Centre for Psychological & Counselling Services

According to the Malaysia Mental Healthcare Performance Technical Report 2016, mental disorders was estimated to contribute for about 8.6% of total DALYs (referring to the total number of years lost to illness, disability, or premature death within a given population) (Ministry of Health [MOH], 2017).

In addition, the prevalence rate of mental health problem among adult and children in Malaysia were 29.2% and 12.1% respectively together with the increasing number of suicidal attempts (MOH, 2017). Despite the increasing number of mental health problem in Malaysia, the density of mental health professional is still low (MOH, 2017).

Besides, the Malaysian Health System Research report in year 2016 also indicated that mental illness is a leading cause of economic loss in several aspects due to direct and indirect health costs, absenteeism, low productivity while at work, and decreased income (The Star, 2019). As the number of mental health problems among Malaysian had increased by three-fold over the past 20 years, the cost of mental illness is expected to increase to RM99.9billion (projected figure) in year 2030 (The Star, 2019).

The Centre for Psychological and Counselling Service is a subsidiary of Faculty of Education and Psychology, Southern University College. This centre aims to provide affordable psychological and counselling services to the public. This centre will be run by clinical psychologist and registered counsellors who are also lecturers from the Department of Psychology and Counselling. The centre is expected to start operating in year 2020.

It is located at the Psychology and Counselling Laboratory, Level 4 of the International Education Building, Southern UC. At this moment, there are two individual counselling rooms for one-to-one psychotherapy or counselling session. The centre also equipped with one group therapy room and one playroom with one-way mirror.

The types of psychological and counselling services available are as below:

Psychological Assessment

Psychological assessment tests that are administered help to assess a client’s behaviour, personality, and capability. The assessments often involve the process of interview, observation, informal assessment, and the use of norm-referenced test, which is usually conducted by trained clinical psychologist. The assessments help the psychologist to measure and observe a client’s behaviour which will later be used as the guide in intervention planning.

Psychotherapy/Counselling

Psychotherapy/counselling sessions will be conducted to clients in order to identify issues, crises, and encourage them to resolve the issues that cause distress. The sessions may be conducted in the form of one-to-one, family, and groups depending on the needs.

Psychoeducation

Apart from the abovementioned services, the centre also expects to deliver psychoeducation which is a method of education that provides information on mental health conditions to the clients and clients’ family. This service aims to provide support to the clients and their family members for better understanding of the mental health condition, as well as managing and coping with the mental illness.

Ms. Tan Wen Yi

Licensed & Registered Counsellor (KB07390, PA06922)

Ms. Tan graduated from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, majoring in Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) Psychology in 2014. She then pursued her study and obtained Master of Counselling, from Open University Malaysia (OUM) in 2017. Her area of interest involves providing individual and group counselling for children and adolescence. She is also interested in providing career counselling, family and relationship issues, and handling issues related to stress and emotion management.

Ms. Jocelyn Lee

Licensed & Registered Counsellor (KB07237, PA06762)

Ms. Jocelyn obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Southern New Hampshire University in 2012. She further her study in HELP University Malaysia and obtained her Master in Counselling in year 2016. Ms. Jocelyn ventures herself in providing both individual and group counselling services. She is also experienced in handling issues related to work stress, family conflicts, interpersonal problems and others. She also provides seminars and workshops related to mental health.

Mr Mohd Saiful Zaidi bin Mazlan

(KB09178, PA08793)

Mr Zaidi graduated with a Bachelor of Town and Regional Planning before furthering his study in Master of Education (Guidance and Counselling) in the same university. He changed his career path after aspired to help people finding their way towards personal growth, including understanding their personalities, aptitudes, career interest and current well-being. Aside from being a TAJMA Personality Practitioner, he is currently working as a lecturer at Southern University College while pursuing his study in PhD focusing on disaster volunteering among mental health practitioners in Malaysia. He is interested in exploring the use of assessment and research in counselling field, besides exploring the use of Psychological First Aid (PFA) in disaster relief setting.

Ms. Peh Jia Yi

Licensed & Registered Counsellor (KB08678, PA08281)

Ms. Peh obtained her Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) from HELP University in 2016. She continued to pursue her study in Monash University and obtained Master of Professional Counselling in 2019. She is passionate in helping adolescents and young adults to discover personal strengths and seek meaning in life. She provides counselling sessions on stress, emotion management, communication, friendships and relationships issues. She also conducted mental health related workshops for youth in building self-esteem and resilience towards life challenges. She believes that “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you start” – Nido Qubein