ThinkGroup

What the directory actually gives you before you book

Most people arrive here after a referral, a bad first fit, or a long wait on a practice's voicemail. The approach is simple: read what other clients wrote, check the practical details, then decide whether to make the call.

ThinkGroup approach

Reviews that name the awkward parts

Waiting times, how the intake felt, whether the therapist talked over you. Feedback is structured, so you compare the same things across practices.

Filters that match real constraints

Suburb, session language, approach such as CBT or play therapy, and whether evening or Saturday slots exist. Useful when work hours decide the shortlist.

Plain answers on medical aid

Who can claim, what a GP referral changes, and how the difference between a clinical psychologist and a registered counsellor affects your plan.

Practitioners who reply in public

Claimed listings can respond to feedback, so a complaint about billing or telehealth setup does not disappear into a private inbox.

How the directory was built, step by step

ThinkGroup did not start as a directory. It started as a shared document of notes about who was taking new clients, which practices answered the phone, and how long a medical aid authorisation actually took. The timeline below shows how those notes turned into something other people could use.

  1. Early 2022

    First intake notes from Johannesburg

    A handful of clients in Rosebank and Melville wrote down what the first session was like: how long the wait was, whether the psychologist explained the plan, and whether medical aid was sorted before or after. Those notes became the template every later review follows.

  2. Mid 2022

    Cape Town and Durban practices join

    Suburban practices in Claremont, Observatory and Berea added listings. This is where the filters took shape, because readers kept asking the same three things: which languages the session runs in, whether evening or Saturday slots exist, and whether the practice works with children.

  3. Late 2022

    The explainer series begins

    Reviews alone were not enough. Readers wanted to know the difference between a registered clinical psychologist and a counsellor, and how a GP referral actually works. We published the first plain-language pieces to answer those questions without sending people to a search engine.

  4. 2023

    Practitioners claim their listings

    Practices could now claim a profile and reply to feedback directly. That changed the tone of the directory: instead of one-sided comments, a review about a long waiting list often sits next to the practice explaining what changed since.

  5. 2024

    Telehealth and approach filters

    Remote sessions moved from a footnote to a normal option, so we added filters for telehealth and for therapeutic approach: CBT, psychodynamic, systemic, and play therapy for younger children. Pretoria listings came in around the same period, mostly from practices near the university.

  6. Ongoing

    Reviews stay the working part

    The editorial side keeps growing, but the reviews do the practical work. Every new entry about intake, fees or switching therapists makes the next person's decision a little less blind. If you have seen someone in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban or Pretoria, that is the part we still need.

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