Trix O'Callaghan

Counselling Psychologist

MA Counselling Psych (Stell) (Cum Laude)

Trix obtained B A (Music), B ED, Honours and Masters (cum laude) Degrees in Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch and is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, as well as the Board of Healthcare Funders.

She left her career in Music after three years to lecture in Psychology and has then pursued her real passion in private practice since 1994.

She works with couples (including pre-marital counseling), families and individuals. She offers services in English and Afrikaans.

She is a certified Imago Relationship therapist, having trained with Hedy and Yumi Schleifer of the Institute of Imago Relationship Therapy, based in the USA.

She believes deeply in the mission of IMAGO: to create a new way to love and to heal South Africa and ultimately the world, one couple at a time. She sees healing potential in each relationship and facilitates news ways of being in a relationship whether it be with a partner, a child or even work colleagues.

As part of our training as Imago Relationship Therapists, each of us has undertaken the exploration of our own relational journeys, which means that we do not only teach the theory but also apply it to our own relationships, bringing it to life and living it on a daily basis.

She is committed to continue her training in Imago and has attended advanced training courses like Characterological Transformation, Advanced Coaching, The Art of Cherishment, healing from an Affair and The Art of Unfolding the Potential with Challenging Couples.

Trix is also trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, a model of relationship therapy that provides couples with a renewed capacity to engage, bond, communicate and attach. EFT has been validated by 20 years of empirical research and is approved by the American Psychology Association. Research studies find that 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvements.

In individual psychotherapy Trix works with a variety of psychological and emotional problems, including:

Depression
Anxiety (phobias, generalized anxiety)
Trauma
Interpersonal difficulties
Loss, grief, death and dying
Self-esteem issues
Life transitions (like pregnancy, divorce and job loss)
Personality disorders
Self-harm
Anger management
Stress

She uses the following therapeutic approaches in individual therapy:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), including Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT). She trained with the Albert Ellis Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, based in New York.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as a therapeutic intervention for a variety of psychological stress and trauma.

Brain Working Recursive Therapy has been designed to remove emotive responses from memories that are deeply troubling and create new, adaptive neural pathways that do not have the old undesirable emotional responses attached to it.

Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is a method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in the past.

Although there are similarities between people and their difficulties, there are no two identical situations. A safe and compassionate therapeutic space is provided to explore and understand each individual's situation in its entirety, from their unique perspective. Fully understanding an individual's world enables an accurate and effective focus on the most pertinent elements of his or her challenge. As such, optimal growth and self-actualization as well as the most effective and long lasting therapeutic change can be achieved.

Trix does face to face as well as TEAMS consultations
trix@bonadeacentre.co.za