SGD Webinar: Promoting Positive Masculinities as a strategy to end sexual and gender-based violence against girls and women
Hosted by the PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division
Webinar Details:
- Date: Tuesday, 8th September 2026
- Time: 18:00 – 20:00
- 2 General CPD Point
- Platform: Online via Zoom
Promoting Positive Masculinities as a strategy to end sexual and gender-based violence against girls and women.
This webinar is intended for mental health professionals who:
- Psychologists and mental health practitioners interested in preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
- Counsellors, social workers, and community-based practitioners working with adolescents, young adults, families, and communities.
- Researchers and academics engaged in gender studies, masculinities, youth development, social justice, and violence prevention.
- Students and early-career professionals in psychology, social work, public health, and related fields.
- Educators, programme developers, and NGO practitioners involved in youth and community interventions.
- Anyone interested in understanding how masculinities, hetero-cis-patriarchy, and gender norms contribute to SGBV and how positive masculinities can be promoted as a preventative strategy.
About the Workshop:
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) remains one of the most urgent social and public health challenges facing South Africa. Deeply rooted in unequal power relations, harmful gender norms, and rigid constructions of masculinity, SGBV continues to have devastating consequences for women, girls, families, and communities. Addressing this challenge requires not only responding to violence but also transforming the social and cultural conditions that enable it.
This workshop explores the role of positive masculinities as a powerful and evidence-informed strategy for preventing and reducing SGBV. Through an intersectional lens, participants will examine how masculinities are shaped by gender, culture, history, socio-economic realities, and lived experience, and how these factors influence attitudes, behaviours, and relationships.
Drawing on community-based programmes with adolescent boys and young men, the workshop will showcase practical approaches that encourage critical engagement with traditional gender norms, foster healthy and respectful relationships, and support more equitable expressions of masculinity. Particular attention will be given to the South African context, highlighting culturally relevant understandings of masculinity that move beyond dominant Western paradigms and recognise the diversity of local experiences.
Participants will also explore the role of psychologists, mental health practitioners, educators, researchers, and community practitioners in promoting positive masculinities and advancing violence prevention efforts. The workshop aims to provide both conceptual insights and practical tools that can inform professional practice, programme development, advocacy, research, and community engagement.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have a deeper understanding of the relationship between masculinities and SGBV, greater awareness of gender-transformative approaches to prevention, and practical strategies for contributing to safer, more inclusive, and more equitable communities.
About the Presenters:
Dr Angeline Stephens
Facilitator
Angeline Stephens, is the PsySSA Chair of the Sexuality and Gender Division. She is a mental health practitioner in private practice, after having worked in student mental health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal for 13 years. She works within a critical, feminist, decolonial framework that recognises the intersections and interconnectedness between person and historical, political, social, cultural and economic contexts. She has extensive experience within the therapeutic context in the areas of trauma, violence, and healing. Her research interests centre around qualitative methodologies that explore social citizenship in the South African context. She is particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, and sexual identities among marginalised people and how these intersections play out in experiences of social citizenship. She has a PhD in Psychology from UCT.
Pierre Brouard
Facilitator
Pierre is a Clinical Psychologist and a Research Associate of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G) at the University of Pretoria (UP) where he worked for 25 years. At UP he is also an Extraordinary Lecturer of the Centre for Human Rights. He sits on the Executive of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa and is a Board member of the Professional Association for Transgender Health South Africa. His interests and work include sexualities, gender, human rights, transformation, diversity and social justice.
Dr Sakhile Msweli
Presenter
Dr Sakhile Msweli is a Clinical Psychologist, researcher, and author with a PhD in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He works in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Ngwelezana Tertiary Hospital and is the founder of a private psychological practice, where he provides psychotherapy to adolescents and adults.
His clinical, research, and advocacy work focuses on sexual and gender diversity, LGBTQIA+ mental health, gender-affirming healthcare, and culturally responsive psychological care in African contexts. He is a member of the Sexuality and Gender Division (SGD) of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and is part of the African LGBTQIA+ Human Rights Project. Contributing to several national initiatives advancing affirming mental healthcare and human rights. He is also serving as a Founding Board Member of the Professional Association for Transgender Health South Africa (PATHSA).
Dr Msweli is also an award-winning poet and author whose creative work explores identity, trauma, healing, grief, and African futures. Across his academic, clinical, and literary work, he is committed to fostering compassionate dialogue, challenging stigma, and promoting more inclusive understandings of what it means to be human.
Ms Shelley Barnsley
Presenter
Shelley Barnsley is the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science Manager for Student Support Services at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In addition, she is registered as a Counselling Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as an independent practitioner. She has 35 years of experience working as a Counselling Psychologist and in various management positions at UKZN.
Her interests lie in student wellness and in fostering personal and professional growth and improving productivity in individuals and organisations. She has facilitated a large number of workshops for students, staff and organisations on topics such as interpersonal communication skills, improving motivation and productivity, gender-based violence, managing change and stress, conflict resolution, helping skills, crisis intervention, mental health awareness, career decision making and making your willpower work for you.
Ms Barnsley has presented her work at a number of National and International conferences and has published some articles and book chapters on issues related to higher education including risk factors for student attrition, student food insecurity, the process of choosing a career and providing access to higher education.
Ms Barnsley has experience in career assessments and has a small private practice offering individual and couple psychotherapy and leadership development and training.
Mr Sanele Zuma
Presenter
Mr. Sanele Zuma is a Student Development Officer in Student Support Services at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He has more than a decade of experience in student development and the facilitation of training programmes for organizations and community groups both within and beyond the university.
His work focuses on equipping students with the academic, career, and psychosocial competencies needed to thrive during their university journey and in their future professional and personal lives. Mr. Zuma also serves as Chairperson of the UKZN Men of Virtue(MOV) programme, a male-led initiative dedicated to addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and promoting gender equality through advocacy, education, and psychoeducational interventions which are primarily targeting men.
He has facilitated numerous SGBV awareness and prevention programmes across higher education institutions, schools, government departments, e.g., the Department of Correctional Services, community organizations, and professional conferences. Passionate about the holistic development of young people, Mr. Zuma is committed to empowering individuals to become responsible leaders and agents of positive social change.
Sheri Errington
Presenter
Sheri is a Research Psychologist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is passionate about strengthening programmes and services that improve the lives of children and young people, specialising in child and youth development, and monitoring and evaluation for non-profit organisations. Registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa since 2005, she holds a Master’s Degree in Research Psychology from Wits University and serves as a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development in Africa.
Sheri is the founder of Social Perspectives, a research consultancy providing research, monitoring, and evaluation solutions to non-profit organisations working with children and young people. She is also a Director of Fight with Insight, an open-access boxing gym for inner-city children. There, she coaches boxing, leads operations, research, monitoring and evaluation, youth leadership programmes and fundraising.
Across all of her work, Sheri believes that genuine relationships and integrated evidence-based programmes are essential to individual and community development.
Luke Lamprecht
Presenter