08

Welcome

Presenter

Dr Shahieda Jansen

University of South Africa

Dr Shahieda Jansen is a registered clinical psychologist and a certified group therapist. She is Deputy Director: Academic Support and ICT at UNISA, Western Cape. Previously she was the Manager of Student Counselling at the University of the Western Cape where she coordinated the psychological and broader developmental needs of the students and supervised and trained Masters-level psychology interns. 

Shahieda presents annually on two areas of specialization:

Shahieda is a provider of culturally embedded approaches to personal transformation. Introduction to local ideas of social personhood has become her signature therapeutic alliance with clients. The crucial tone-setting conversation about “who they are”, precedes questions about the more limiting “what is the presenting problem?”.

Her other niche area is masculinized growth opportunities for male clients. Her PhD thesis is titled “Emotional experiences of participants of all-male psychotherapy groups”. Inside all men’s psychotherapy groups, Shahieda facilitates the development of an explicit male culture in which men risk ‘fishing inwards’ interrogating constructions of their own manhood and positively transforming their attitudes and behaviour. In a recent editorial published in the South African Journal of Psychology, Shahieda confirmed that men are emotionally competent. Males are her preferred psychotherapy candidates for group based emotion-focused personal transformation.