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10th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS and 15th
NATIONAL of CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

MONASTERIO SAN MARTÍN PINARIO
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (SPAIN)
16-19 NOVEMBER, 2017 
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 		Alvin Ng Lai Oon
Vice-President of Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology (MSCP), Sunway University
MALAYSIA
1 English
As a clinical profession, clinical psychology is still in its infancy in Malaysia, a developing country within South-East Asia. With its training and practice beginning only in the mid1990s, development of clinical psychology in Malaysia has been a slow process given factors such as biomedical approaches being the dominant method of addressing mental illness, and the recognition of counsellors as a regulated professional body for mental health management. With a registration body for clinical psychologists only being established in 2010, there is a steep challenge in moving forward to advance the recognition and practice of clinical psychology as the "new kid on the block" among the more established psychiatrists and counsellors. This keynote is based on a qualitative study on clinical psychologists practising in the country and their opinions on training and practise issues, within the context of professional and policy development. The implications of this study focuses on policy and leadership development for clinical psychologists in the country. Following from the training and professional needs of a sample of practitioners out of the 160-odd clinical psychologists in Malaysia, this paper serves to discuss and reflect global developmental issues for clinical psychologists. This platform would be an appropriate one where many countries with clinical psychologists a likely to have parallel issues of policy and leadership. It is asserted that as countries move forward in the training and development of clinical psychologists, leaderships would benefit from global dialogues and mutual support in professional research and development.

CONFERENCE ABSTRACT
Clinical psychology in a developing country: Reflections of issues and implications for policy and leadership
Associate Professor Dr. Alvin Lai Oon Ng obtained his Bachelor of Arts from University of Western Australia, Bachelor of Psychology and Doctor of Psychology (Clinical) from Murdoch University. Dr. Ng is a clinical psychologist specialising in behaviour modification, autism management, and behaviour fluency with interest in depression and anxiety disorders. Before joining Sunway University in March 2013, he was previously an associate professor and Head of the Health Psychology Program at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia where he served for 11 years since 2002. 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 mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, cross-cultural factors in psychotherapy, mental health literacy, psychometric measurements of mental illness in Malaysia, and behavioral fluency training in basic academic skills. He has published in journals, magazines and presented in numerous conferences, seminars, trainings and public talks. His most recent journal publication was published in Mindfulness, on the topic of "Effects of Brief Group Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Stress Reduction among Medical Students in a Malaysian University" (2016). Dr. Ng has recently won the Gold Medal for Best Paper Presentation at the 2015 International Conference on Applied Psychology in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he presented on "Mental Health Literacy in Malaysia: Current Impressions and Implications for Further Action Research" co-authored with Lee Itianne. He also recently won the 2017 National Outstanding Educator Award for Psychology by Educoop Malaysia. Dr. Ng has also published a book called "Teaching Children Handling Study Stress" (TC Publishing, 2004). His latest chapter in a book is "Clinical psychology in Malaysia: roles and issues" in Shamsul Haque and Elizabeth Sheppard's Culture and cognition: a collection of critical essays, published by Peter Lang in 2015. Besides academia and clinical practice, Dr. Ng is instrumental in advancing the field of clinical psychology in Malaysia, and was the Founding President, and currently Vice President of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology that he helped establish in 2010.