Dr Beverley Marais

CPsychol, CSci, AFBPsS

Chartered Counselling Psychologist

Available for Online Counselling via Video

Works With All Age Groups

Philosophy

In today’s world of information overload, it can be confusing and at times, challenging to know where to turn in order to get the answers we need. What we learn as we examine our lives, however, is how to ask the right questions. The answers, it will then seem, become obvious.

Confronting the difficulties we experience is a courageous attempt at self repair. But it cannot happen isolation. It is within relationships that we mend the self.

I believe that all behaviours are functional and adaptive. Over time, as we, or our circumstances change, some patterns of behaving can become unhelpful. Or, we may find that that we no longer need to rely on old patterns of being but not know how to make the necessary changes in order to live a more fulfilling life. Therapy can help to direct and guide us into creating better choices, forming better relationships and living more enriching lives.

Approach

My original psychotherapeutic training was integrative, incorporating psychodynamic, humanistic and CBT approaches. Whilst I work within a predominantly CBT model, I am able to tailor my approach according to the individual and the concerns they present.

I have frequently found that people enter therapy because they wish to either relieve pain or to experience pleasure, sometimes both. Whatever your motivation may be for entering therapy, when we begin working together, we would initially explore your concerns in depth as well as your goals around change. We would then explore together an understanding and making sense of why these behaviours, thoughts or feelings exist and the function they serve in your life. Following this, we would create a treatment plan geared towards the outcome you desire. Regular therapy sessions would then encourage working both within and outside of the therapeutic encounter, in order to elicit the necessary changes toward positive outcome.

Motivation

I have experienced personal therapy throughout my training as a counselling psychologist and psychotherapist. As a result, I have had the fortunate experience of being a client and witnessed the empowering impact of change within a therapeutic relationship.

I am often humbled by the human condition and feel honoured to be invited to support a clients’ courageous journey from the unknown to the known, and from disempowered to empowered.

Finally, when I’m not listening to yet another rendition of my daughter’s version of ‘Let it go’ (from ‘Frozen’), I like to challenge myself every now and then by doing something new. At the moment, it’s learning to ice-skate.

Registered With