About Me.

I am an adult survivor of severe childhood abuse, and experienced further abuse later on in my marriages.  I lived most of my life as a wreck until I began my Logotherapy studies in my 50’s.  My life has since changed so much for the better that I am still in awe over it all and very grateful.  I still experience some day to day struggles and flashbacks from my past which I will share occasionally in my blog, but with the powerful tools I now have as a result of my Logotherapy studies, I am able to rise up to the challenges, to overcome and transcend my struggles more readily than ever before.  For this reason, I would like to share and pass on what I have learned along the path of my life, as a result of my own life experiences and my Logotherapy studies to those who reach out to me for whatever portion of help and care I have to give at any one time, not as a professional, but rather as a friend.  I am extremely passionate about this.

Qualifications

• Professional nurse
• Diplomate Educator / Administrator in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy
• Diplomate Clinician in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy

Presentation:  “My journey to meaningful healing and freedom from suffering through Logotherapy - Part 1” ~ (1 hour + an extra +/- 1 hour for discussion) - Fee: R200 pre person, negotiable (excluding traveling costs and cost of printed handouts) – I have presented this work in Dallas Texas, Israel and here in South Africa. 

My presentation speaks about the huge impact that childhood abuse has on the physical, emotional, social and spiritual development and life of the child-abused victim from childhood and through adulthood.  Logotherapy is introduced and the power for healing through Logotherapy is explained through my experience.

Presentation:  “My journey to meaningful healing and freedom from suffering through Logotherapy - Part 2” ~ (1 hour + an extra +/- 1 hour for discussion) - Fee: R200 pre person, negotiable (excluding traveling costs and cost of printed handouts)

This presentation contrasts how I used to live and be before I turned 50 and how my life has changed exponentially for the better since Logotherapy found me.  My ongoing journey of healing through Logotherapy is emphasized.

Presentation: "Logotherapy Dream Interpretation" ~ (+1 1/2 hours + an extra +/- 1 hour for discussion) ~ Fee: R200 pre person, negotiable (excluding traveling costs and cost of printed handouts)

This presentation speaks about how we are able to find the meaning messages of our dreams and nightmares to help us in the "here and now" of our lives.  There is no fortune telling involved, but rather a uniquely personal guiding and helping revelation to the dreamer that comes through the workings of conscious level of the individual and their unique spiritual dimension.

Presentation: "The Power of the Other Hand" ~ (1 hour + an extra +/- 1 hour for discussion) - Fee: R200 pre person, negotiable (excluding traveling costs and cost of printed handouts)

A presentation about a powerfully creative therapeutic technique that anyone can use, but is especially helpful for adult survivors of child abuse.

(I am presently doing very important research on the "daydream worlds" of child abuse survivors... children and adults included.  If you have a daydream world you are prepared to share with me, please contact me urgently.  I understand that your daydream world can seem to be very bizarre, but it may hold such important messages for you also when understood from a Logotherapeutic perspective.  I will do my best to help you to understand your daydream world if you trust me enough to share it with me... you may do so anonymously if you prefer.  Confidentiality will always be held sacred by me.)

Book/s:  As part of my studies, I have written 23 short therapeutic stories and a book based on child abuse and my personal life experience with a logotherapeutic application which is currently in the editing process – I’m looking forward to the publication of it. The therapeutic stories are each written in a metaphorical style and I intend to illustrate them all myself from my own heart and mind as an abuse survivor.   

I believe very deeply in all I am striving to do to help others and that this is the purpose of my existence, bringing me to this point in my life where I believe that I am now in a position to help others to find their own place of peace and healing.  There is most definitely hope and healing for abuse sufferers through the implementation of Logotherapeutic techniques – I am living proof of this.  

Poetry:  I have written over 1000 poems to date and a number of them have already been published, some even receiving awards and accolades.  Many of my poems relate to my lifelong abuse experiences and struggles, highlighting the innate human ability to overcome and transcend one's sufferings.  I also hope to publish “The Poetic Journal of my Life ©” with a Logotherapeutic application someday.

WHAT IS LOGOTHERAPY ABOUT?

SYNOPSIS OF THE TENETS OF LOGOTHERAPY

(Viktor Frankl’s Avenues to Meaning – A Compendium of Concepts, Phrases and Terms in Logotherapy, by Patti Havenga Coetzer, D.Phil., LFIBA – 2003: 8-10)

1. The Pillars of Logotherapy:

i. Life has Meaning under all circumstances – This statement can be made unqualified because:

• Meaning is not only found in that which one does (in one’s work, hobbies, commitment to a cause, etc). but
• Meaning can be realised in that which we experience (e.g. in nature, in art, in relationships).
• Meaning can be realised through the attitude that we take in the apparently meaningless, tragic, situations which cause unavoidable suffering.

ii. The Will-to-Meaning is man’s primary motivation. It is more powerful than the Will-to-Pleasure (Sigmund Freud), and the Will-to-Power (Alfred Adler, & Friedrich Nietzsche).

iii. Man is free to choose. Man is not free from physiological limits, instincts, drives and the environment. But, man is free to choose how he handles these limitations. Man has the freedom to choose his attitude.

2. Man is born with the Defiant Power of The Human Spirit. Man is not delivered over; man is not the victim of his physical limitations, his instincts, his genes, or his environment. Man has the power to choose.

3. Man always has a Choice – even if it is just the ability to choose his attitude towards circumstances, towards suffering, death, and adversity.

4. Man is Three-Dimensional. Man is not divided in a body and a psyche, but has three dimensions: the biological (the Soma), the psychological (the Psyche) and the spiritual (the Noös) which is the specific human dimension.

5. Reductionism denies the noölogical dimension, the human spirit, and limits man to the biological dimension, where man is reduced to the animal level. In other words, man is reduced to nothing-but an animal, or, in the psychological dimension, where man is seen as nothing but a machine which can be manipulated.

6. The spirit/noös is man’s untouchable core, man’s essence. This core cannot get ill; it can only be blocked by psychological or spiritual ill health. This means that man can uphold his human dignity even in times of illness, in adversity, and in coping with abnormalities. It is exactly under these circumstances that man is challenged to stay human, to act like a human being, to vindicate, to uphold his human dignity.

7. Man has Self –Transcendence: Man can transcend himself by reaching out above the self to the other, to ideals, and to God.

8. Man can distance himself from himself, e.g. through humour, which can help man to break life patterns and change the course of his life.

9. Man is not determined by that what he was, by how and where he was born, but by his vision of the person he wants to be, how he wants to act.

10. Man is unique and thus will find himself in situations where he is irreplaceable. These situations offer man the opportunity to find meaning, the unique meaning of his unique existence.