Ms Anna Varney-Wong MSocSc CSW
Psychotherapist,
Clinical Social Worker
Muizenberg, Cape Town. Glencairn Heights, Cape Town.
Services
I am offering online consultations through the COVID-19 crisis.
MY FEES:
- Please inquire
Online Consultation
- Online consultations offered
I AM FLUENT IN:
- English
I WORK WITH:
- Adults
- Couples
- Groups
CORE SERVICES:
- Coaching (Life)
- Counselling (Trauma)
- Ukraine Aid
- Group Therapy
- Individual and Couple Therapy
- Psychotherapy (Individual)
- Psychotherapy (Psychoanalytic)
- Psychotherapy (Psychodynamic)
SCOPE OF PRACTICE:
- Adjusting to Change/Life Transitions
- Bereavement and Loss
- Mental Health
- Personal Growth
- Relationship Problems
- Trauma
Approach
My approach is psychodynamic with a focus on early development and the unconscious. I draw from other approaches when necessary, such as trauma intervention.
My work in this field started in 2006 as a trauma and crisis counsellor, online and face-to-face, training and supervising counsellors at Lifeline, Johannesburg. This work alerted me to how pervasive trauma is in our country.
I first encountered the psychoanalytic approach through group work at Ububele, Johannesburg. Group work made me more aware of the crucial role of groups, social networks and communities. We originate in a family group which becomes internalized, and in that sense, every person is also a 'group'. Further study of psychoanalytic thinkers for my Clinical Social Work Masters at UCT deepened my passion for this approach.
I would like to see psychotherapy more readily available to everyone from all walks of life, as I believe it is one of the solutions sorely needed in the world today, where there is so much need for healing.
I enjoy diversity and work with people from various cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Freud suggested that in the therapeutic process, one should act as if one were a traveller on a train, looking through the window and observing the changing view. I believe what people seek is found within and that in the safety of the therapeutic space, talk therapy can help lead the way.
My offices are in Muizenberg and Glencairn Heights, in the Southern Peninsula of Cape Town. I also work online.
When I am not working as a psychotherapist, I read and write about psychoanalytic-related topics such as those published on this site, and also poetry. I am also an artist, I enjoy weaving and am a qualified yoga teacher.
Blog
No Furniture
Anna Varney-Wong
An exploration of a poem, linking the Buddhist concept of 'emptiness' to the elusive quality of the mind
Fragility on a Stampede
Anna Varney-Wong
The concept 'white fragility' explored by drawing from Adam Phillips' lecture (2021) titled Reviewing ‘White...
Changing Our Approach to...
Anna Varney-Wong
Adam Phillips explores change around one's thinking about change.
The Third
Anna Varney-Wong
A brief exploration of the term 'the third' in history and focusing more specifically on the term as referred to...
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