Core competencies
Psycho-oncology support in relation to the following difficulties:
- Depression
- Anxiety related disorders such as OCD, PTSD, phobia, panic attack
- Trauma
- Stress
- Dealing with loss and grief through divorce, separation, death of a loved one
- Adjustment to major life changes such as relocation
- Relationship issues
- Health related difficulties and chronic illness
- Attachment difficulties and self-esteem
- Sleep related disorders
- Sexual-related struggles
Profile
- Nationality
- South African
- Summary
- Jodie Mackay is a clinical psychologist trained at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with 23 years of clinical and therapeutic experience. Her style of psychotherapy is based on psychodynamic principles and is built on a dialogue and developing a meaningful therapeutic relationship between herself and the patient.
She is based in the Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Mediclinic City Hospital, and works with individuals and their families experiencing a wide range of psychological difficulties (anxiety, depression, adjustment, acute stress, trauma and loss) related to having a cancer diagnosis. She also works with couples going through times of strain in their relationships due to the effects of cancer, and mostly supports patients using a combination of narrative therapy and EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing).
Apart from working in South Africa, her home country, and Dubai, Jodie lived and worked in Japan for five years, and found the experience of working with expatriate communities extremely rewarding. She enjoys working with and developing an understanding of the unique stresses experienced outside of one's passport country, and how this impacts on individual personalities. Living abroad can raise past issues that are unexamined and unprocessed, as well as emotional loss which is part of relocating. Being diagnosed with an illness can further exacerbate the trials of living away from a support network of family and friends, as well as a familiar healthcare system. Psychological support fosters a willingness to engage with the process of living with an illness and its implications by building emotional resilience and new awareness of self and others.
Jodie views her patients less as individuals expressing the need to be heard, held and accompanied for a way on their journey. Her approach has been influenced by Existential-Humanistic philosophy, which believes that everyone has an inherent capacity for making rational decisions, achieving self-acceptance and reaching their maximum potential. Questions of meaning and purpose and our quest to answer these questions lead many to psychotherapy, and she is always honoured to be a part of someone’s journey.
Qualification
- Masters in clinical psychology - MA
Practices at
-
Mediclinic City Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Centre
Clinical Psychologist
In department Psychology