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ABOUT

Get to Know our Founder, 
the SPOTlight Story and Team

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KERRY WALLACE,O.T. &

FOUNDER OF SPOTLIGHT TRUST SA

Hi, my name is Kerry Wallace, I am an Occupational Therapist and the founder of SPOTlight Trust SA. I’ve had a wonderful fulfilling career, and thanks to my wonderful family have been many given opportunities to extend myself and I’d always wanted to give back in some way. I started SPOTlight Trust SA with the aim of providing therapeutic services to children from underprivileged communities in SA.

I attended the second Sensory Integration Training course in South Africa in 1983 and left inspired by Judy Kimball, a US based OT. This experience sparked my quest to learn from world leaders in my chosen field. I was a member of SAISI from its inception and once I had completed my SI training was invited to be part of the protocol marking team and finally Head of Edcom, having taken on roles in lecturing and training OT’s.

THE SPOTLIGHT STORY

From challenging pre-schoolers to flourishing platforms

In the early 2000’s, I (Kerry) was gifted a group of very challenging pre-schoolers by my colleague Kate Bailey who was taking some time out of clinical practice. These children clearly had severe sensory processing challenges, but the level of their emotional dysregulation was off the charts, and many of them went on to receive a diagnosis of ASD. I needed more tools in my toolbox, and in the process of exploring psychodynamic approaches to treatment, I came across Stanley Greenspan, his model of DIR and Floortime. I read everything I could lay my hands on, and purchased 10 DIR:Floortime videos for the SAISI library. I started to implement some of the principles in my clinical work and felt that I was on the right track, but needed more information.

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Due to my husband taking up a new job opportunity, we moved to Cape Town, where I met Peggy Schnaps who had some exposure to Floortime while working in the USA. At that stage it was prohibitively expensive to train in Floortime, as it necessitated attending annual training forum in Washington DC at the ICDL Institute. Meg Faure, a colleague of mine attended one of these events and came back very inspired by Rosemary White an OT who was part of the faculty. I contacted Rosemary and invited her to come to SA to present DIR:Floortime in Cape Town in October 2010. It was a mind shift, to learn about DIR through an OT lens. Her message was loud and clear. The best way to learn DIR is to work under a mentor and receive supervision. She suggested that we attend a summer camp in Seattle. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but an incredble learning experience. To cut a long story short, Stanley Greenspan passed away in early 2011, and his partner Serena Wieder was given funding to start Profectum Foundation by Cuong Do, a Vitnamese immigrant, to the US who had been given the opportunity to study economics through scholarships. He is also the parent of a child with ASD.

 

Rosemary White arranged for me to meet Cuong Do, who was in Johannesburg on business in 2012. At this meeting he told me that he had decided that he wanted to pay it forward, by investing his life’s savings in setting up Profectum. He was therefore keen to set up sattelites in other countries, but there was one proviso. The sattelites had to be non-profit organisations. I told him that I already had established a non-profit, and that providing Introductory DIR training could be part of SPOTlight Trust SA. He then told me that in line with Profectum’s mission to provide world class training for the adult caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders throughout the world, South African’s would be able to access Profectum’s training courses at deeply discounted rates. He committed to enabling us to access Profectum’s courses for a third of what our first world colleagues have to pay. I left the meeting thrilled to have met this incredibly generous visionary and to start the process of the training arm of my fledgling NPO.

Meet The Spotlight Team

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Kate Bailey

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BSc OT (UCT), MSc OT (Wits)

DIR:FCD Associate Faculty Member (Profectum Academy)

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I graduated as an occupational therapist in 1985. After a year of travel and working in the field of geriatrics in England, I spent the next 34 years specializing in paediatrics.  My journey began at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. Marriage took me to Johannesburg, where I worked in a paediatric private practice in Morningside. Along the way, I studied part-time at WITS for another 6 years and qualified with a masters degree in OT in 1993. I also completed my sensory integration training and Bobath neurodevelopmental therapy basic and baby courses. I discovered DIR/Floortime in 2010 and completed my Professional and Fellows courses through Profectum academy, New Jersey, USA. I have since completed the the Trainers course, and am now on the Profectum Academy Assistant Faculty as an international trainer. I presently live in George, Western Cape and work at Therapy Connect, a multi-disciplinary practice with a skilled and passionate group of professionals.

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Cheryl Fisher

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BSc OT (Wits), MSc OT (Wits)

DIR:FCD Fellow (Profectum Academy)

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I am an occupational therapist who qualified with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy at WITS University in 2002 and subsequently achieved a Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy, from WITS University, specialising in sensory integration and child development in 2011. In addition I completed the DIR:FCD Professional Certification in 2016 and the Fellows Certification in 2017. In 2018 I completed the SOS approach to feeding and am in the process of setting up a multidisciplinary feeding clinic with my colleagues. I have 17 years’ experience working with children in both the public and private sector in South Africa and internationally.  I ran own practice in South Africa from 2007 until 2021. Currently I am working as a clinical specialist in South West London, UK, in a private therapy clinic.

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Micah-Lee James

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B.Comm. Path – SLP (UKZN)

 DIR:FCD Fellows (Profectum Academy)

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I graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2006, as one of the top in my class, with a bachelor’s degree in communication pathology: speech-language pathology. I completed the DIR:FCD Professional Certification in May 2018, and the Fellows training in 2019. Amongst many workshops through the years, I have been trained in PECS Advanced, Makaton-SA Enhanced, PROMPT level 1, and the SOS Approach to Feeding. I have over ten years of work experience in government and private hospitals, clinics, and pre-, primary and special needs schools, including private practice in paediatrics and adult rehabilitation. Following my passion in paediatrics I have been running my own practice since 2012; currently serving in three special needs schools, one mainstream pre-school, and a private practice in Norwood. I am also part of a multidisciplinary team pioneering a feeding clinic.

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Debra Wallace

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DEJP 3, HDE Preprimary

DIR:FCD (Profectum Academy, in progress)

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I am an educationalist and studied at Rhodes University, completing my 4 year DEJP.  I then completed my HDE in preprimary education in Cape Town. I have worked in the preprimary environment for close on 30 years of which most of that time was at my school in Bryanston, Johannesburg.  Until recently I have worked with children on the spectrum and with developmental delays out of a small therapy practice in Cape Town. I am currently in Johannesburg running Cleverdon Preschool in Bryanston.

Our Trustees

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Kerry Wallace

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Occupational Therapist

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Noleen Seris

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Clinical Psychologist

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Debra Wallace

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Preschool Teacher

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