Rev. Roux Malan
Specialist Counselor, Unitarian Minister & Lay Zen Teacher
I served in the human services related field for almost 30 years. After completing a Master’s Degree in Clinical Pastoral Care (480 hours of Pastoral Counselling and 180 hours of Supervision) at Stellenbosch University I was ordained as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and served the DRC in Still Bay for 10 years.
During this period, I became the go-to person to lead a yearly weekend retreat for my colleagues. These retreats were based on mindfulness and contemplative practices developed in the Christian tradition of the Taize Community in France as well as Centering Prayer developed by Father Thomas Keating in Snowmass, Colorado.
After serving the Dutch Reformed Church I was trained as a minister of the Unitarian Church in Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK). Today I am still a minister in good standing with the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in the UK.
After my training in the UK I was ordained as the minister of the Cape Town Unitarian Church and served them as minister for 10 years. After stepping down as the lead minister I became their Community Minister. I still serve the community in this capacity today.
While serving the Unitarian Church I received mindfulness and meditation training in the Zen Buddhist tradition via a satellite group of the Dharma Centre in Roberston. I practiced weekly with this group in Rondebosch for more than a year. In addition to weekly practice I did a two-day Zen retreat with the Dharma Centre in Robertson.
While attending an international event of Unitarians in the Philippines I also attended a two-day Christian Zen Retreat in mindfulness and meditation at the Zen Centre Philippines.
After stepping down as lead minister at Cape Town Unitarian Church I ran a private practice as a Specialist Counselor in Muizenberg. I assisted my clients to face work stress, relationship issues, depression, and addiction by means of mindfulness practices as well as the Human Givens approach developed in the UK.
In the past 20 years I have read numerous books on mindfulness and meditation including the classic reference book for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Training called “Full Catastrophe Living: Using The Wisdom of The Body and Mind to face Stress, Pain, and Illness” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jon Kabat-Zinn was one of the founders of secular mindfulness training that borrowed from the Buddhist tradition in which is mindfulness was first developed. He brought the practice into the academic and scientific sphere to assist Westerners to develop a new way to approaching stress-related psychological and physical illnesses successfully.
I can truly say I was trained in classical mindfulness, meditative and contemplative practices before it became fashionable.
I served the Cape Town Unitarian Community for the past 12 years.
I have two daughters. One is an environmental consultant and the other an English teacher at a high school.
My partner, Rachel and I have been together for 11 years. We enjoy cooking together and working in our garden.
I am an avid reader and I love swimming in the ocean.