence Adult Therapist
✓ Experiential Occupational Group Therapy, Psychodrama and projective techniques
✓ Psychiatric FCE course and various assessment courses
✓ Case Management
✓ Dyslexia in children
✓ Play therapy for adolescents and anxious children
✓ DBT Training
✓ Management Skills
✓ Rare disease advocate
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)

BEA LABUSCHAGNE

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” C.S. Lewis. It is my job to help people to rewrite their unique stories and make it better than they thought it could be.

After completing my studies, I started working at a school for autism in Krugersdorp, which gave me the platform to understand behaviours and young individuals with special needs. They taught me so much about life and how to be happy in the moment, despite having difficulty.

My focus has since shifted to working with clients with mental health difficulties and guiding them through a specially crafted wellness programme. It is an amazing journey to get clients ready to be reintegrated into their lives and bring them back to a form of normal that is comfortable to them. It is incredibly rewarding to experience them taking back self-control and improve their knowledge so that they can empower themselves. Through teaching and guiding others, I learn and develop as a person and a professional. I run a combination of one-on-one sessions as well as group sessions, where clients can learn and grow through positive interaction. When needed, I also assess clients to determine whether they are ready to return to work and how the workplace can accommodate their needs.

Through working in this setting, I have learned a lot about people and their struggles, like Robert Frost stated, “the best way out is always through”. I love learning about people and helping them to find a better way to understand what they are going through and how to deal with it in the best way that they can.

✓ B Occupational Therapy (University of the Free State)
✓ Psychiatric FCE course
✓ OT Grow group therapy training
✓ Sensory Intelligence training
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)

BELINDA
VAN DER MERWE

My studies and previous career took me from Anatomy, through Cell Biology to Cosmetic Science and Sales. It was my passion for empowering people that led me to Occupational Therapy. With my naturally creative side, and experience in corporate sales, I get to utilise all my personal experience and passions as a wellness group facilitator at JOT.

My favourite quote is by Mahatma Gandhi: “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” My community service year taught me that by showing compassion and interest in people’s daily lives, they can, with gentle guidance, be empowered to grow from strength to strength. I love that I can help to guide clients through specialised activities and group sessions every single day.
I love to read and to learn new skills. I spend a lot of time exploring art techniques such as painting, bullet journaling and diamond painting. I see a golden thread between how I spend my free time and the skills I bring back into my treatment sessions.

I want to be remembered as a person who truly believed that there is hope in every situation, no matter how dark.

✓ B in Occupational Therapy (University of Pretoria)
✓ BSc Medical Sciences
✓ BSc (Hons) Cell Biology
✓ Psychiatric FCE course
✓ Sensory Intelligence Adult Therapist
✓ Personality in the Workplace
✓ OT Grow (Basic Experiential & Moving Beyond)
✓ Return to Work and Vocational Rehabilitation
✓ Case Management
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)

DIMPHO MATHIBE

“You wouldn’t wait for every bone in a person’s body to break before you treated their broken arm. So why wait until they hit ‘rock bottom’ in order to receive mental health support?” – Jodie Goodacre

During my community service I was in a mostly physical health hospital, but what became evident to me is that the link between mental and physical health was being overlooked. This sparked my passion for mental health.

I work in mental health because the brain is just as important as the rest of the body. Health without mental health is not holistic health. Working in this field means that I get to have an impact in tackling the stigma and shame that often comes with having a mental illness.

✓ Understanding and Healing from the Effects of Toxic Shame
✓ Therapeutic Group Work with Children & Adolescents
✓ Creative Therapy with Traumatised Adolescents
✓ Membership: OTASA, MPS, HPCSA

ANNE RODRIQUES

“I exist as I am, that is enough.” Walt Whitman. This quote resonates due to the complexities of human beings. At a given time our identity is at conflict with our ego and what that means is that we are constantly pursuing the ‘right thing to do’.

I see this in my personal life and clients that I work with, the dialogue is something like this ‘ I can’t be selfish because there are so many people that are dependent on me, I can’t do something for me’. That then leads to burnout and losing yourself in the process. I am passionate about changing the narrative that self-care and self-love is a vital part of survival.

During my time working in a rural community at Ngwelezana Hospital, we serviced a population of around 1.5 million people. The hospital exposure included- Orthopedics, Internal medicine, paediatrics, family medicine, surgery, burns unity, and psychiatry. However, when working in a community with limited resources and no formal support structures regarding mental health, it ignited my passion for mental health and creating a space for people to receive occupational therapy intervention to help them understand mental health and assist in healthy coping methods.

My occupational therapist’s heart is for people to engage in meaningful activities. However, when we start struggling with our mental health, we no longer engage with things we previously deemed as meaningful to us. I really enjoy walking the road with my clients, assuring them that they are heard and seen. Also seeing them finding themselves and start doing the things they once loved.

✓ Malamulele Onwards CP facilitation course
✓ High-risk baby developmental course
✓ Dealing with toxic shame
✓ Psychodrama- Orpheus centre
✓ WFOT 2018 -Presented research topic and was published in SAJOT in 2020
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ MPS

HEIDI THERON

Heidi Theron is an Occupational Therapist with a number of years of experience in mental healthcare- a field in which her passion lies.

She has a heart for the well-being of people which led her to pursue this career. It echoes her traits of motivating people to adapt their lifestyles to enhance their quality of life. Heidi believes in the value of making meaningful connections and walking alongside a fellow human to offer support and impart skills. She sees the benefit in people helping each other to navigate the challenging paths they are on and to reach the goals they hold dear.

Heidi facilities therapy in individual and group sessions, for in- patients and out-patients. She is skilled in administering assessments to determine a client’s level of functioning, reporting thereon to the relevant stakeholders involved and creating a necessary treatment plan.

Heidi is a member of the following professional organisations:

✓ HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa)
✓ OTASA (Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa)
✓ MPS (Medical protection society)
✓ RuReSA (Rural Rehab South Africa)

She has furthered her skills through the following training courses:

✓ Case management
✓ Return to work
✓ DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
✓ Play therapy
✓ Expressive arts therapy
✓ Pain management
✓ Adult psychiatric disorders
✓ Child psychiatric disorders

Heidi also enjoys using her skills in casual settings where she is involved, such as the church youth groups. Her focus is to see people, from various backgrounds and different ages and stages of life, taking one small step at a time and using their unique gifts in meaningful activities.

When it comes to the path of recovery, Heidi appreciates the words of Martin Luther King: “You don’t need to see the whole staircase- you just have to take the first step.”

Naseema Gangat

I completed my community service in 2018 and soon after began my journey as a physical and mental health Occupational Therapist. Mental health is close to my heart – it is part of being human and something we should nurture and protect. If this is not done, then the important and ordinary things individual’s DO every day that bring meaning and purpose, is compromised. I enjoy working as a mental health OT to enable individuals with mental illness DO these things again. Out of the many things people DO, performing a job is one of them. I particularly enjoy working with clients with mental illness to obtain/maintain and return to work.

My favourite quote is: “There’s no such thing as being completely ready, you’re never going to feel like you’ve got everything all figured out. When you get to the place where you’re just a little more excited than afraid, that’s when you go for it” (The better man project)

Change can be scary and that fear often holds us back from making necessary changes; this quote reminds me that if I want to continue growing and thriving I have to take chances and be up for a challenge.

✓ BSc. (Hons) in Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town (UCT)
✓ Hands course at Baragwanath Hospital
✓ Myofascial release of the upper limb
✓ Building brains
✓ Electrical muscle stimulation
✓ Basic wheelchair seating
✓ Cognitive rehabilitation
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)

Kinisha Pillay

This statement which I choose to guide myself by, is: “Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” – Proverbs 16:24. Throughout my life, it has helped me to bring perspective and practice empathy and patience towards my patients and clients.

I am deeply passionate about mental health – it is vital yet so undervalued and brushed off in our in our society today. I specifically enjoy the opportunity I have in mental health, to manage their mental health independently, by providing them with the knowledge, attitude but mostly importantly the skills to do so. OT plays an incredibly important role through aiding and enabling individuals to change their lives and live with purpose.

✓ B Occupational Therapy (University of Stellenbosch)
✓ APOM
✓ Introduction to DBT
✓ Vocational and pre-vocational assessment and report writing
✓ Membership: OTASA
✓ Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and MPS (Medical Protection Services)