Patty Sabbagh

Patty is dedicated to providing the highest quality of work in her role as a psychologist by helping her clients navigate challenges with warmth and understanding. As she understands how difficult it can be to open up to and trust someone new, she approaches this process with sensitivity and care, ensuring to create a safe, respectful and non-judgemental therapeutic space. She strongly believes that for therapy to be effective, there must be honesty, commitment and a genuine therapeutic alliance between therapist and client. She offers counselling to clients of diverse backgrounds, from young adults through to the older community; her goal being to help them live richer and happier lives. Patty regards it as a privilege to witness the resilience, humanity and courage of those who come to therapy as they grapple with their life seeking clarity, healing or personal growth.

Patty has worked as a Counselling Psychologist in South Africa since 2011 and is registered with the Health Professionals Council of South Africa, the body that regulates all legal and ethical aspects of her professional practice. She remains deeply appreciative of the invaluable experience and supervision she gained whilst working in a variety of settings with individuals, couples and families, whilst completing her Masters degree. Before becoming a psychologist, Patty worked in the corporate sector for several years. This gave her a fundamental understanding of the emotional and psychological toll that professional life can bring and has helped her in assisting clients experiencing work-related stressors.

Having worked in private practice over the past 14 years, both in South Africa and overseas, Patty continues to prioritise ongoing professional development, ensuring her approach stays reflective, current and thoughtful.

She adopts an integrative and collaborative therapeutic approach, drawing on her training from a range of therapeutic styles, namely systems therapy, Rogerian therapy, CBT, Acceptance and Commitment therapy, Solution focused therapy, Schema therapy and Gestalt therapy. Priority is given to the needs of the individual in her choice of therapeutic intervention, with careful consideration being given to the client’s history, current life experiences, challenges, strengths and goals. Patty is interested in helping clients to understand their difficulties in a way that facilitates healing; thereby assisting them to gain greater insight into their lives. She strongly believes people are experts in their own lives; her role being to work collaboratively with them.

Her areas of interest include anxiety, depression, anxiety, grief and loss, life-adjustment concerns, self-esteem issues, personal growth and workplace stress. In addition to this she has a special interest working with individuals and couples struggling with relationship difficulties and break-ups. Of particular interest to her is why some relationships work, and others do not. She also offers pre-marital counselling sessions to help couples build realistic expectations and stronger foundations for their future.

Patty believes that everyone has the capacity to change, and that the therapeutic journey can be a rich and fulfilling one. Her clients describe her as present, respectful, insightful and kindly challenging