With few job opportunities available in psychology, clinical psychologist Balungile Macingwane carved her own path by opening Balungile Macingwane Psychological Services in Southernwood, focusing on trauma and stress-related care.
After completing her studies and community service in the Free State, the 29-year-old Engcobo-born clinical psychologist dreamt of moving back to the Eastern Cape to use her skills in public health to better the lives of locals.
She obtained her master’s degree in Bloemfontein at the University of Free State and completed her internship at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria as well as the Free State psychiatric hospital in Bloemfontein. She also completed her community service in a district hospital in Trompsburg, a small town in the Free State. This experience opened her eyes to the urgent need for clinical psychology services in public health.
Her dreams of working in the Eastern Cape and giving back to the community through public health were crushed when she was confronted by the dearth of available posts across the province, which has culminated in ongoing tensions in recent years as doctors, nurses, radiographers, dentists and other healthcare workers remain jobless.
Refusing to be defeated, Macingwane began taking steps towards building her own practice, circumventing the burgeoning ranks of unemployed youth which has spiked to 32% as of last week.
Macingwane said deciding on starting her own private practice was not an easy thing to come to terms with, as she has always thought that she would work in the public health sector before moving into private practice.
She said: “However, the process of preparing to open a private practice has made me appreciate the autonomy and personal growth that comes with starting your own business.
“Starting my own practice has given me the opportunity to think of the values I want to cultivate and the way that I want to serve my community.”
Macingwane said she did a lot of research before opening her private practice to figure out the expenses that would cost her in starting up her own practice.
“As soon as I decided that I would be opening my own private practice, I attended workshops and I did research on what will be needed to cover necessities such as admin, insurance, furniture and marketing, which as a young entrepreneur are all functions you need to be well versed on.
“I also had to decide on whether I would be renting a sessional office or have my own office which is what I chose.
“This gave me a rough estimate on how much I would have to save. So, I saved some of my salary to be able to survive for a few months post community service.”
Macingwane remains hopeful that the opportunity to work in public health will arise but she said, considering the state of health care, she could not afford to wait for opportunities to come — she had to begin building her own.
She said: “I am glad that I also took this opportunity to create something that could serve others and potentially create employment opportunities which could alleviate the strain we are facing with unemployed healthcare professionals.”
Her practice offers a range of services and aims to serve both adults and children over the age of 10 and are geared towards Macingwane’s fields of interest which are trauma and stressor- related disorders, grief, mood disorders, anxiety, adjustment, relational problems, work- related stressors.
She administers individual and couples’ psychotherapy which involves using talk therapy to help clients address mental health concerns as an effective intervention for addressing depression.
Psychological assessments which are also administered at Macingwane’s practice, are tools used to evaluate an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and personality functioning for the intention to gather comprehensive information about an individual’s psychological functioning and behaviour to help diagnose conditions, guide treatment planning, and monitor progress.
Her services ultimately feed into her passion which is mental health and wellbeing, of which she believes everyone should have the right to access.
For anyone interested to schedule an appointment must contact 076-840-1366 or admin@balungilemacingwane.co.za
