Umesh Bawa is a clinical psychologist and senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. He also serves as a senior team member on key community-engaged research projects led by the University of South Africa‟s Institute for Social and Health Sciences. He has worked in the fields of violence rehabilitation, trauma and human rights in South Africa, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Chile. He has served on the Council for the International Society for Health and Human Rights. He is chair of the Ethics Committee of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), the national psychology association in South Africa. His research, training and clinical interests are in the areas of the psychological effects of violence on children, trauma counselling, the re-integration of ex-combatants and child soldiers in post-conflict countries, and safety and peace promotion. Until recently, Umesh waas the Director of the Children for Tomorrow- South Africa. The project provides free psychological services for children traumatised by violence in impoverished communities in the Western Cape. His research and training interests include, the psychological effects of violence on children, trauma counselling, the re-integration of ex-combatants and child soldiers in post-conflict countries, and safety and peace promotion.
Structure as a Pathway to Connection: The Imago Dialogue as Relational Practice