Marina obtained her MA Clinical Psychology degree (with distinction) from the University of Pretoria where she was trained in most therapeutic modalities. Her master’s degree thesis was titled A content analysis of forensic psychological reports written for sentencing proceedings in criminal court cases in South Africa, also passed with distinction.
Clinical experience
Marina has been exposed to and worked in various environments including in-patient settings, i.e. psychiatric hospitals and private psychiatric clinics, where she worked as part of a multidisciplinary team, giving input at ward rounds and running weekly groups with psychiatric in-patients. She also worked in out-patient settings, i.e. private practice, clinics and prisons.
Before her professional training as a Clinical Psychologist, she was a Lifeline volunteer counsellor for five years and went on to work permanently for the organisation as Counselling Manager where she was responsible for the selection and training of counsellors, supervisors and facilitators.
Forensic experience
Marina worked in the Investigative Psychology Section, Forensic Services, South African Police Service. During this time she provided forensic psychological guidance to investigating officers (detectives) as well as prosecutors with many psychologically motivated crimes, such as serial rape, serial murder and child sexual abuse, specifically matters involving peadophiles. This assistance took the form of analysing crime scenes, assisting detectives with the investigation, interviewing offenders and victims, and compiling pre-sentencing and victim impact reports.
She has testified in numerous criminal cases relating to serial rape, paedophilia, filicide and child pornography. She has also compiled several clinical and neuropsychological reports in civil matters in the medico-legal context.
Training
Training Presented
Presenting training at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA on Sexual Grooming.
Marina has presented training to SAPS members on Serial Rape, Serial Murder and Muti Murder. She presented training to the National Prosecuting Authority on Psychology and Law as well as at international conferences, for instance at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences’ annual meeting, on the topic of Sex Offenders. Besides presenting training, she also presented papers nationally and internationally at conferences on the topic of Sexual Grooming by Paedophiles.
Training Attended
Marina endeavours to stay abreast in her field of expertise and has therefore attended training nationally and internationally on the following topics, amongst others:
Training in Criminal Forensic Psychology
Psychologically Motivated Crimes
Interviewing Victims of Sexual Offenders
Paraphilias, Paedophilia
Child Abuse
Facilitating the Child’s Disclosure: Introduction to Sexual Abuse
Forensic Investigation into Allegations of Sexual Abuse
Child Pornography
Criminal Behaviour Analysis – (Dr Collins from University of Toronto & Ontario Provincial Police, Canada)
Threat Assessment – (Prof Stephen Hart, Simon Fraser University of Canada)
Medico-Legal Death Investigation – (University of St Louis, Missouri, USA: Division of Forensic Pathology)
Anatomy and Forensic Pathology
Arson Related Cases – (Ed Nordskog – Arson, Explosion Consulting, Los Angeles, USA)
Training in Neuropsychology and the Medico-Legal Field
Traumatic Brain Injury
Psychological Consequences, Emotional Shock and Constitutional Damages
Medical Negligence
Child Neuropsychology
Expert Witness Skills Training
Medico-legal Report Writing
Understanding and Measuring Memory
Malingered Cognitive Deficits
RAF 4 Assessment and Recommendations
The Neuropsychology of Executive Functions and Emotional Processing
Training in Clinical Psychology
Psychoanalytic theory and practice
Relationship therapy
Trauma