Hi there! I’m a Psychologist with 26 years of counselling experience registered with the British Psychological Association. Below is a brief introductory video about me, and the services that I offer:
About Mandy Young
I trained at the University of Cape Town and qualified with a Social World Honors Degree and a Masters in Psychology. The research-practitioner approach to my Master’s degree launched the well-researched USA Children of Divorce Intervention Program into South Africa. Owing to the success of the post-divorce adjustment program for children it was replicated with Psychologists in Education Support Clinics in Cape Town and was the topic of many regional and national workshops, magazine, and newspaper articles and even a Children’s TV documentary.
I also achieved a Psychology Honors Degree at the University of South Africa with a distinction in psychopathology, and during which time my thesis on “Contact and the alternation of racial attitudes in South Africa” was published in the South African Journal of Psychology, 1993, 23 (4)
Although I am a team-player, I am also an adaptive, self-motivated, entrepreneurial adventurer. My innovative independent work included a Private Practice in Cape Town as a Counselling Psychologist operating over three decades with successful long-term life changes, with adult clients:
- making wise post-divorce adjustment personal, professional, and parenting decisions
- overcoming addictions and depression
- getting to know and value themselves better.
with children:
- in play therapy and nature therapy I have helped them overcome ADHD tendencies, and perform better academically with improved self-esteem, and social skills.
- adapting to parents’ separation and divorce I have facilitated individual and group interventions to
- enhance communication of feelings,
- problem-solving capabilities at an age-appropriate level,
- manage and express anger more constructively, and
- have hope for the future.
- As a house parent of 6 children aged 6 to 17 years, I have:
- Encouraged them to develop unique sporting, musical and academic talents.
- monitored and supported foster and adoptive placements, and
- taken care of their daily wellbeing in residential care setting for 2 years.
With youth:
I have successfully represented them in the juvenile and children’s court with accurate assessments and court reports recommending child protection and placement.
With students:
- I tutored first and second year students in the Psychology Department of the University of Cape Town to understand research design and statistics.
- I lectured fist year Psychology students in a bridging college called Khanya college to give them the knowledge and skills they needed to attend local universities; and
- I supervised and emotionally supported a research student in the Psychology Department of the Western Cape with a challenging thesis that looked at abuse in youth detention centres.
As a team player
I have worked with two professional medical teams as a Counselling Psychologist. As a member of the Cape Amputee Team at Vincent Palotti Hospital in Cape Town I counseled amputees and their families, helping amputees adjust back into life after traumatic loss of a limb caused by work or motorbike accidents. Two amputees successfully became para-Olympians – one as a swimmer and the other as the vice- captain of the UK sitting-volleyball team.
In the second medical team I counselled cancer patients and supported them with the management of emotional and physical pain. I worked at one of three centres in the world that broke atoms into protons and neutrons to provide cancer patients with advanced and specific radiation therapy with progressive, advanced and repetitive cancers. I enabled the patients to deal with pending death and hopeful recovery, and provided counselling support to their families as they faced loss and bereavement.
My passion for Nature Therapy evolved in 2002 and continues to date. I am the facilitator of Wilderness Encounters in Africa with sports teams, business executives and the more discerning tourist. My work in this industry has also been published in newspapers, magazines, co-authored books and in my own soon-to-be-published book by Integrity Media UK called Awaken the Wild Within: Re-connect with yourself & Re-wild the world. I have researched and spent time observing African wild dogs, elephants, wild meerkats, mountain gorillas and white lions. I swam with dolphins and walked with the Masai and the Bushmen. I was chosen to do mental preparation African Bush style with Jake White, the coach of the 2007 Springbok rugby team. They won the World Cup that year.
Currently I work with high-risk young people who are self-harming and some evidence suicidal ideation. They have complex PTSD and have experienced multiple traumas. The young people are in therapeutic residential settings, and I work with a mental health team to stabilize these young people, facilitate their emotional healing and regulation and behavioural management.
I have worked in the UK since October 2021 with young parents who had been in the Care system, for Derbyshire Child Services, and with high-risk young people who are self-harming and some evidence suicidal ideation. They have complex PTSD and have experienced multiple traumas. The young people are in therapeutic residential settings, and I work with a mental health team to stabilize these young people, facilitate their emotional healing and regulation and behavioural management.
