Most professionals skilled and experienced in treating a wide range of human conditions, are often faced with difficulties to fully understand and empathise with the plight of their African patients.
Basic insight and knowledge of the African tradition would greatly contribute to a meaningful and productive psychotherapy session. African patients may indeed present with problems that are foreign or “strange” – and certainly unknown – to Western psychology and the uninformed Western mind. These problems include, for example: ancestry, prayer, callings, rituals, protection and cursing, dreams, and witchcraft.
The purpose of the workshop is to support professionals in mental healthcare systems to develop a better understanding of ancestral calling and traditional healing.
The aim is to equip professionals with a basic knowledge of the ancestral world, and the problem that many African patients present with when they come to a psychotherapy consultation. Many black African patients seek help from both the psychiatric clinics/hospitals as well as indigenous healers, creating an opportunity for these two worlds to merge.
This workshop forms part of a long-standing and established SAAJA initiative of creating dialogue between Jungian Analysts and African Traditional Health Practitioners, and which forms part of the original vision of SAAJA’s founder and London-trained Jungian Analyst, Dr. Vera Bührmann. Read more about the founding principles and intention of this transformative exploration here.
Workshop Programme
Saturday, 7 September 2024
| 09:00 – 10:30 | Session 1 Understanding the hierarchy of indigenous healing |
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 – 12:30 | Session 2 Umuntu (human being): Four parts – Body, Soul, Mind and Self; What is death? |
| 12:30 – 13:15 | Break |
| 13:15 – 13:45 | Session 3 View of Abantu, Core beliefs and spiritual practices |
| 13:45 -14:30 | Session 4 Different types of ancestors |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Session 5 Process of Ukuthwasa and psychotherapy |