I have worked with clients in and from many parts of the world (see *list at the bottom) since 2000, in medical, university, corporate, non-profit, and private practice settings. I see my role as one where I help clients move towards relational and emotional well being, where they can function with honest and healthy self-determination.
Although I am able to work with a wide variety of people, I tend to focus my work with senior corporate executives, business-owners, professionals (medical, legal, financial), and organisational leaders as well as their family members. I specialise in issues related to marital infidelity, family conflict (especially in family businesses), cross-cultural challenges, expat family adjustments, leadership stress, anger management, performance anxieties, childhood abuse, addictions, trauma, and sexual compulsivity. I also specialise in helping men in their 40s-50s work through challenges related to mid-life transitions.
Clinically, I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Minnesota license #2053) and Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. I adhere to the ethical standards of the Minnesota Board of MFT as well as the American Association of MFT to ensure that you receive the best care possible. In addition to my qualifications in marriage and family therapy, I have received accredited training in some of the best research-supported treatments, namely: EFCT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy), PREP (Preventative and Relationship Enhancement Program), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), and Brainspotting. In addition, I have received training in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual addiction under Dr. Mark Laaser, expert and author on sex addiction. To keep my clinical knowledge up-to-date, I partake in continuing education as required by my American credentialing bodies.
At Rekindle, all my clients begin with a comprehensive 100-minute intake assessment, after which I will give some feedback to them and we ascertain the goals for therapy. I work collaboratively with my clients to help them build up their capacity towards healing and growth. I listen carefully to what is going on for them, and I help them to uncover areas that might be causing blockages to insight. Often, my clients receive deep understanding about themselves through our work by looking at the patterns or habits that have been developed since childhood. For couples and families, I help them towards greater understanding and acceptance of each other through deep listening, both to themselves and to each other. Partners and members shift in expectations and perceptions of each other from angry/blaming to loving/accepting by going deep into self- and relationship- understanding.
My systemic work with families have also been applied to companies and organisations to help teams work more effectively together. Through our Employee Assistance Programme, I offer workshops to Institutional clients for their employees and leadership teams on: mental wellness, managing stress, effective communication and other customised topics. In 2018, I received credentialing as a Certified Forum Facilitator for the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), and I provide training and forum facilitation for YPO members around Asia and the Middle East. Although I am no longer taking in new therapy clients, I may be open to helping business-owning families with troubled family relationships on a case-by-case basis. As a second-generation member of a four-generation family business, I know how difficult it can be to access experienced and qualified professionals to help with family relationships, and so I remain open to providing private sessions with family businesses.
I have two undergraduate degrees (BFA in Music, York University; BA in Psychology, McGill University), two master’s degrees (MBA, Cambridge University; MTS in Counselling, Tyndale Seminary), and a PhD in Family Social Science, specialising in MFT. For my PhD dissertation, I constructed a theory of Malaysian Chinese family-owned businesses, and it can be accessed here. I have managed small businesses, worked in medium private and large public-listed corporations, served in ministry positions, and lectured in universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels teaching family business management as well as marriage and family therapy.
I am of Malaysian Chinese origin and my wife is a caucasian Westerner. We have gone through the loss of one child and our other child is an adult in college. I have travelled to more than 40 countries around the world, and I am very comfortable working with people from different cultural backgrounds. I am able to converse in intermediate level Mandarin and Hokkien (Penang), and to a lesser extent, basic level Bahasa Malaysia and French, but I currently only conduct therapy in English.
My community work includes serving on the board of the Malaysian Marriage and Family Therapy Association (MyMFT), a professional non-profit association for which I was the founding president in 2016; my recent appointment as a member of the ethics committee for the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology; and from 2010 until 2017, I held a regularly monthly radio show on BFM radio, where I spoke on different topics related to family and mental health (click here to listen to an archive of podcasts). To see my updated CV and past research publications, go to my LinkedIn page.
I have worked with clients in and from many parts of the world (see *list at the bottom) since 2000, in medical, university, corporate, non-profit, and private practice settings. I see my role as one where I help clients move towards relational and emotional well being, where they can function with honest and healthy self-determination.
Although I am able to work with a wide variety of people, I tend to focus my work with senior corporate executives, business-owners, professionals (medical, legal, financial), and organisational leaders as well as their family members. I specialise in issues related to marital infidelity, family conflict (especially in family businesses), cross-cultural challenges, expat family adjustments, leadership stress, anger management, performance anxieties, childhood abuse, addictions, trauma, and sexual compulsivity. I also specialise in helping men in their 40s-50s work through challenges related to mid-life transitions.
Clinically, I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Minnesota license #2053) and Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. I adhere to the ethical standards of the Minnesota Board of MFT as well as the American Association of MFT to ensure that you receive the best care possible. In addition to my qualifications in marriage and family therapy, I have received accredited training in some of the best research-supported treatments, namely: EFCT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy), PREP (Preventative and Relationship Enhancement Program), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), and Brainspotting. In addition, I have received training in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual addiction under Dr. Mark Laaser, expert and author on sex addiction. To keep my clinical knowledge up-to-date, I partake in continuing education as required by my American credentialing bodies.
At Rekindle, all my clients begin with a comprehensive 100-minute intake assessment, after which I will give some feedback to them and we ascertain the goals for therapy. I work collaboratively with my clients to help them build up their capacity towards healing and growth. I listen carefully to what is going on for them, and I help them to uncover areas that might be causing blockages to insight. Often, my clients receive deep understanding about themselves through our work by looking at the patterns or habits that have been developed since childhood. For couples and families, I help them towards greater understanding and acceptance of each other through deep listening, both to themselves and to each other. Partners and members shift in expectations and perceptions of each other from angry/blaming to loving/accepting by going deep into self- and relationship- understanding.
My systemic work with families have also been applied to companies and organisations to help teams work more effectively together. Through our Employee Assistance Programme, I offer workshops to Institutional clients for their employees and leadership teams on: mental wellness, managing stress, effective communication and other customised topics. In 2018, I received credentialing as a Certified Forum Facilitator for the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), and I provide training and forum facilitation for YPO members around Asia and the Middle East. Although I am no longer taking in new therapy clients, I may be open to helping business-owning families with troubled family relationships on a case-by-case basis. As a second-generation member of a four-generation family business, I know how difficult it can be to access experienced and qualified professionals to help with family relationships, and so I remain open to providing private sessions with family businesses.
I have two undergraduate degrees (BFA in Music, York University; BA in Psychology, McGill University), two master’s degrees (MBA, Cambridge University; MTS in Counselling, Tyndale Seminary), and a PhD in Family Social Science, specialising in MFT. For my PhD dissertation, I constructed a theory of Malaysian Chinese family-owned businesses, and it can be accessed here. I have managed small businesses, worked in medium private and large public-listed corporations, served in ministry positions, and lectured in universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels teaching family business management as well as marriage and family therapy.
I am of Malaysian Chinese origin and my wife is a caucasian Westerner. We have gone through the loss of one child and our other child is an adult in college. I have travelled to more than 40 countries around the world, and I am very comfortable working with people from different cultural backgrounds. I am able to converse in intermediate level Mandarin and Hokkien (Penang), and to a lesser extent, basic level Bahasa Malaysia and French, but I currently only conduct therapy in English.
My community work includes serving on the board of the Malaysian Marriage and Family Therapy Association (MyMFT), a professional non-profit association for which I was the founding president in 2016; my recent appointment as a member of the ethics committee for the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology; and from 2010 until 2017, I held a regularly monthly radio show on BFM radio, where I spoke on different topics related to family and mental health (click here to listen to an archive of podcasts). To see my updated CV and past research publications, go to my LinkedIn page.
