Department of Psychiatry
Staff
Clinical Psychologists – Tygerberg Hospital
Dr. Christina van der Merwe
MSc (Clinical Psychology), PhD (Child Psychology)
Tel: 021 938 9455 | 9445
Fax: 021 938 9611
Dr. van der Merwe is the Head of Clinical Psychology at Tygerberg Hospital, Principal psychologist, and Senior lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry. She has a special interest in child and adolescent psychiatry, specifically, the treatment of adolescents with eating disorders.
Dr. Riaan Olivier
MA (Clinical Psychology), PhD (Psychiatry)
Tel: 021 938 6289
Fax: 021 938 9738
Dr. Olivier is a senior lecturer and senior clinical psychologist based at Tygerberg Hospital. His research interests include cognition, schizophrenia, memory disorders, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Colin Mitchell
MA (Clinical Psychology)
Tel: 021 938 5694
Fax: 021 938 9738
Colin Mitchell is appointed as a senior clinical psychologist/lecturer. He has many years of experience as a psychotherapist and several years of experience in consultation-liaison psychiatry as a clinical psychologist. Broadly, his areas of interest include psychodynamic psychotherapy and supervision, psychological problems related to the medical setting, eating disorders, and the field of neuropsychoanalysis which explores links between the brain, neurobiology, and psychoanalytic concepts.
Salisha Maharaj
MA (Clinical Psychology)
Tel: 021 938 4650
Fax: 021 938 6111
Salisha works in the child and adolescent inpatient and outpatient psychiatric unit providing clinical and supervisory services. She has worked with children and adolescents for the past 10 years. Salisha offers individual, didactic, and family therapy treatment approaches. She has a special interest in working with children and their parents under the age of 5 years and has been trained in parent-infant psychotherapy, under-5 therapy, and developmental assessments for young children. Salisha believes that it is important to have a holistic approach to patient management, making informed decisions about patient care through a multidisciplinary approach.
Tanja Smuts
MA (Clinical Psychology)
Tel: 021 938 9445
Fax: 021 938 6111
Tanja Smuts is a lecturer/senior clinical psychologist working in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry unit at Tygerberg Hospital. She has many years of experience as a psychotherapist and has been focusing on infant, child, adolescent, and family work for the last ten years.
Juané Voges
MSc (Clinical Psychology), PhD (Psychiatry)
Tel: 021 938 9445
Fax: 021 938 6111
Dr. Voges is a clinical psychologist with a keen interest in maternal and infant mental health. She completed her PhD on mentalising and parent-infant interaction among mothers with psychosis. Her other areas of interest include DBT, working with trauma, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Dr. Voges is a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and a faculty member for the Master’s degree in Infant Mental Health. Her clinical work at Tygerberg Hospital includes providing therapeutic and neuropsychological services to in- and outpatients and she runs a maternal mental health group. Since 2019 she has been the chairperson of the Western Cape Association for Infant Mental Health.
