Gaslighting: Helping your Client Survive Hidden Manipulation

Professor Tanya Robinson is a forensic mental health social worker specialising in forensic mental health, complex mental health presentations, trauma, and legal systems.

She has over 25 years of experience working with children, adults, and families presenting with complex mental health difficulties, trauma histories, and involvement in forensic and legal contexts. Her work is grounded in a biopsychosocial-legal framework, integrating clinical practice with an understanding of how mental health presentations interact with legal processes.

Professor Robinson holds four doctoral degrees in Social Work and Criminal Justice, with her academic work focusing on forensic assessment, trauma, and the role of expert evidence in legal proceedings. This foundation informs her work in providing independent, evidence-based opinions in complex matters requiring clinical insight that is both therapeutically informed and legally robust.

She has specialised expertise in psychotraumatology and victimology, working with individuals who present with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD (CPTSD), intergenerational trauma, and the long-term impacts of abuse, violence, and systemic adversity. She also maintains a special interest in neuroscience, trauma, and mental health, particularly in understanding how trauma affects brain development, emotional regulation, and behaviour across the lifespan.

Her clinical approach recognises trauma as a multilayered and enduring experience, influencing emotional regulation, identity, relational functioning, and neurobiological development across the lifespan.

Her work includes biopsychosocial-legal assessments and expert testimony across family and criminal jurisdictions, particularly in cases involving trauma, abuse, domestic violence, and high-conflict dynamics. She is regularly engaged in matters requiring careful differentiation between clinical presentation, contextual factors, and evidentiary considerations.

Professor Robinson has worked extensively in challenging and high-risk environments, including courts, justice systems, and custodial settings. Her experience includes work within African prison environments, gang-affected communities, and international contexts characterised by violence and systemic adversity, as well as engagement in commercial sex industry settings and involvement in high-profile sexual offence matters, including cases involving femicide and filicide. These experiences have informed a practice grounded in resilience, adaptability, and the capacity to engage with complex human behaviour under pressure, while maintaining professional objectivity and clinical integrity.

Clinically, she works across children and adult mental health presentations, including anxiety, depression, attachment disturbances, personality vulnerabilities, dissociation, and neurodivergence. Her therapeutic work integrates Schema Therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, EMDR, and trauma-informed practice, tailored to the complexity of each individual presentation.

A key focus of her work is the impact of intergenerational trauma, where patterns of distress, attachment disruption, and coping responses are transmitted across family systems. Her approach considers both the individual experience of trauma and the broader systemic context in which it develops and is maintained.

Professor Robinson's practice reflects a consistent focus on structured assessment, clinical clarity, and careful formulation, ensuring that her work remains both clinically sound and appropriate within forensic and legal settings.

What distinguishes her training and professional contribution is the integration of extensive frontline forensic experience with advanced academic scholarship. Her work demonstrates how clinicians can effectively operate across clinical, forensic, and legal environments, applying structured assessment methods, trauma-informed frameworks, and evidence-based approaches in complex and high-risk cases.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Criminal Justice, University of South Africa (2017–2021)
  An explorative study on the importance of credible expert witness testimony in violent crimes against children
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Social Work, University of Cape Town (2012–2015)
  An explorative study of false allegations of child sexual abuse in divorce and custody proceedings
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Social Work, North-West University (2006–2011)
  Development of substantive guidelines for parenting plans (legal instruments and policy)
• Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil), Social Work, Stellenbosch University (2003–2005)
  Critical assessment of experiences and perceptions of couples in unconsummated marriages
• Master's Degree, Social Work
• Bachelor of Arts & Social Work (BA SW) – Double major in Psychology and Sociology
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of South Africa
• Graduate Diploma – Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) – Registered FDR Practitioner (F2003645)
• Accredited Mediator, Mediation Institute – NMAS Member 218
• Postgraduate Certificate – Investigative Interviewing of Children, Griffith University, Australia

Publications

• The Symbol of No Escape (2016)
• The Silenced Child (2015)
• Divorce: What About the Children? (2009)
• The Couple in an Unconsummated Marriage (2010)
• When Sex Turns Sour (2005)
• False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Divorce Proceedings (2016)
• Mental Health and Legal Professionals Structuring Parenting Plans (2012)
• A Christian Ethos in South African Public Schools: The Child's Voice (2017)
• Sexuality and HIV Education – Sexually Related Social Issues (2016)
• Legal Instruments in Structuring Parenting Plans (2011)
• Professional Views of Mental Health and Legal Professionals Relating to the Divorcing Family (2018)
• Parenting Plans Attentive to the Needs of the Divorcing Family (2018)

Academic & Research Positions

• Honorary Fellow, University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Applied Human Sciences (2020)
• Extraordinary Professor, North-West University, Faculty of Health Sciences (2017–present)
• Academic Research Fellow, University of South Africa, Department of Criminal Justice (2016–2019)

Professional Experience & Leadership

• Principal, Practice of Prof Tanya M Robinson (South Australia)
• Forensic Mental Health Consultant, maximum security facilities (South Africa)
• Research Director, gender-based violence projects (Africa)
• Activist, counter-trafficking and human rights initiatives
• Expert Witness in Court proceedings
• Podcast Host, Case Files: The Human Factor (2024–present)
• Ambassador, Teddy Bear Foundation

Clinical Specialties

• Complex trauma treatment (PTSD, CPTSD, developmental trauma)
• Psychodynamic psychotherapy (children and adults)
• Forensic mental health assessments
• Family law assessments and child impact reports
• Sexual abuse and domestic violence intervention
• Human trafficking assessment and recovery
• Victimology and criminal biopsychosocial applications
• Play therapy and EMDR integration

Forensic Expertise

• Court-appointed expert in family and criminal matters
• Biopsychosocial-legal assessments
• International custody case evaluations
• Child witness preparation and protection
• Criminal biopsychosocial consultations
• Expert testimony in complex abuse cases