I write this letter in my capacity as Head of the Department of Psychology of the University of Limpopo and as President of the World Council of Psychotherapy – African Chapter (WCP-AC), in support of the work permit application of Mr Yehuda Tagar (born on 31 May 1953), a national of Australia. I am therefore competent to issue this letter.

Mr Tagar is an exceptional individual in every sense of the word. Building on an extensive education and training in social sciences, the humanities and the arts, Mr Tagar developed the field of Psychophonetics, a field which continues to expand its extremely beneficial applications both locally and in international terms. Psychophonetics is a form of personal, executive and corporate coaching, counselling and therapy that involves the use of sense, gesture, sounds and visualisation to promote emotional self awareness, maximising the use of personal resources, stress management and healing. While visualisation and sense-therapy are techniques 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.

For the past 15 years Mr Tagar has been closely associated with Persephone College of Philophonetics International, the last three years of which he has been employed as Principal and lecturer at Persephone College in South Africa. He has been a highly appreciated contributor to leading conferences of psychology academics in this country which I attended: South African Association of Psychotherapy conference at Rhodes University in 2001 and 2003, where he introduced his powerful methodology of recovery from sexual abuse and his work on “Metaphors as reality for the Life Body”. At my invitation he was a presenter at the 4th International Conference of the African Chapter of the World Council of Psychotherapy at Polokwane. Together with Professor Stan Lifschitz of the University of South Africa and Dr Corinne Oosthuizen of the University of Johannesburg he presented a successful workshop on rituals of healing to participants from universities of various African countries. Mr Tagar has published a much appreciated chapter on “Psychophonetics in South Africa” at my book “CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOTHERAPY IN AFRICA” (Madu, S. N. (ed.) (2003). Contributions to psychotherapy in Africa (pp. 91-118). Polokwane (Pietersburg): UNIN Press.). All these are but initial indicators of his potential future contribution to this country.

The great wealth of publications and presentations under Mr Tagar’s name is a testimony to his internationally professionally recognised expertise and I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that Mr Tagar possesses exceptional and extraordinary skills in the field of personal development, executive and organizational coaching using Psychophonetics. It is my understanding that Mr Tagar desires to continue to employ his skills and experience in South Africa. In my opinion his skills in this field will undoubtedly be of benefit to the South African environment in which he intends sojourning.

I was very fascinated by the method. More so, the method is not culture-bound. My impression is that it has the potential of making a significant contribution in the treatment of abused and traumatized person not only in South Africa, but also in the whole of Africa.