Our Team

Deborah Atkins obtained her Bachelor of Social Science in 1979, as well as a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1986 and furthermore her M.A (Industrial and Organisational Psychology) in 1989, all from the University of Cape Town.

She has been registered with the HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa), as an Industrial Psychologist, since the 3 August 1990, and in her career to date has over 35 years experience in the Human Resources Management and Industrial Psychology fields. In her early career, Deborah worked as a Human Resources Manager for various major companies in the retail (Woolworths for 8 years), manufacturing and consulting industries. She also established and then managed her own specialist Management Consulting and Recruitment Company, Debron Recruitment Consultants (Pty) Limited from January 1991 until December 2010. The company specialized in the placement of engineering, financial and human resources personnel across a variety of industries including the retail, manufacturing and corporate sectors. Deborah is currently still involved with one of the Debron franchises.

Deborah has been involved in the assessment of personal injury (MVA) claims for the past ten years doing mainly Road Accident Fund (RAF) claims, as well as some claimant work. In addition Deborah is involved in doing assessments for the purposes of personal liability and insurance claims as well as maintenance claims in divorce cases.

She has testified in both The Arbitration Forum, and The High Court of South Africa, on a number of occasions.
In September 2008, Bernadette Furnell, Industrial Psychologist and her former intern, joined forces with her to form an association called Atkins & Furnell Industrial Psychologists specialising in medico / psycho legal work. Together they have established themselves as leading specialists in the psycho-medical field in the Cape Town area and are also recognized at a National level.