Meet Kate Bailey
Occupational Therapist | DIR® Certified Trainer | Profectum Associate Faculty | Founder of Therapy Connect
For more than 36 years, Kate Bailey has worked with children, families and professionals. Kate's approach begins with connection.
Connect. Listen. Co regulate. Scaffold.
Before we can expect a child to learn, we need to understand where they are and join them there. Kate believes that relationships are the key to child development and growth. She supports parents and professionals to create the conditions for development to happen. This philosophy has shaped more than three decades of clinical practice as an occupational therapist working with babies, toddlers and children with developmental differences, sensory and regulatory challenges, neuromotor difficulties and autism.
Kate qualified at University of Cape Town, completed her MSc at The University of the Witwatersrand, and holds advanced diplomas in perception and neuroscience. Kate is proficient in the techniques of Ayers Sensory Integration and Bobath Neurodevelopmental Therapy. She is a member of the the South African Institute of Sensory Integration and the South African Neurodevelopmental Therapy Association. She founded Therapy Connect in George in 2019, following more than 20 years in paediatric private practice in Johannesburg.
Teaching has always been at the heart of Kate's work. She completed the full DIR® certification pathway through Profectum Academy in New Jersey and is an Associate Faculty Member and course facilitator. She has facilitated Profectum training internationally and has been the lead lecturer for DIR® workshops through SPOTlight Trust in South Africa since 2014.
Kate brings the same philosophy into her teaching. She encourages her students to become curious about why.
To look beneath the iceberg.
To understand the individual child.
To recognise the role of relationships in development.
And to think about what we can change in ourselves and in the environment before asking a child to change.
Kate believes that understanding comes before intervention. When we truly know a child, their strengths, their individual differences, their communication and their way of experiencing the world, we are better able to support them.
Kate is now bringing Profectum Certificate Training to South Africa, creating an opportunity for therapists, teachers and professionals to move beyond an introduction to the DIR® model and develop a deeper understanding of it. It is an invitation to keep learning, keep questioning and keep looking differently. Because sometimes the most important shift is not changing what the child is doing. It is changing how we see them. A deep commitment to children, families and the professionals who walk alongside them.
Qualifications
BSc Occupational Therapy, UCT
MSc Occupational Therapy, Wits
Advanced Diploma, Perception, Wits
Advanced Diploma, Neuroscience, Wits
DIR/Floortime Professionals, Fellows and Trainers Certification, Profectum Academy
Associate Faculty Member and Course Facilitator, Profectum Academy
HPCSA Registered Occupational Therapist
Member, SAISI and SANDTA
Trustee and Board Member, SPOTlight Trust South Africa
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Through a DIR lens...
The Power of Relationship
At Connected Learning, our therapeutic approach is rooted in the DIR® model - Developmental, Individual-differences, and Relationship-based. We believe that true growth happens when a child feels safe, seen, and connected. By following your child's lead in a play-based environment, we tap into their natural motivations, helping them build essential social-emotional and functional skills that last a lifetime.
Connect With Us
Phone
+27 (044) 873 4374
info@katebailey.org
Location
28 Cathedral Street
George
Western Cape
SOUTH AFRICA