About Me

I completed my MA in Clinical Psychology with distinction at the University of Cape Town. My research focus was on identity construction of adolescents who identify as lesbian and bisexual.

I then completed my internship through Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital, which included various placements at Valkenberg Hospital, Red Cross Children’s Hospital, and Groote Schuur Hospital. For my community service year, I was placed at the Division on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (DCAP) at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, where I gained extensive experience working with children, adolescents, and families. Since then, I have intermittently provided further services at DCAP.

I have also gained experience working with adults, adolescents, and children with medical conditions, chronic illnesses, and medically unexplained symptoms at Groote Schuur Hospital, Red Cross Children’s Hospital, and Tygerberg Hospital. In addition to my private practice, I currently also work as a sessional psychologist at Tygerberg Hospital’s Pain Clinic, where I run chronic pain management groups, provide psychotherapy to patients with chronic pain, and consult with the multi-disciplinary team.

I am committed to ongoing learning and professional development. As such, I engage in regular supervision and am a member of the following professional organisations:

Publications

Ernstzen, D., Keet, J., Louw, K., Park-Ross, J., Pask, L., Reardon, C., Zway, M, & Parker, R. (2022). "So, you must understand that that group changed everything:" Perspectives on a telehealth group intervention for patients with chronic pain. BMC Muskuloskeletal Disorders, 23, 538.

Boonzaier, F., & Zway, M. (2015). Young lesbian and bisexual women resisting discrimination and negotiating safety: A Photovoice study. African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Violence and Injury Prevention, 13, 7-29.

Zway, M., & Boonzaier, F. (2015). “I believe that being a lesbian is not a curse”: Young black lesbian women representing their identities through Photovoice. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 29, 96-107.

Schepers, Y., & Zway, M. (2013). Adolescents’ constructions of gender and sexuality. New Voices in Psychology, 8, 23-38.

My Approach

I believe that human beings inherently strive for growth and connection. However, patterns of relating and protective strategies that may have protected us from emotional hurt in the past, may be hindering us from growth and connection in the present. These protective strategies and patterns of relating are often unconscious, or outside of our awareness. They developed in our earliest relationships, and thus can only be healed within an empathic relationship.

I strive to create an empathic, collaborative, and supportive therapeutic environment in which your strengths and challenges can be explored. My primary therapeutic approach is integrative psychodynamic, which means that I explore unconscious and past dynamics that my be at play, but also focus on supportive strategies to help you in the present. For children and adolescents, I also focus on helping parents become more attuned and empathic to their child's needs. I am strongly influenced by contemporary Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Attachment Theory, which all focus on the importance of empathic attunement and relationship.