Shelley Hall

19/08/2026

Psychological services include: Therapy for children and adults. Assessment(barriers to learning) for children.

Shelley provides in person psychological services at Medicross in Meerensee and Addison medical centre in Empangeni and therapy online.

Juanita works online only. She also works after hours and some Saturdays, providing online therapy to adults and children.

Shelley and Juanita are both trained in Brianworking Recursive Therapy( )

19/08/2026

14/08/2026

For three Fridays, I’ve had the privilege of taking colleagues through a specialised BWRT® course, created by Terence Watts, on procrastination.

Procrastination can look deceptively simple from the outside: “I know what I need to do, so why don’t I just do it?” Yet what drives that hesitation can differ considerably from one person to another.

Over the three-part course, we explored how to identify these different patterns and use that understanding to tailor BWRT® to the individual client.

BWRT® (BrainWorking Recursive Therapy) is a structured, brain-based psychological approach that works with the automatic responses that can occur before our conscious thinking has had a chance to intervene.

The material is detailed and complex, moving from careful assessment through to selecting and adapting the most appropriate interventions.

I particularly value training other mental-health professionals because its impact extends well beyond the course itself. Each practitioner leaves with another therapeutic skill they can take into their work with many more people.

Thank you to everyone who joined me over these three Fridays and brought such commitment and curiosity to the course.

I also provide BWRT® level 1 & 2 practitioner training in Durban, with BWRTSA, and look forward to continuing to grow the community of practitioners using this approach.

14/08/2026

Parental alienation is an ugly subject. It seems to have more layers than an onion and more arms than an octopus.

What looks like alienation is not always alienation. A child’s rejection of a parent can develop within a complicated family system. There may be inappropriate influence by one parent, but there may also be harmful parenting, psychological abuse, fear, or a parent genuinely believing they are protecting their child — sometimes described as protective gatekeeping.

When appointed in divorce and family matters, I am at times concerned by reports where far-reaching recommendations appear to be based predominantly on interviews with parents and children.

In my view, serious allegations affecting a child’s relationship with a parent require something closer to a forensic investigation.

This means testing competing explanations rather than starting with a conclusion. It may include detailed assessment of relevant family members, appropriate psychometrics, observation of parent-child interactions, collateral information from several sources, records and consideration of the family’s history, culture and development.

No single interview, test, or allegation can adequately explain the complexity of an entire family system. In practice, however, this level of depth is difficult to achieve. Social workers and Family Advocates often carry very large caseloads, while a comprehensive independent psychological investigation can cost well over R100 000.

Yet the decisions can affect a child and their relationships for years.

A well-researched assessment cannot provide absolute certainty. It can, however, give a Court a more balanced understanding, consider alternative explanations and make recommendations grounded in evidence rather than allegation.

Ultimately, the question should not be: What does either parent want?
It should be: What best serves this particular child?

13/08/2026

Learning requires a multitude of cognitive skills. Knowing where strengths and weakness lie helps tailor support.

www.shelleyhall.co.za

12/08/2026

Panic attacks… ongoing reactions to things that you know logically aren’t a real threat or will pass with time… why?

www.shelleyhall.co.za

11/08/2026

The beauty of a therapy space….

www.shelleyhall.co.za

11/08/2026

09/08/2026

This Women’s Day, I’ve been thinking that perhaps we need to stop praising women quite so much for being strong... We admire the woman who keeps going when she is exhausted. Who takes care of everyone else. Who manages the children, work, relationships, ageing parents, the household, the emotional load — and still says, “I’m fine.”

We call her strong. But as a psychologist, I think we need to be careful about confusing coping with being okay. Why? Because when being “the strong one” becomes part of a woman’s identity, asking for help can feel like weakness. Saying no feels selfish. Rest creates guilt. Other people become so accustomed to her coping that they stop noticing how much she carries.

Human beings adapt remarkably well. We can function under enormous pressure for a surprisingly long time. That doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t costing us something. Strength is useful. But so are limits.

Notice what you automatically take responsibility for. Does it actually need to be yours?

Ask for help before you reach the point where you can no longer cope. Be specific about what you need.

Practise saying no without a lengthy explanation. Allow other people to do things differently. Sharing responsibility sometimes means giving up control over exactly how something gets done.

Pay attention when you become irritable, withdraw, sleep poorly, feel constantly rushed or begin resenting the people you are helping. These can be signs that something needs to change.

Needing support is not evidence that you are failing. It's healthy to work as a 'team'.

So perhaps this Women’s Day we don’t need to wish women more strength. Perhaps we need to ask why they have needed so much of it.