About Us

Deborah obtained her Bachelor of Social Science in 1979, a Bachelor of Arts Honours in 1986 and her Masters in Industrial and Organisational Psychology in 1989, all from the University of Cape Town. She has been registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as an Industrial Psychologist since August 1990, in addition to being a member of the Society for Industrial / Organizational Psychologists of South Africa (SIOPSA).

Deborah has been providing medico-legal services for both, Claimant and Plaintiff cases, since 2002 and founded Deborah Atkins & Associates Inc. in 2009. She has established herself as an earnings expert witness (Industrial Psychologist) providing forensic work / earning assessments. This includes, but is not limited to personal injury / accident (Road Accident Fund claims), medical malpractice, public liability and justice department, as well as divorce and maintenance claims. Furthermore, Deborah has testified on numerous occasions in The High Court of South Africa.

Previously, she established and for 20 years, ran her own specialist management and recruitment company, called Debron Recruitment Consultants (Pty) Ltd until she franchised it out in 2010. Deborah’s first 10 years’ working experience was in Human Resources, where she worked for both national and international companies in senior management and consulting positions.

This background gives her the perfect, practical experience to understand the world of work across all disciplines and she uses this expertise to evaluate loss of earnings claims.

Ashleigh handles all the administration and logistics for the practice, as well as assisting Deborah with assessments, research, collateral and report writing.

She obtained her Bachelor’s of Applied Social Sciences and Bachelors of Social Sciences Honours in Psychology (cum laude) majoring in Psychological in April 2018 and June 2020 respectively. Both qualifications were obtained from The South African College of Applied Psychology, majoring in psychological counselling. Ashleigh passed the HPCSA board exam in February 2020 with distinction.

Ashleigh has a passion to facilitate internal shifts and assist people to reach their goals by using their inner resources. She believes that there is always a place for counselling and utilizes her skills in this regard on a daily basis with clients. She is currently practicing in the medico-legal field with a keen interest and view to ultimately operate as an expert in this capacity.

Prior to joining Deborah Atkins & Associates, she was responsible for all counselling services at Table View Primary School, with a compliment of approximately 2000 learners. Working under the School Counsellor, she managed in excess of ±50 cases, liaising directly with the Western Cape Social Development Department. This included psychological counselling, crisis interventions, school-based support team meetings, running of workshops and specialized psychometric testing (career, interests, scholastic and aptitude).