Biography
Clinic Director: Dr. Jacques J. Gouws, C.Psych.
Dr. Gouws was born in Grahamstown, South Africa. He received the degrees Master of Arts in Psychology in 1984; and Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology in 1986, from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He completed comprehensive post-graduate training and internship programs in Industrial Psychology (1985) and Counselling Psychology (1992) at the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch, South Africa, respectively. He came to Canada in 1995 and completed a postdoctoral internship program in Clinical Psychology in the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, He was registered for autonomous practice in Psychology in Ontario in February 1997.
Aside from providing general clinical psychological services, Dr. Gouws provides specialised clinical psychological assessment and treatment for military members and veterans. He is a frequent speaker at conventions and workshops, and he is widely quoted in the national media on PTSD and in particular how it manifests in soldiers.
Dr. Gouws also consults to industry, in areas such as leadership, management functions, personnel development, work transition/change management, and stress management.
Together with three medical specialists he established the Stress and Trauma Research and Education Institute (STREI) (www.strei.ca) in June 2002. STREI is a collaborative effort to collect, collate, process and disseminate data from clinical practice in order to identify continuing education and training needs for mental health and health care providers in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of Adult-onset Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, in particular as it relates to military service PTSD and stress reactions.
He is also closely associated with Human and System Interface Consulting (HSIC) (www.humansysteminterface.ca) which is a neutral and independent provider of integrated mental and physical health status assessment services, based in Hamilton.
Dr. Gouws has expertise working in multicultural environments and is fluent in several languages. Apart from his mother tongue, Afrikaans, he speaks English and Portuguese fluently and can conduct conversations in German, Flemish, and Dutch without difficulty. He has a basic knowledge of Spanish and Mandarin Taiwan. He has more than 35 years of extensive work experience in settings that include academia, the military, diplomatic corps, government and private sectors, industry, and private psychological practice.
Dr. Gouws is a member of several provincial, national and international professional associations.
