JC is a graduate from the Bsc Psychology (Hons) course in York, England and has got 2 year experience working as a rehabilitation assistant in a Neurological rehabilitation centre. In a job that showed him the different behavioural and cognitive problems one could exhibit due to neurological damage, he also learnt the importance of being able to communicate and display empathy to connect with the patients. It was there when he started to appreciate the need for more practical skills to go with his neuroscience centred degree. By working at SHIELD, he hopes to learn as much as he can before he embarks on a master’s in clinical psychology. 

Ivy received her Master’s in Counselling Psychology with emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) from the University of San Francisco in California and completed her undergraduate degree in International Relations from San Francisco State University. Following the completion of her Masters, Ivy worked in a non-profit community based health service centre in San Francisco to provide comprehensive behavioural health services to adolescents, at-risk youth and low income families where she conducted individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, and case management services. She also served as a youth advocate and coordinated with probation officers under the Intensive Home Based Supervision Program and conducted early periodic screening, diagnostic and treatment for children under the age of 21. Since returning back to Malaysia in 2012, Ivy was also the acting head and clinical consultant of Shine Guidance Centre where she oversaw centre operations.

As a Counselling Psychologist, her scope of expertise extends to providing counselling support, psychotherapy and behaviour intervention to adolescents and family living with relationship difficulties, social and emotional issues and psychological disorders. She is also fluent in Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, and some Fujian dialect. Ivy is a Registered and Licensed Counsellor in Malaysia and an Associate Member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapist (CAMFT), and a Member of the International Family Therapy Association (IFTA). Ivy enjoys traveling and reading during her free time. Traveling provides an opportunity for her to cultivate mindfulness, a time for reflection, relaxation and introspection. She enjoys new experiences and gaining new perspectives.

Athena is currently doing her Master’s research which related to biological and psychological birth order, personality, self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Currently, Feni is working on her dissertation/research which focuses on the use of computer or technology in helping the children with ASD on their respective areas of difficulties.

Callie is interested in REBT, Reality Therapy, Person-Centred Therapy, Mindfulness Therapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy. She is fluent in English and Malay and hopes to improve on her Mandarin and Cantonese to reach out to a wider range of clients.

Her main area of interest is in chronic pain management and she completed her clinical attachment with the Pain Research Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia in 2009. She has been appointed as a Visiting Consultant Psychologist in Hospital Selayang since 2006 and works closely with the Pain Management Team in Hospital Selayang. Her tasks are mainly conducting psychological assessment on chronic pain patients and conducting Pain Management Program – MENANG (an abbreviation of Program MENANGani Sakit), a self-help, psycho-educational, group-based program, using Cognitive Behavioural principles in helping the patients to cope and manage their pain in a more holistic and effective manner, addressing important issues such as depression, anxiety, cognitive distortions, self-image, and interpersonal relationship with others.

She has been invited to speak on chronic painin Asian countries in various local and international conferences and on education of pain management from non-pharmacological perspective to other allied health professionals in Malaysia. She was involved in the development of the Malaysian Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for Cancer Pain. Since 2007, she has been appointed as one of the faculty members in the multidisciplinary field of Pain Medicine by the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines, who, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, has started to offer postgraduate degrees in Pain Management for candidates in the ASEAN region. She was awarded an IASP Education Program Grant in 2011 under the Initiative for Improving Pain Education in developing countries. In this project, she worked with other pain specialists to improve pain education in Malaysia specifically at the primary care level.

Dr. Ng was previously an associate professor and head of the Health Psychology Programme at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia where he served for 11 years since 2002 running the Master of Clinical Psychology Programme. At UKM, he also practised as a clinical psychologist the Health Psychology Clinic seeing adult as well as children clients. Dr. Ng was also the Director of Shine Guidance Centre in 2012, where he oversaw centre operations and was a clinical consultant for families living with special needs.

His research interests include cross-cultural factors in psychotherapy and mental illness, psychometric measurements of mental illness in Malaysia, cognitive behavioural methods in weight management and behavioural fluency training in basic academic skills. He has published in journals, magazines and presented in numerous conferences, seminars, trainings and public talks. Dr. Ng has also published a book called “Teaching Children Handling Study Stress” (TC Publishing, 2004).

Besides academia and clinical practice, Dr. Ng is instrumental in advancing the field of clinical psychology in Malaysia, and was the Founding President of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology that he helped establish in 2010.

For over 15 years, Thomas has been teaching and supervising Post Graduate and Phd candidates at world class universities and having a background in Philosophy as well as Psychology, Thomas is well equipped to assist young people find their inner strengths and work with them to change lives.

During her training years, she was placed in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health in Penang General Hospital and the Unit of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Her Master research area was looking into the psychosocial factors and borderline personality disorder in relation to self-harming in prisoners. Currently, she is in the process of submitting her PhD proposal on the effects of intervention on self-harming among the prison population.

One of the reasons to study self-harm behavior is to prevent future self-harm behaviors, which might lead to suicide attempts later on (Salleh, Osman & Maniam, 2005). Although self-harming studies have been growing throughout the years, its particular focus is mainly with adolescents or the psychiatric population. However, studies have shown that inmates are four times more likely to engage in this socially unacceptable behavior (Hawton, 2013). This is why Arina has decided to focus on the prison population, and hopefully be able to shed some light in identifying certain risks and protective factors associated with self-harm behaviors, especially with the Malaysian prison population. Psychotherapy, mainly dialectical behavior therapy is crucial in helping this population reduce this behavior.

Hui Ling sees life as a fluid state, with a series of changes and uncertainty. She uses Person-Centered Theory and Existential Theory in counselling session to assist client search meaning in life and increase resilience for client to handle issues independently. During free time, Hui Ling enjoys reading, swimming, and rock climbing.

Wuing has interest in positive psychology, especially mindfulness and gratitude in psychological intervention. She would apply different established psychotherapy approaches that tailored to meet the demand of the clients to provide constructive and reliable services to facilitate the person’s growth. Besides, she is interested in community mental health awareness program and talk to contribute for society’s psychological welfare and building community resiliency.

Currently, Ellie is also researching her Masters’ thesis in Mindfulness-Based Intervention program, targeting on the issue of mindless eating/emotional eating among Malaysians.

Shawn has been trained in the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and clinical hypnosis for depression, anxiety, and pain. He has been trained in conducting individual and group CBT for patients with chronic pain. Shawn has also received the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) approved training in hypnosis and has been registered as a student affiliate member with the society (member ID: 25812).

She is a keen practitioner of mindfulness based therapy and is a co-trainer for Mindful-Gym – a localised version of Mindfulness based stress reduction program since 2012. Her focus is in training adolescents in mindfulness and has recently obtained a certification from Mindfulness-in-school Projects, United Kingdom to teach mindfulness to adolescents. She has developed a mindfulness camp for adolescents which was piloted in 2014.

Nanthenni is currently working with Assessment Centre Technologies (ACT) in 2013 as the Psychologist of ACT, Malaysia. Assessment Centre Technologies is a leading provider of integrated assessment centre based solutions that substantially improves the sustainable performance of individuals and teams in any organisation.

Apart from her primary roles as psychologist and program coordinator, Ms. Nanthenni lends her extensive experience in utilizing psychological assessment especially in non-profit and public sector settings. She has expertise as a professional, classroom instructor and group facilitator. She has also been an invited speaker and facilitator for numerous conferences and forums within the healthcare and mental health community.

Nanthenni believes firmly that it is through learning that we have the power to change how we view ourselves in relation to our environment. Her knowledge enables people to embrace the suite of assessments, interpretation, application and providing effective pointer within their businesses for application in all areas of the HR lifecycle.

She is also a multi-skilled clinical with extensive experience in both occupational therapy and clinical psychology. She is currently pursuing PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Santo Tomas, Phillipines. Her research focuses on The Philippine Implementation Model of a Multidisciplinary Pain Management Program for Filipino patients with chronic pain.

During her training years, she was placed in the Department of Psychiatry of Univesiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) and Clinical Training Centre of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM). These training had exposed her clinical experience with adult clients in cases ranging from depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and others.

Evon also speaks a few languages and dialects- Malay, Mandarin, English, Cantonese, and Hokkien language which ease the communication with client from diverse background. Her area of interest includes autism, psychometric testing, and promotes mental health awareness.

Coming from rehabilitation background, she recognizes the importance of considering the interaction of individuals with their environmental systems (as stated in Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-Ecological System Theory) to understand individuals better and helping them to improve their overall functioning. She also recognizes the importance of strength-focused, in which she guides clients to restore, compensate or substitute their weaknesses by using their strengths and good qualities. Her attributes of being respectful and supportive guide her to connect easily with individuals from various background.

Besides reducing psychological symptoms and improving daily functioning, Xiang Yi has interest on intervention that aims to improve self-esteem of different population by adopting various psychological approaches and techniques. In addition, she also has interest in expressive therapy (such as sandtray therapy) and third wave cognitive behavioural therapy (such as acceptance & commitment therapy and mindfulness).

Prior to her training as a clinical psychologist, Lily has experience in managing a learning centre for children where she discovered her passion in working with children with special needs. She was previously trained and qualified as an accountant. Lily is currently freelancing at a private centre and at a non-governmental organization.

She is especially interested in working with teenagers and young adults, as she was previously working as a lecturer. She is also concerned about women and refugee issues and rights in Malaysia. Sophia interacts with her clients using the Person-Centered and the Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy approaches, and she also explores her client’s issues using a wide range of therapeutic techniques such as art therapy, music therapy, and so on.

Monica is the mother of two young adults and has experienced the challenges as well as the joys of living as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, colleague and friend. She recognizes that life is not always easy but that doesn’t mean that it cannot be happy and fulfilling; and that while choices are sometimes hard to make, they are there for the making to enable us to journey on stronger, with greater joy and meaning.

Lavender is a strong advocate for the de-stigmatization of therapy, as she believes that mental health is the key to quality of life, and getting help should never be a cause for shame. She will be pursuing her Masters in Clinical Psychology in order to better support individuals of all ages in working through various mental and emotional difficulties.

Audrey cites her mother; a trained special education needs teacher as her inspiration for cultivating the need to give back to society. Having said that, being a member of the society in the 21st century, one of the most common yet least talked about health issue is mental health. With the increased pressure of coping with daily life and responsibilities, many fall into the hole of anxiety, stress, panic attacks, depression and an overall reduced psychological well-being.

Deep down, Audrey believes that with the extensive reach in social media outlets, society will slowly come to realise not only the importance of good mental health but to also aid others who possibly have symptoms of declining mental health. It is her life goal to change the mind-set of society to not only help themselves, but to help others as well.