Welcome to the professional website of dr. Wilna van der Walt, registered medical doctor practicing as psychotherapist, in Muizenberg. She has a special interest in creative work in service of inner development.
Her therapeutic approach is mainly based on the Jungian model. Creative work may be incorporated into your work together, but remains an option only. In addition to psychotherapy and workshops on creative inner work, Wilna is also available to assist with individual problems associated with creativity, such as a creative block. To arrange an assessment, please click here.
MB ChB (UFS) Pr nr 0681652
Capricorn Beach Estate, Muizenberg
When faced with a crisis, the decision to start psychotherapy is often a difficult one. It may be a personal life crisis or work related. In a private, contained space we meet and commit ourselves to the work.
Within our psychological makeup there exists a natural process of inner growth. Together we undertake a journey of self-discovery, and we pay attention to patterns that may be interfering with the natural unfolding of the personality. It is the natural tendency of the personality to want to develop towards greater fulfilment.
The breaking open of one’s seed is always painful. Like our early wounds it shape our lives so that we may grow into healthy trees. But the growth may be hampered, giving rise to psychological distress.
In his life’s work, the Swiss psychiatrist, dr. CG Jung, showed that we develop symptoms when we get stuck in old patterns. These old habitual ways make us too one-sided in our views of ourselves and the world we live in. This in turn prevents us from getting through the difficult times.
If we know and understand ourselves better, we become stronger and we are better able to find our own way through the white water times. Nobody knows the solutions to another person’s troubles; another can only assist one on one’s own path.
I work with adults only. I am no longer available as general medical practitioner.
A Crisis, An Opportunity
In our work, we take note of dreams and their messages, when they appear, for they assist us in understanding ourselves. This serves to strengthen our relationship to our deep symbolical life and the process of inner growth.
Few people realize that a time of crisis is an opportunity for inner growth, which may enable one to acquire a more objective perspective on life’s difficulties and to make decisions from a more balanced point of view.
About Creativity in Psychotherapy
Creative work can be an invaluable tool in this process of inner growth, and it is known to assist the therapeutic process.
The images that appear spontaneously in creative work may assist our work together. If you should decide to enter therapy with me, incorporating creative work into our work together would be a possibility, but not a necessity. No previous artistic experience is required to be able to bring creative work in as part of our work together.
Developing a conscious relationship to one’s creative work has the ability to nourish, support and contain the personality. This process is about learning to relate to the world of images in a meaningful way. It assists one in developing the relationship to one’s deeper self.
“A patient needs only to have seen once or twice how much he is freed from a wretched state of mind by working at a symbolical picture, and he will always turn to this means of release whenever things go badly with him.”
Chodorow, quoting Jung, 1997, p. 93
I offer regular workshops about my approach to creative inner work. This workshop is also available as an individual short course. In addition, I facilitate an open online creative workspace on the first Sunday morning of the month for 90 minutes. For more information on the workshops, please visit Events.