Sinmarie Pieterse

Sinmarie Pieterse holds a Masters degree in Educational Psychology (University of Pretoria) and is a registered Educational Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (PS 0040223). She has eighteen years of experience in the field of child psychology, assessment (educational and emotional), psychotherapy, parental guidance and career guidance. Sinmarie started her career at the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Child and Parental Guidance in 1993. Psychological assessments, career guidance, psychotherapy, counselling and parental guidance were part of the services offered to parents and their children. Thereafter she worked at Gauteng’s Educational Aid Centres, Ermelo, Benoni, Kempton Park as an educational specialist, dealing mainly with didactic assessments, such as: • Remedial class placements, • Placement of learners with special needs in schools for learners with special needs, • Placement of cognitive borderline functioning learners in schools where they could be taught specific skills such as panel beating and woodwork, • Granting of extra writing time for learners who needed it, • Assisted teachers with the everyday problems of learners with ADHD in the classroom situation by workshops that were developed and presented. In 1997 she worked as a school psychologist at Sonitus School for the Hard of Hearing. The needs of the physical handicapped child were addressed in a multi disciplinary team approach consisting of speech therapists, occupational therapists, a nurse and a social worker. Behavioral problems were treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. She locumed at Procare, an organization for social workers and psychologists in private practice, where she mainly worked therapeutically with sexually abused girls and children who went through a divorce and did hypnotherapy with teenagers and adults. In 2006, Sinmarie decided to relocate to the Cape and started to work at the Centre for Student Counseling and Development, Stellenbosch University. Among the problems she had to address were: - academic problems of students, - emotional adjustment issues, especially for first year students From 2007 she worked at the Centre for Prospective Students (Stellenbosch University) where she focused mainly on career and subject choice assessment and counseling.