I am a registered clinical psychologist and have been practicing in Cape Town for more than 10 years. I have also served as a member of the Council of the Psychological Society of South Africa in the capacity of Chair of its Division of Health and Sport Psychology. In my previous career I was Chair and Managing Director of one of the BP Group of Companies.

As Chair of COCHASA and a member of its national executive since its foundation, I have had full opportunity to observe the arrival in South Africa of a number of new modalities of healing and therapy and of their development into fully acknowledged professions. In the light of my experience, my view of Psychophonetics, which has been developed by Mr Tagar, is that it offers a valuable contribution to the range of healing modalities available to the South African public. Mr Tagar is an exceptional individual in every sense of the word and building on his extensive education and training in social sciences and the arts, Psychophonetics has become a field which continues to expand internationally. It comprises a form of counselling and therapy involving the use of sense, gesture, sounds and visualisation to promote emotional healing. While these techniques are frequently used by psychotherapists, the spiritual principles of Psychophonetics (as practised and taught by Mr Tagar) resonate deeply with traditional African practices in a particularly effective manner that is substantially different to normative Western practices.

The wealth of publications and presentations under Mr Tagar’s name is testimony to his internationally professionally recognised expertise and I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that Mr Tagar possesses exceptional skills in the field of personal development, executive and organisational coaching using Psychophonetics. I have personally witnessed Mr Tagar’s clinical work demonstrated on clients in Cape Town and found it showing speedy and effective benefit. I have also attended as part of a final examination panel for the graduation of a leading medical practitioner who has completed the three-year professional course in Psychophonetics offered by Mr Tagar. I found the case presentation on a complicated psycho-somatic topic most convincing, and a powerful demonstration of Mr Tagar’s ability as a methodology developer, teacher, trainer and supervisor in this field.

I take this opportunity of wishing him every success in his future endeavors.

Ian Gillespie

• Chair COCHASA (Confederation of Complementary Health Associations of South Africa);
• Member of the National Executive of Action on Elder Abuse;
• Member of the National Executive of the Joint Forum for Policy on Ageing; Life Member Economic Society of South Africa;
• Life Member Psychological Society of South Africa;
• South African Sport Merit Award for Coaching