2^nd International Conference on Clinical and Counseling Psychology October 16-17, 2017 Osaka, Japan

Biography:

Prof Nel studied late in life and gained a BA with 3 majors (English, History) with a distinction in Psychology a Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She then completed her Honours in Psychology with distinction and found a placement for Masters in Counseling Psychology at the University of Zululand, which she completed Cum Laude.   At that university she was an HOD of Industrial Psychology. She later moved to the Medical University of South Africa as an Associate Professor. She then joined the University of Limpopo in Polokwane in South Africa where she is now a full professor of psychology. She was awarded the Best Woman Researcher in the Humanities in 2014.  In 2016 she was awarded a National Research Foundation of South Africa research rating.  She has a long supervision record and also assesses dissertations and theses for other tertiary institutions.  Prof Nel was made a Consultant Editor for the Journal of Psychology in Africa in 2016 she also reviews articles for peer-reviewed journals. She continues to publish and present topics relevant to South Africa international conferences. In 2014 she chaired a session at the International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP) in Paris. She and other peers are currently working on a textbook for applied psychology in the medical and health sciences as well as working on community research based projects.

Abstract:

Many women experience psychological and/or physical abuse on a daily basis. It is part of everyday life for many women in traditional societies where it is accepted as the norm. Woman abuse can impact on the reproductive health of woman (through rape and non-use of condoms which results in woman catching sexually transmitted infections STIs). Patriarchy, which endorses the man as head of the family, is the predominant paradigm in South Africa contributes to the incidence of violence against women as they are viewed as the property of their male spouses. South Africa a conservative, traditional society which has high levels of violence against women in Gauteng Province alone, one in every six women is killed by an intimate partner. Furthermore, one in every five women is physically abused by her intimate partner and one in every four is battered. The country is ranked amongst the highest countries for gender-based violence worldwide. The investigation was a qualitative, phenomenological one in which women narrated their stories which were put in themes. The counseling therapy used in the process was Narrative Therapy, which was used as both a methodology and an intervention. Lobola or bride price was found to keep women in relationships where men were unfaithful and considered sex a right. It was also found a factor in keeping women in abusive relationships as they could not go home (as they had been paid for). The impact on their psychological and reproductive health was found to be negative in the sample of women who told their stories.