Desiree-Anne Martin – author • counsellor • public speaker

speak your truth.

I am an experienced registered counsellor with a long impressive CV but an even bigger heart. I help people to stop hurting and to start living. I watch people take responsibility for their lives. I am privileged to witness changes take place.

I do this with individuals, in groups, with women, men, young adults and adolescents. I believe in hope and magic. But I am a realist and a cynic. I will tell you the truth and I’m not afraid to be temporarily unpopular.

I have worked in treatment centres for nine years, with adults and adolescents, and have been in private practice for eight years. I am experienced with substance addictions and process addictions, integration counselling, trauma and emotional & mental health issues. I am a certified Usui Reiki Master and a certified Tao Healings Hands practitioner.

As a professional public speaker, I am fortunate to be able to share my story and experiences in schools, corporate environments and recovery settings. I offer corporate wellness programmes, training & interventions, workshops for schools and individual, family or group counselling.

I believe in finding your unique voice, unveiling your truth and speaking your truth, authentically and without shame. I believe in destigmatizing issues such as addiction, abuse and mental illness so that people can come out from the shadows of fear and ask for the help they need.

I am a published memoirist, essayist and prize-winning fiction author whose writing is a bid to in a bid to offer hope to others. I am passionate about the written word and have a love affair with language and communication. Communication leads to connection. Connection is the antithesis of suffering.

It is one of my mantras: there is hope, always. This is what I do and I hope I can be of service to you.

there is hope, always.

I am an experienced addictions and general counsellor with a long, impressive CV but an even bigger heart. I help people to stop hurting and to start living.

I work with people. I talk to people. I listen to people. I watch people take responsibility for their lives. I cry with them, laugh (a lot) with them. I teach, I learn, I do some growing of my own.

A postgraduate student from the University of Cape Town in 2019 (with Honours), I am also a director of two recovery-related companies. I am a lecturer on topics around addiction and related issues, and also facilitate workshops for adolescents about boundaries, consent, high-risk behaviour, emotional regulation and identifying toxic relationships.

I work with individuals, with women, with men, with young adults, couples, in groups. I am a sucker and a champion for the hopeless and the desperate. Ask anyone. I believe in hope and magic. But I am a realist and a cynic. I will tell you the truth and I’m not afraid to be temporarily unpopular.

Please contact me for counselling rates but please note that I am not contracted to medical aid schemes.

we must talk about it. always.

I am a Change Facilitator and Inspirational Speaker. I believe in the inherent ability for anyone to change. My mantra is that that there is hope, always.

You can view my corporate workshops, available through Speakers Inc.

I obtained my Postgraduate Diploma (with Honours) from UCT in 2019 and am an Honorary staff member at the University of the Witwatersrand, where I am a consultant to the Family Medicine Centre. I also conduct lectures and supervise medical students in the Family Medicine faculty.

I am an addictions and general counsellor, and have worked together with adults and adolescents to help them overcome drug and alcohol dependence, eating disorders, sex, gambling and other self-defeating behaviours for the past 12 years. I work with family members affected by addiction too, as no lives are ever left untouched by the illness.