Racheal Johnston – Social Worker specialising in Play-Based Intervention

Racheal is a social worker who specialises in play-based intervention. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Social work in 2017, where she commenced her career in school-based therapy and support to primary school children. Thereafter she enrolled for a Master’s degree in Play-based intervention at the University of Pretoria, while she continued to provide support to children and adolescents in primary school as well as high school. She has been working part-time in private practice since 2022. She is hence registered with the South-African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP), the South African Association for Social Workers in Private Practice (SAASWIPP), as well as the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF).

She completed her master’s degree in 2022, with her research focusing on young adults’ perceptions of community violence experienced in a South African context during adolescence. This allowed her to gain valuable insight into the difficulties and trauma that children and adolescents face within their daily lives. Racheal has also been a part-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria since 2019 for the Unit for Academic literacy, and has also lectured on childhood development and working with teenagers in a Humanitas capacity. She will serve as a lecturer and supervisor for the school counselling course.

Racheal’s vision is to equip Humanitas students to provide a child/adolescent with a counselling environment to freely express themselves, in order to grow and develop to become healthy adults within society.

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think” – A.A. Milne