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The JHB Clinic is a low fee/pro bono psychotherapy service that has been operating since 2016. We offer psychotherapy to patients who are unable to afford private rates.

Our treatment modality is informed by psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis speaks to an understanding of all aspects of the mind – our conscious mind – the mind we know – but also our unconscious mind – the mind that we do not have conscious access to. We believe that having access to all parts of your internal world fosters greater mental well-being and health and allows for a more thoughtful and less reactive approach to life in general. This approach needs longer than the popular brief interventions on offer at many private clinics and for this reason our individual therapy service offers a minimum of two years of weekly treatment.

Understanding the impact of trauma is particularly important in 2025 in South Africa. Our social structure remains tragically divided between those who are the victims of apartheid as well as the ongoing inequalities that still remain so stark in our society, and those who remain within the privileged class of South Africans. This is not to say that privileged South Africans are not traumatised, but the core concern for us is access to quality mental health services which currently excludes those without financial resources.

People who are traumatised are often less resilient emotionally and have less engagement with their families and broader communities. As clinicians we understand this to be linked to a range of factors: ongoing poverty and the collapse of hope, racism with its associated assault on dignity and self-regard, family breakdown and the rise in misogyny and violence against women, and perhaps most tragically, the transfer of rage and violence onto our children, who are helpless dependents and who have no option but to accept this reality as “normal”.

Our Clinic is deeply committed to providing therapy services to address these very serious issues that impact our country in such a devastating way. We know that talking with another person, particularly somebody skilled, can reduce the intensity of feelings associated with the trauma of being South African. We also know that sharing a problem with another person humanises that person, not only in relation to their own suffering but also in relation to the suffering of others around them. The link between cruelty and deprivation is very strong and our work is about unpicking these invisible dynamics that perpetuate trauma and about offering our patients healthier alternatives to how they live their lives.

Our clinic is part of the South African Psychoanalytic Clinics and is led by four psychoanalysts: Sue Levy and Heather Jones Petersen in Johannesburg, and Mark Solms and Armien Abrahams in Cape Town. Since Covid, the JHB Clinic has been a virtual clinic but we are deeply grateful to have now found physical premises with Netcare at their Parklane site in Parktown. We officially opened our doors in January 2025 and to date we have 56 clinicians offering pro-bono therapy services to the Clinic from their private rooms, with ten colleagues taking rooms at the JHB Clinic.