Lau Choo Ying

Lau Choo Ying is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and Programme Leader at Sunway University, specializing in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). With extensive experience in higher education and clinical settings, she has worked with diverse populations, including individuals with developmental disabilities, older adults with dementia, and special education professionals. Her expertise lies in ABA,  positive behaviour support, curriculum development, and research supervision. A Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA), she is committed to advancing ABA practices through innovative teaching and research.

Alexa Goh Siau Juinn

Associate Professor Dr Ooi Pei Boon

Dr Ooi Pei Boon obtained her PhD in Guidance and Counselling from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Believing passion and integrity to be the keys of success, she focuses on healthcare development, research and leadership programmes locally, regionally and globally. She is trained in using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in her private practice as a counsellor. Dr Ooi is registered and practiticing counsellor with the Board of Counsellors, Malaysia, have equipped her with the essential skills and tools to make this strategic move into holistic healing a reality.

Dr Ooi is often sought to be a speaker for various talks and workshops in the community, having conducted talks and seminars for both schools and companies such as Robert Bosch (M) Penang, Petronas Caligali, Malaysia Board of Counsellor TV, schools and higher education institutions. She is also actively involved in the organising committee of conferences. Her passion has always been about making a difference in an individual’s life. Her previous position as Senior Director of a higher learning institution provided her with an excellent opportunity to assist in impacting on the individual who comes through to her office. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer for the branch campus of this institution, providing strategic directions to a team of 70 staff members to enrich and enhance the students’ experience.

She is also the master trainer licensed to train others in cyberbullying intervention programme in which she has obtained various grants to support this initiative in the Malaysia context.  Dr Ooi was appointed the local organising Chairperson for the Cambridge-Oxford-Sunway Biomedical Symposiums series and the Royal College of Physician London-Cambridge-Sunway Medical Seminars. She acts as the secretariat for the Southeast Asia Leadership Programme (since 2016) and the Leadership in Medicine Programme (since 2019).

Dr Ooi is the principal investigator of the Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), whose focus is on cyberbullying incidents among visually impaired youths in Malaysia and has recently been awarded industrial grants to develop COVID-19 vaccination intervention programmes in Malaysia, focusing on the underserved community (elderly and B40 groups in Malaysia). She also serves as the academic editor for the PLOS One journal.  

Dr Chee Kwan Foong

As a lecturer and licensed professional counsellor, Dr Chee Kwan Foong is extremely passionate about academic work and research that contribute to public mental health. Through her formal training in Counselling Psychology and fourteen years of mental health work experience, she has been able to contribute in a meaningful manner to society. As a lecturer for 13 years, she has constantly researched on how environmental factors (e.g., built environment, environment art and design) affect people's health and psychological well-being, as past findings have consistently suggested that well-designed physical settings and environment features foster positive psychological and health outcomes.

Her current research includes three core components – the first investigates the association between the social/physical environmental design of residential care homes for the elderly and the occupants’ psychological well-being. This is particularly important when the elderly in such homes do not have control over their physical environment. The second component focuses on ageing, in particular the needs and well-being of the elderly, and addressing issues like social isolation, loneliness, depressive symptoms, happiness and life satisfaction. The third component focuses on health and stigma. The lives of people with disease, disability and mental disorders/illness are worsened by stigma, subsequently leading to public/social prejudice, loss of self-worth and negative impacts towards the health and psychological well-being of the individual. This area investigates how stigma impacts the wellbeing of people with disease, disability and mental illness. Though primarily a quantitative researcher, Kwan Foong is also interested in work engaged with some aspect of mixed methodologies and working across disciplines.

Dr Erica Woo Jhia Mae

Dr Erica is a registered counsellor with Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia with a Master's in Professional Counselling and a PhD from Monash University. She has more than 5 years of experience as a counsellor in NGOs and private sectors working with a wide range of clients including refugees, adolescents, university students, and corporate clients. She adopts an eclectic approach to her practice using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as her main approach and incorporating creative interventions. Erica is currently active in expanding her work and research in youth mental health and psychological interventions using contextual behavioural science approaches.

Dr Lubna Ali

Dr Lubna Ali is a licensed and registered counsellor with a strong foundation in both academic and applied settings. Her research interests lie in health psychology and public health, focusing on qualitative approaches to explore stigma related to chronic illness and lived experiences of illness and care in multicultural contexts.

Chloe Wong Kah Yee

Ms. Chloe Wong is a registered counsellor with the Malaysian Board of Counsellors (Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia), lecturer, and mental health practitioner with more than 10 years of experience in counselling, student well-being, crisis management, and mental health promotion. Her professional experience spans both higher education and community settings, where she has led and co-led crisis response initiatives, suicide prevention programmes, and mental health outreach efforts at institutional and public levels.

Chloe holds a Master's degree in Counselling and is currently pursuing her PhD. She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Expressive Arts Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, trauma-informed interventions, and suicide prevention. Her practice is grounded in a strengths-based, empowerment-focused, and person-centred approach, integrating evidence-based interventions with creative therapeutic modalities to support psychological healing and resilience.

Her teaching, research, and professional interests focus on suicide prevention, mental health literacy, help-seeking behaviours, stigma reduction, trauma recovery, and youth mental health. She is passionate about bridging research and practice through evidence-based suicide prevention strategies, early intervention initiatives, and community engagement programmes that promote psychological well-being and foster supportive environments for individuals and communities.

Professor Alvin Ng Lai Oon

Professor Dr Alvin Ng, DPsych, FMASO is a registered clinical psychologist (MAHPC(CP)00812) with special interests in mental health literacy and professional development. Prior to Sunway University, he served at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for 11 years as a lecturer and clinical psychologist. He was also a regular consultant on LiteFM’s Lite Breakfast Mental Health Hour which aired every Wednesday morning from 2015 to 2017. Dr Ng has given numerous talks and workshops to organisations, at conferences and to the public on mental health topics. 

He won the 2017 EduCoop National Outstanding Educator (Psychology) Award in recognition of his contributions towards the development of psychology in Malaysia. He has had honorary academic positions at Monash University Malaysia, University of East Anglia as well as the University of Exeter. He also received a Fellowship of the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity (MASO) in 2023. In September 2024, he spent a month at Brasenose College, University of Oxford as a Jeffrey Cheah Scholar-in-Residence. He was also recognised as one of Wiki Impact Malaysia's Top 100 Malaysian Changemakers 2024 under the Healthcare for All category. 

Dr Ng was instrumental in establishing the Malaysian Society in Clinical Psychology (MSCP) in 2010, of which he is also the Founding President. In 2025 he received a Lifetime Honorary Membership from MSCP for his contributions to the profession in Malaysia. While no longer in clinical practice, Dr Ng is active in the development of cognitive behaviour therapy in Asia, as an active member of the Asian Cognitive Behavioral Therapies Association (ACBTA), of which he was the secretary from 2021 to 2024, during which he also chaired the 7th Asian CBT Conference 2021, which was a 3-day online conference that attracted 7,474 participants from 80 countries. Recently, he was appointed as a Steering Committee Member of GLOW-CAT (Growing Local OSI Worldwide for Child Anxiety Treatments) Programme, hosted by University of Oxford and funded by Wellcome Trust.

Professor Shian-Ling Keng

Shian-Ling Keng, is a Professor in the Faculty of Medical and Life Sciences at Sunway University, Malaysia, and a registered clinical psychologist (MAHPC[CP] 00496). She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Duke University, USA, where she also completed a double major B.Sc. in Psychology and Biology.

Professor Keng’s research focuses on the efficacy and mechanisms of treatments such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Her work also explores how evidence-based psychological treatments can be effectively adapted and implemented in low-resource and culturally diverse contexts. Employing a multimethod approach, including RCTs, laboratory studies and ecological momentary assessment, her research has yielded several contributions, such as identifying mindfulness and self-compassion as key mechanisms of change in MBSR, and demonstrating links between mindfulness practice and telomere length (biomarker of aging). Together, these findings offer critical insights into psychological and physiological mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based interventions.

Professor Keng's research is highly cross-disciplinary, and has been funded by several highly competitive international and national grants (e.g., the UK Wellcome Trust, Templeton World Charity Foundation, Singapore's Ministry of Family and Social Development, totaling more than 4.3 million US dollars). In 2024 and 2025, she was appointed to the European Research Council’s grant evaluation panel, contributing her expertise to the review of high-impact, cross-disciplinary international research proposals.

Professor Keng is the first clinician in Asia certified by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification (USA), and a qualified MBSR teacher trained at the University of California San Diego’s Center for Mindfulness. She is currently Chair of the Asia-Pacific Association for DBT and a Board Member of the World DBT Association. She also serves as a trainer-in-training with Behavioral Tech Institute, and has delivered professional DBT training internationally.

Before joining Sunway University, Professor Keng held faculty positions at Monash University Malaysia, the National University of Singapore (NUS), Yale-NUS College (a liberal arts college jointly established by Yale University and NUS), and where she earned tenure as Associate Professor. Clinically, she has trained intensively in CBT, DBT, and mindfulness-based approaches at the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, among various training sites, and has worked with clients across a range of psychiatric conditions in hospital and outpatient settings.

Professor Keng has published extensively on mindfulness, emotion regulation, and borderline personality disorder. Her work has been widely cited and has contributed significantly to the evidence base for mindfulness-informed interventions globally. Her long-term vision is to advance the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Southeast Asia through research, teaching, training, and advocacy.

Dr Michele Anne

Dr Michele Anne is a registered clinical psychologist with the Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council under Ministry of Health Malaysia. She has experience working as a lecturer in UK and Malaysia, and as a clinical psychologist in Malaysia. Her interest revolves around the links between clinical psychology and cognitive psychology. Dr Michele’s research focuses on differences in autobiographical memories for people with various mental health issues in clinical and sub-clinical populations. She also studies the underlying cognitive mechanisms, the impacts, and the ways to reduce those autobiographical memory differences.

Arman Imran Ashok

Arman is a registered clinical psychologist and academician with a strong passion for lifelong learning, personal growth, and the study of psychopathology. Over the course of his career, he has gained extensive experience by working with patients while simultaneously holding academic roles.

He graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology (minor in Biology) from the University of Minnesota, Masters in Clinical Psychology from USM-UPSI, and is currently pursuing his PhD in Clinical Psychology from UPM.

He practices in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) modality and has trained in multiple hospital settings which has not only enriched his therapeutic experience but also in psychological assessments. He mainly deals with populations who suffer with anxiety and depression but has a wide variety of experiences with other psychological disorders such as OCD, Neurocognitive Disorders, and has also worked with neurotypical children such as ASD, IDD, and ADHD.

He has also given multiple talks on psychological distress, sleep hygiene, parental care, etc and workshops on psychological assessments such as IQ tests, and has past working experience as an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Therapist.

His goal is to help improve the mental health landscape in Malaysia, where access to care and resources remains limited. He believes that reducing stigma and encouraging open discussions about the challenges within the system are essential steps toward change. By offering support as both a clinician and an academician, he is committed to being part of that broader effort to build a more understanding and supportive society.

Liyana Mohd Tarmizi

Liyana is a registered Clinical Psychologist with the Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council (MAHPC) under the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Newcastle, Australia and a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from USM–UPSI.

Prior to entering academia, Liyana gained extensive clinical experience across various rehabilitation centres, working with a diverse client population across the lifespan. She has supported individuals presenting with a wide range of emotional, behavioural, and developmental challenges, including those related to academic and occupational functioning, in both individual and family contexts. She also works closely within multidisciplinary teams to ensure comprehensive and holistic care.

In one of her previous roles, Liyana was responsible for conducting psychological assessments and psychotherapy services at Hospital Angkatan Tentera (HAT) Tuanku Mizan, where she worked closely with military personnel and their families to support their mental health and overall wellbeing.

Liyana’s clinical and teaching philosophy centres on empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to become more psychologically adaptive and resilient. She adopts a strengths-based and collaborative approach, encouraging individuals to actively participate in their own growth while recognising the important role of family and social support systems. She also values interdisciplinary collaboration, working alongside other professionals when necessary to ensure a holistic and comprehensive approach to care.

Dr Ayesha Jabeen

Dr Ayesha Jabeen is a clinical psychologist with around 14 years of teaching, clinical supervision, and research experience. Before joining Sunway University, she served as Chairperson and Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Management and Technology (UMT), Pakistan. She also headed the Happiness Center, a clinical and counselling service providing support to university students, staff, and the wider community.

She has extensive teaching experience at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels, covering subjects such as developmental psychology, psychological assessment and interventions, child counselling, neurorehabilitation, and quantitative research methods. She has been actively involved in curriculum development, programme design, and academic quality enhancement in clinical and counselling psychology education.

She has supervised more than 60 Masters and Bachelor students theses, and her doctoral students are completing work on topics including psychosocial challenges linked with aesthetic treatment procedures and the role of risk and protective factors in narcissistic personality within married life. She has also developed around 40 indigenous psychological scales for assessing diverse constructs in culturally relevant contexts.

Her research projects have focused on childhood disorders, developmental issues in school-going children, parental and family dynamics, relationship and interpersonal challenges, and the wellbeing of marginalised and at-risk populations. She has supervised studies on psychosocial issues affecting diverse community groups such as farmers, flight attendants, polio-affected individuals, and eczema patients.

She has delivered numerous workshops and training sessions for educators, clinicians, parents, and students on child behaviour management, individualized training programmes, micro-management of behaviours, classroom handling strategies, and psychoeducation for parents and teachers. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes holistic student development, independent learning, and critical thinking.