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Academia

I am an associate professor at the University of Johannesburg, having moved there from the SA Department of Defence in April 2007. I have a rather eclectic range of responsibilities. I supervise the dissertations of several masters and doctoral students. I am the director of the post-graduate and first year undergraduate programmes. I represent the Department at the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee.

I addition, I teach the following courses:

Introduction to generalist social work
(1st year) This is the second module that our first year students get in social work. At a very basic level, I teach the social fields of practice, the generalist model of social work practice (micro, messo and macro) and the planned change process of Kirst-Ashman, and the ecosystems theory and strengths perspective. In addition, I place major emphasis (to the tune of about 40% of their mark) on writing skills, notably avoidance of plagiarism, referencing and the structure of an academic assignment.

Internship
(2nd year) I co-designed this course for 2008, but as of 2009 am not running it. The second year internship is the first exposure of our students to the practice of social work. In the first semester they practice at the micro level (social work with individuals) and in the second semester at the messo level (social work with groups). I facilitate the learning of a group of 18 students. We meet weekly for 100 minutes, where they learn and practice their skills, learn about group processes and group facilitation.

Internship
(3rd year) I co-designed this course for 2009 and am coresponsible for running it. The third year internship addresses students' intermediate practice skills. They continue with social work with individuals, and learn the skills and processes for work with communities. They spend the first six months of the year engaging with, getting to know and assessing a community and then planning a collaborative project. In the second semester they implement the project, evaluate and terminate. We meet weekly for 100 minutes, using experiential learning.

Health, illness and psychosocial support
(3rd year) This course focuses on health issues in the South African context, with particular reference to HIV and AIDS. We explore the reciprocal relationship between physical and social health, at the level of both the individual and society as a whole. We look at HIV within a developmental social welfare paradigm. We explore Antonovsky's salutogenic perspective and two theories of behaviour change (Prochaska's stages of change and Rosenstock's health belief model). Together with this, we look at bereavement and loss counselling. In addition, we look at HIV as a medical and social phenomenon, exploring epidemiology, living positively with HIV, transmission and prevention, and mother-to-child transmission.

Advanced assessment and intervention
(honours in probation social work) This is a post-graduate course on probation social work, which I ran up until 2009. My course addresses advanced assessment and intervention knowledge and skills. I focus on work with youth in conflict with the law. We cover the assessment of children within their social contexts, notably the family. Therefore we address ecosystems and family systems theory, the McMaster Model of Family Functioning and the process and skills of family assessment (notably circular questionning). We conduct a series of simulated family assessment interviews in the class, and analyse transcripts of family assessment interviews.

Clinical practice in diverse environments
(clinical masters) This course covers psychopathology and psychiatric assessments. We focus on three disorders - Depression, PTSD and Schizophrenia. We address the process and skills of conducting and writing up psychiatric assessments. In addition, we adopt a critical stance towards psychiatry and mental health, focusing on contemporary debates in the field and the issues around cross cultural psychiatry.

Internship
(clinical masters) I teach the internship programme for the masters in clinical social work. This course extends over a year and is highly individualised for each student. We have only one class in the year - the rest of the contact time in one-on-one. Although my own approach is psychodynamic, my students are allowed to work from a theoretical perspective of their own choice. In the one-day workshop I focus on the clinical use of self in psychotherapy, with attention to the psychodynamic concepts of transference, countertransference, projective identification, containment, unconscious communication and Casement's concept of the internal supervisor. I use transcripts of individual and group therapy sessions from my own practice to illustrate these concepts.

In addition to teaching at the University of Johannesburg, I am also involved in teaching at the Theological Education by Extension College (TEEC). I am the course advisor for "Christian Responses to HIV and AIDS". In 2007 and again 2010 I redesigned the assessments in line with the new SAQA Unit Standard, and in 2008 I rewrote the course textbooks for the course. I also assist with marking pastoral care and HIV-related academic reports - an extended essay (5000-8000 words) which students write at the end of the BTh.

This page last updated: 26 April 2011

Introduction to generalist social work (1st year)	This is the second module that our first year students get in social work. At a very basic level, I teach the social fields of practice, the generalist model of social work practice (micro, messo and macro) and the planned change process of Kirst-Ashman, and the ecosystems theory and strengths perspective. In addition, I place major emphasis (to the tune of about 40% of their mark) on writing skills, notably avoidance of plagiarism, referencing and the structure of an academic assignment.
Internship (2nd year)	I co-designed this course for 2008, but as of 2009 am not running it. The second year internship is the first exposure of our students to the practice of social work. In the first semester they practice at the micro level (social work with individuals) and in the second semester at the messo level (social work with groups). I facilitate the learning of a group of 18 students. We meet weekly for 100 minutes, where they learn and practice their skills, learn about group processes and group facilitation.
Internship (3rd year)	I co-designed this course for 2009 and am coresponsible for running it. The third year internship addresses students' intermediate practice skills. They continue with social work with individuals, and learn the skills and processes for work with communities. They spend the first six months of the year engaging with, getting to know and assessing a community and then planning a collaborative project. In the second semester they implement the project, evaluate and terminate. We meet weekly for 100 minutes, using experiential learning.
Health, illness and psychosocial support (3rd year)	This course focuses on health issues in the South African context, with particular reference to HIV and AIDS. We explore the reciprocal relationship between physical and social health, at the level of both the individual and society as a whole. We look at HIV within a developmental social welfare paradigm. We explore Antonovsky's salutogenic perspective and two theories of behaviour change (Prochaska's stages of change and Rosenstock's health belief model). Together with this, we look at bereavement and loss counselling. In addition, we look at HIV as a medical and social phenomenon, exploring epidemiology, living positively with HIV, transmission and prevention, and mother-to-child transmission.
Advanced assessment and intervention (honours in probation social work)	This is a post-graduate course on probation social work, which I ran up until 2009. My course addresses advanced assessment and intervention knowledge and skills. I focus on work with youth in conflict with the law. We cover the assessment of children within their social contexts, notably the family. Therefore we address ecosystems and family systems theory, the McMaster Model of Family Functioning and the process and skills of family assessment (notably circular questionning). We conduct a series of simulated family assessment interviews in the class, and analyse transcripts of family assessment interviews.
Clinical practice in diverse environments (clinical masters)	This course covers psychopathology and psychiatric assessments. We focus on three disorders - Depression, PTSD and Schizophrenia. We address the process and skills of conducting and writing up psychiatric assessments. In addition, we adopt a critical stance towards psychiatry and mental health, focusing on contemporary debates in the field and the issues around cross cultural psychiatry.
Internship (clinical masters)	I teach the internship programme for the masters in clinical social work. This course extends over a year and is highly individualised for each student. We have only one class in the year - the rest of the contact time in one-on-one. Although my own approach is psychodynamic, my students are allowed to work from a theoretical perspective of their own choice. In the one-day workshop I focus on the clinical use of self in psychotherapy, with attention to the psychodynamic concepts of transference, countertransference, projective identification, containment, unconscious communication and Casement's concept of the internal supervisor. I use transcripts of individual and group therapy sessions from my own practice to illustrate these concepts.