Dr. Tanya van Niekerk is a Registered Psychologist who works with adults and youth navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, burnout, relationship difficulties, substance use, and significant life transitions. She understands that people rarely arrive in therapy with one neatly defined concern. More often, they are carrying a complicated combination of experiences, patterns, responsibilities, and emotions that have become difficult to manage alone.

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Tanya’s approach is warm, collaborative, and grounded in genuine curiosity. She believes therapy should be something done with clients rather than to them. Her role is not to position herself as the expert on someone else’s life, but to help clients better understand their experiences, recognize the patterns that may be keeping them stuck, and develop meaningful ways of moving forward.

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Her work is trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming, and attentive to the influence of relationships, identity, culture, and life circumstances. She draws from Internal Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and other evidence-based approaches. Rather than applying one method to every person, Tanya adapts therapy to the individual, balancing deeper emotional exploration with practical strategies that can be used outside the therapy room.

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Tanya has extensive experience working within an inpatient concurrent-disorders program, supporting people experiencing complex and overlapping mental-health and substance-use concerns. This work has strengthened her ability to remain grounded in difficult conversations and to help clients approach painful experiences with honesty, compassion, and hope.

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Alongside her clinical work, Tanya teaches and supports graduate counselling students. She values thoughtful clinical practice, ethical decision-making, and the ongoing development of therapists who are both skilled and deeply human.

Outside of work, Tanya is usually spending time with her family, reading or learning something psychology-related, and negotiating with four small dogs who remain firmly convinced that they are in charge.