Amy Chewins, Clinical Psychologist in Johannesburg

I'm a Clinical Psychologist registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and the Board of Health Care Funders (BHF). I completed my undergraduate and honours training at the University of the Witwatersrand, followed by a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Johannesburg. My clinical training included an internship at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital, where I worked across substance use, forensic, child and family, and adult units, supporting individuals experiencing a range of acute and chronic psychiatric conditions. This setting shaped my ability to sit with complexity, uncertainty, and distress in a steady and thoughtful way, alongside experience in neuropsychological, personality, and diagnostic assessment. I completed my community service at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, providing inpatient and outpatient psychological services across presentations including psychosis, mood disorders, trauma, suicidality, crisis management, substance use, and the psychological impact of medical illness.

My therapeutic approach is primarily psychodynamic, meaning we pay attention to patterns that may not be immediately visible, such as the ways past experiences, relationships, and internal worlds shape how you move through the present. People often find themselves repeating certain dynamics, feeling stuck in familiar emotional loops, or responding in ways that don’t fully make sense. Therapy offers a space to notice and understand these patterns more deeply, rather than pushing them away or trying to resolve them too quickly. This way of working is collaborative and less about advice or solutions, and more about creating the conditions for insight, reflection, and emotional processing. Over time, this can shift how you relate to yourself and others. I also draw on a range of approaches, integrating more structured or skills-based work where helpful, guided by what feels most meaningful for you. Therapy is not linear, and it is not always comfortable. There may be moments of clarity and relief, alongside confusion, resistance, or a sense that things feel harder before they feel different. Part of the work is allowing thoughts and feelings to emerge, sitting with what may not yet make sense, and noticing patterns over time. I aim to offer a space that is inclusive, affirming, and attentive to the many ways people experience themselves and the world. This includes being explicitly queer-affirming, and holding awareness of how identity, culture, gender, sexuality, race, and broader social contexts shape psychological experience. Wherever possible, therapy should feel like a place where more of you can exist, not less.

I have a particular interest in complex and developmental trauma, especially where early environments may have involved unpredictability, emotional instability or absence, or caregivers struggling with their own mental health or substance use. These experiences can shape how a person learns to relate to themselves and others, often in ways that continue into adulthood: such as a tendency to take on responsibility for others from a young age, difficulty recognising or expressing personal needs, ongoing anxiety, or feeling unsettled or unsure of oneself in relationships. These patterns are often deeply ingrained, and not always immediately understood, but can be explored and worked with over time. Alongside this, I have a strong interest in trauma-focused work more broadly, including both acute and longer-standing traumatic experiences, and the ways in which these experiences are processed and integrated over time in a way that feels safe and manageable. In my work with children, my interest lies in supporting emotional and behavioural difficulties, including anxiety, mood-related challenges, and difficulties with emotional expression and regulation. In this context, I make use of developmentally appropriate approaches such as play therapy to facilitate communication and emotional processing in a way that aligns with the child’s stage of development.

Areas I work with:

Depressive Disorders

Bipolar Mood Disorders

Anxiety & Panic

Trauma & PTSD

Psychosomatic Disorders

Psychotic Disorders

Personality Disorders

Adjustment Difficulties

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Grief & Loss

Substance Use

Relationship & Interpersonal Difficulties

Identity & Self Esteem

Navigating living with a chronic illness

LGBTQIA+

What is necessary to change a person is to change his

awareness of himself. Seeing is better than being blind, even when seeing hurts.

- A. MASLOW