Controversy Follows Dr Edward Chan Like A Shadow – What Is The Truth?

There was quite a controversy about the way he consults his patients, we have been given the chance of getting to know all about the controversy straight from the horse’s mouth. We present an independent interview with Dr Edward Chan. 

GetDoc: Hello Dr Edward, first of all, thank you for this interview. We would like to begin by asking you to tell us about yourself, your educational background especially.

Dr Edward: Well, thank you. To start with I did my O and A levels in England in subjects related to Psychology; at University (Middlesex University in the UK which has one of the largest psychology and philosophy departments in the UK) I did my double degree in Psychology and Philosophy. At first I wanted to do philosophy in order to understand more about life and relationships but then it occurred to me that psychology is more practical and clinical because it gives you scientific basis for the results. Actually this came a full circle for me a few years with my philosophic hero at that time, a German Philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein – one of the very few people who has managed to change the way of thinking in the world, twice! I studied Wittgenstein’s work at University and was much impressed by the value of his work and then some years later during a world psychotherapy conference in Sydney in 2011 I heard a keynote presentation by Professor Harlene Anderson on Collaborative Therapy, a type of Psychotherapy and psychology treatment which is very much influenced by the thinking of Wittgenstein. So my early studies in Philosophy is very much related to Psychology after all.  I naturally was sold on collaborative therapy and went on to pursue my professional certification in Collaborative Therapy which I will say more about later.

GetDoc: Can you explain more about Psychotherapy?

Dr Edward: Psychotherapy is the application of psychology for treatment of psychopathology (i.e: psychological or mental illnesses); there are many different types of psychotherapy such as collaborative therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Voice Dialogue Therapy, Psycho-dynamic therapy, Imago Therapy and Emotion Focused Therapy. I was trained in many of these forms of psychotherapy in many post graduate training courses that I chose to attend and learnt from many of the pioneers of these psychotherapy fields worldwide out of my interest and passion to help others and for my own personal growth. I have for example attended a CBT master class course with Professor Andy Clark who pioneered CBT treatment in the UK and Professor David Barlow from the Centre for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. CBT is one of the most evidence based form of psychotherapy and Professor Clark managed to get the British government to recognise the value of this form of psychotherapy and invested millions of pounds of CBT certification programmes to train more CBT practitioners in the UK to help more people with mental health illnesses.

Here in Malaysia I together with other pioneers in the field of psychology such as Professor Leonard Yong a former University Malaya professor from the department of Educational Psychology have set up the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy (MAP) (MalaysianPsychotherapy.net) and the Malaysian CBT Association (MCBTA) (CBTMalaysia.net) back in 2002 as professional bodies to train and accredit qualified psychologists and psychotherapists in Malaysia. I have also been elected as the head of the Psychotherapy Chapter of the Malaysian Society for Complementary Medicine.

There are many effective forms of psychotherapy and some are more suited to some people than others; an experienced psychologist need to be trained and skilled in quite a number of these different practices of psychotherapy so he can use one that works best for his patient at the time he came for consultation – which may change over time or over the course of therapy. Let me give you an example. Take depression – you may be depressed because you have a lot of negative thoughts, you blame yourself, feel guilty about many things you have or have not done. Recently I was treating a patient who was not able to walk – there was in fact nothing physically wrong with him but he has acquired the fear of walking because he had a fall in the past! We – me and my team of psychologists at the International Psychology Centre – started CBT with him and, we were able to change the way he was thinking. He had this mental block because of some bad experience and he kept telling his mind, he would fall again if he started walking. So he ended up being depressed and stuck in his chair all day at home. After a few sessions of CBT psychotherapy, we were able to get him walk again and even though he did have some falls he did not get put off because this time he was able to keep an open mind about his future outcome instead of making his usual negative predictions that he is going to fall badly. He was able to feel much less depressed and after 12 sessions of CBT we used other forms of psychotherapy such as family therapy to work on his other issues including his estranged relationship with his family members. So we end up having to use a number of different types of psychotherapy to suit the needs of the patient at different times.

I have been trained in many other forms of psychotherapies including emotion focused therapy; expressive therapy and voice dialogue therapy which is another innovative form of psychotherapy.

For Voice Dialogue psychotherapy, I was trained personally by Tamar Stone, the daughter of Dr. Hal Stone who is the founder of Voice Dialogue therapy. It works well even for children; there was a recent case which I consulted – the child, a 9 year old boy, who was afraid of the dark; he would need the lights on all night and hold on to his mummy all the time when he goes to sleep. So we explained to him that he has in fact many different selves: “brave self”, “independent self” and “scared self”.

We elaborated that when he becomes afraid at night it is his scared self that was dominating him, and he can call on his brave self too at that time. He in fact managed to talk to us much about his independent self which he liked a lot and had use much of the time and which he reported feeling good when he was able to do many things by himself. The conversation about his various selves has given rise to significant changes of awareness in him which was therapeutic: he was able to be awared

of and connect to his independent and brave selves at night when he felt afraid and overcame his fear to sleep in the dark. The child took to this type psychotherapy treatment very naturally and it worked wonders! I was invited to the 9th International Congress of Psychotherapy in Iran, May 2016 to present a keynote address on this form of psychotherapy (please see: http://iranpsycongress.com/congress-scientific-program/ and appendix 8 showing the letter from the chair of the organising committee, Professor Mohammad Khodayari, from the Department of Psychology, University of Tehran) and also at the 1st World Congress on Mental Health: Meeting the Needs of the XXI Century” (7-8 October 2016, Moscow), attended by the vice presidents from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Minstry of Education and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation (please see attached letter of invitation). The presentation has been published in the congress scientific publication as well as in the Volume 3 of the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry: Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (IJPCP.com). You may find my Russian Congress Participation Certificate, Russian Congress Publication Editorial Board, welcoming speech and also keynote at the conference. My welcoming speech has also been published in the World Congress of Mental Health website, with my biodata.

There is also a form of psychotherapy called family therapy in which I am trained as well (I received my certification in family therapy from Dr. Aldo Gurgone, a licensed clinical psychologist and family therapist from William Street Therapy Centre in Perth and also in Satir family psychotherapy – Satir was a pioneer of family therapy – from Warren Tan, a certified family therapist based at the Choice Maker, Singapore – where we see family members together and help them resolve conflicts with each other and attain closer relationships together.

Another type of psychotherapy is called Collaborative therapy which also originated from family therapy. In this revised form of therapy however, there is no labelling of the conditions and symptoms of the patients (which means we don’t diagnose the patient), and there is no preconceived notion about the therapeutic outcome. In a typical family therapy setting, in which I was trained, we have the patient and the therapist with the whole family of the patient inside the therapy room. Outside the therapy room, students would be observing how the therapy is being done through a one way mirror. But in collaborative therapy, everyone is inside the therapy room and the observer would not even know who the therapist is, who the patient is or who the family members are or who the students are. So this is the essence of collaborative therapy where the therapy becomes a collaborative effort between the therapist, the patient and the family members and other therapist’s team members and the therapeutic outcome evolves from this collaborative process.

I took up a professional certification course in Collaborative Therapy in Mexico with Professor Harlene Anderson (based in University of Texas) who is a pioneer in Family Therapy and Collaborative Therapy. As mentioned earlier, my study of philosophy at Middlesex University and of Wittgenstein in particular became very useful at this time of of my psychotherapy career because collaborative therapy is very influenced by Wittgenstein’s philosophy.

I also attained my Masters of Science degree in Learning from the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK with a thesis in educational psychology. After that I proceeded to do my Doctorate in Psychology at the Intercultural Open University which I attained in 1995. My Doctoral research thesis was on Learner’s modelling and Support in Learning supervised by Professor Kim Plunkett from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford (who is now heading the department) and Dr. Pat Fung from the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University.

I am also the only psychologist in Malaysia offering Psycho-Nutritional Therapy. I took up further postgraduate training at the Thames Valley University in Nutritional Medicine and had certification by Professor John Arden in Brain Based Therapy. I also obtained my certification in Brain Health Coaching by Dr. Daniel Amen, distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in treating psychological disorders with nutritional laboratory diagnostic testing and nutritional medicine. I am now pursuing another Masters degree in Nutritional Medicine with a group of doctors passionate about this field with the Society of Advancement of Hormones and Healty Aging Medicine Malaysia in collaboration with a teaching faculty led by Professor Mel Sydney-Smith who composed, developed and taught the Graduate Diploma in Nutrition Medicine, offered by the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, in a joint venture contract with the Australian College of Holistic Medicine which has now relocated to RMIT University, Melbourne, and launched in 2005 as an integral part of the Master of Nutrition Medicine degree.

PsychoNutritional Therapy complements the practice of Psychotherapy because it teaches the patient to have good lifestyle and good nutrition to support their recovery in addition to getting psychotherapy instead of relying on psychotropic drugs.

Patients can experience these various forms of psychotherapy at the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my). For those who would like to get trained to be a professional psychotherapist, they can take professional certification courses on these forms of therapy:
http://psychology.com.my/Professional-Certification-Course/#.V_48aRcZ7xA

GetDoc: What made you want to come back and practice in Malaysia?

Dr Edward: I actually wanted to stay longer in England and practice but due to familial reasons I came back to Malaysia. I am from Sandakan. So in order to be close to my family, especially my father who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer disease, I set up my first psychology clinic there but there were not many patients in Sandakan.

I saw my father degenerating. He was losing his memory, personality and consciousness. You can see the direct correlation between psychology and brain which is why I firmly believe now that you need to combine both brain based therapy and nutritional therapy with psychotherapy. It is for this very personal reason – to try to help my father – that first motivated me to do further postgraduate specialisations in Nutritional medicine and Brain based therapy. There are several therapists in the UK and USA that have pioneered this approach such as Philip Holford who is both a psychologist and nutritional therapist and wrote the excellent book “Optimum Nutrition for the Mind” which we recommend to our patients which has also been recommended by Professor Andre Tylee, Professor of Primary Care Mental Health at the the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.

This approach is nevertheless quite different from how psychiatrists normally practice – psychiatrists do brain based intervention too but from a more symptomatic angle. For example, if we see patients we have diagnosed with depression using psychological diagnostic instruments called psychometric tests, we offer our patients the options of doing further lab tests which will measure their actual neurotransmitters levels using their urine samples. Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain which influence the way we feel, think and behave.

It is normally assumed by psychiatrists that when a patient has depression it is because they have low Serotonin – a type of neurotransmitter. They however don’t check whether the patient’s serotonin level is indeed low unlike what we do. Psychiatrists would prescribe psychotropic medicine straight away without this type of diagnostic evidence. These psychotropic medicines e.g; the SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) stop the re-uptake or breakdown of neurotransmitters, serotonin, in this case. By doing this, the level of serotonin available for the brain is artificially increased. However we don’t even know even know whether their serotonin levels are indeed low in the first place. There could be many other causes for depression, for example, low GABA or low Noradrenaline – other neurotransmitters. And there could be many reasons why the neurotransmitters are imbalanced such as the malabsorption of vitamin B6 and zinc caused by excessive pyrroles, a neurotoxin which can be detected by a simple urine test call Kryptopyrolles which we offer to our patients. So the solution need not involve psychotropic drugs at all and can be as simple as supplementing with the relatively much cheaper and safer supplements B6 and zinc to help the patient attain normal neurotransmitters. Serotonin requires B6 and Zinc as co factors and if these are low as found in patients with high pyrroles, they would not be able to produce sufficient Serotonin for good mental health.

This more holistic, effective and safer approach of psychological and psycho-nutritional assessments and treatment has been well documented in numerous scientific journals and have been practiced by many professional psychologists and psychiatrists from developed countries. Another such practitioner is the internationally renowned psychiatrists Dr. Daniel Amen, recipient of the distinguished award of the American Psychiatrist Association with whom I was trained and obtained one of my practicing licenses as mentioned above. I was trained by Dr. Amen in his protocols of conducting brain tests assessments for patients and then recommending treatment based on these lab results and using natural and safe but effective nutritional medicine supplements such as GABA for example, to boost low levels of GABAs if this is so identified in the lab tests. If you visit Dr. Daniel Amen’s clinics website (http://www.amenclinics.com/providers/referral-network/) you can see me listed as of one of his licensed practitioner,  trained in his methodology of assessment and treating patients with various psychopathologies such as depression, anxiety, ADD and addiction.

If the neurotransmitter test for the patient reveals that there is low Serotonin we can treat the patient with natural serotonin booster nutritional medicines such as 5 HTP which also does not give rise to any side effect unlike many of the  psychotropic drugs normally prescribed by psychiatrists which produce many undesirable side effects including weight gain, liver toxicity, low sex drive and death of brain cells as documented by numerous research publications and and end up giving the patient more harm than help!

We believe in giving accurate evidence based diagnostic information to our patients because we believe in empowering our patients so that they can make a better decision to choose the treatment options that best suit them.

GetDoc: So is that why you sell those supplements in your clinic?

Dr Edward: As said, we offer lab tests to patients to measure the actual levels of their body’s various biochemical markers. If some of these are indeed found  to be problematic, we offer further lab tests for the patient to identify some of the causes of these problems such as gene tests.

For example in the case of the patient whose neurotransmitters test revealed low Serotonin, the patient can then do a gene test to find out whether they have gene mutation which made them unable to absorb certain nutrients such as vitamin b6, b12 or folate (this is known as a methylation pathway malfunction) which as said are essential co factors to make Serotonin. Or the patient may have a gene mutation that results in them having their MAO not functioning properly (MAO is an enzyme that breaks down Serotonin in the brain but when a mutation of the MAO gene occurs it can be overactive and breaks down too much Serotonin thereby causing Serotonin deficiency in the patient’s brain). When we find out the precise biochemical causes for the patient’s psychological disorder using our lab tests from accredited laboratories (MalaysiaLaboratory.com) we can then refer them to get various nutritional medicine solutions to help them overcome their problems effectively without the many unecessary side effects of psychotropic medicine. We can recommend the patient to supplement with an active (methylated) form of B6 and B12 (ie Pyroxidal 5 Phosphate and Methylcobalamin) if the patient is identified to have inherited a gene mutation with the said methylation problem. Or we recommend them to supplement with Theanine (an extract from green tea) which will slow down their MAO if they have been identified to have inherited the gene mutation of overactive MAO.

I have given a scientific presentation on this assessment and treatment method at numerous international and national conferences, including recently at the Asian Pacific Behavioural Addiction Medicine Conference 2016 held at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sabah in Kota Kinabalu in September 2016. The conference was attended by many psychiatrists as well as psychologists and I sponsored an exhibition booth to show case and educate them on this wholistic way of assessment and treatment of mental disorders.

I have been also invited to present a keynote lecture on the use of Neurotransmitters tests and Gene tests to assess and treat PsychoPathologies at the upcoming 1st World Congress on Mental Health: Meeting the Needs of the XXI Century” (7-8 October 2016, Moscow) (http://www.mental-health-congress.ru/).

GetDoc: We understand there was a court order restraining you from selling this traditional medicine. In 2014, that you were selling something that was not registered? The person who made a complaint was Dr Alvin Ng.

Dr Edward: No no such thing! No court case has ever been taken against me.  Alvin has been complaining about me since 2005 because he is a competitor and felt insecure about my success. I have been practicing very successfully and have helped thousands of patients for past twenty years.

GetDoc: We also read that British Psychological Society (BPS) has ordered that you are not qualified to do independent practice, that you breached the code of conduct. Can you explain that?

Dr Edward: BPS is not a registered official body in England for practicing psychologists in the UK nor in anywhere else in the world. Please see the attached letter from BPS confirming that there is no legal nor professional requirement to be registered with BPS to practice as a psychologist in the UK nor anywhere else in the world – please see appendix 1).

I joined the BPS as a student and continued my membership with them after I graduated and came back to practice in Malaysia. Alvin then decided to complain about me to the BPS that I am practicing in Malaysia without the BPS charter membership. This charter membership is given to members only after a number of years of practice in the UK after the member having attained post graduate qualification. As I have came back to Malaysia quite soon after I completed my Doctorate degree as mentioned due to my father being ill, I did not stay on in the UK to practice to attain my BPS charter membership. However as mentioned, this membership is totally unnecessary for anyone practicing as a psychologist in the UK or anywhere else unless you happen to be a member of BPS and one is not required to be a member of BPS either in order to practice as a psychologist in UK nor anywhere else (please see the said letter, appendix 1). I have, as said, maintained my graduate membership with BPS which I have first attained  when I was a student in the UK after I got back to Malaysia.

BPS was therefore obliged to take up Alvin’s complaint because of this. Had I not been a member of BPS, they would not have done so. BPS called for a hearing to address Alvin’s complaint which I voluntarily flew all the way to London at my own cost to attend with a barrister representing me (see appendix 2 of the letter from my barrister). As said the case alleged that I did not possess a chartered membership for practice as required by BPS for its members which however was not applicable to me because to be a chartered member one needs to practice in England for a number of years, after obtaining all of one’s postgraduate qualifications which I did not because as said I came back to practice in Malaysia since  I graduated with my doctorate degree in the year 1996.

As said it was not mandatory in any case for one to have the charter membership license from BPS to practice as a psychologist in the UK or anywhere else in the world but it happens to be a requirement for BPS members to do so even though I was not practicing in the UK. Many practicing psychologists in the UK and other parts of the world including Malaysia do not have this chartered membership, including my complainant Alvin Ng (Please see the letter from my UK barrister stating this, appendix 2). In fact Alvin is not even registered as a clinical psychologist in Australia where he obtained his qualifications (please see appendix 3.1, 3.2 showing NO results obtained for Alvin Ng as a registered psychologist in Australia in a search under the registrar of practitioners which is accessible to the public) and he has been giving consultation as clinical psychologist.

 

Please see appendix 4.1, 4.2 showing several places where he has been offering this services including his private consultation centre and UKM and he has been teaching clinical psychology in various places including Sunway University which he is currently still doing so.

The Australian National Board of Psychologists has published in their website that in fact no one should give consultation including giving any teaching without having been registered with the board and if one does so then he has been doing then “it may constitute unprofessional conduct” (appendix 5) and is in breach of the National law (appendix 5).

So according to the Australian National Board of Psychologists Alvin has been giving consultation and teaching without proper qualification and all the students that have graduated from UKM and Sunway University taught by him have done so without having been taught by a properly qualified psychologist and so their qualifications have not properly attained and are not valid and their training have been competently and professionally given. The same goes for all the unfortunate patients he has given given “consultations” without having been properly qualified.

Alvin has also set up a so called “Malaysian Society for Clinical Psychology” which is not recognised by the Ministry of Health, to carry on propagating his said unprofessional activities with his bunch of ex unqualified students. Interestingly it is announced on the website of this association that they do not even have enough professional members to purchase professional practicing insurances (http://malaysiaclinicalpsychology.com/qbe-professional-indemnity-insurance-has-been-halted/) and therefore their “practitioners” may be practicing without proper professional insurance policies which call further into question the safety of the patients given consultions by them.

Anyway, the BPS choose to allow me to continue practice under supervision until I obtain my charter membership which I have always done so anyway as to practice with supervision is a requirement for most professional psychology associations (BPS as well as MAP – the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy – please see the attached letter from my clinical supervisor, Dr. Aldo Gurgone , a registered clinical psychologist with the Australian Board of Psychologists marked appendix 10).

The BPS verdict therefore has not called into question the credential of my qualifications nor on the competency and profesionalism of my clinical training from all the institutions of higher learning from which I attained my clinical training which have all been competently and professionally given (please see the confirmation of these facts from the Queen’s barrister who represented me at the BPS hearing in his letter marked Appendix 2).

GetDoc: So you are saying that currently you have no law suits in your name?

Dr Edward: Yes that is correct. The BPS hearing was not a legal case, it was just an internal association matter by an association that I happened to be a member of which I did not need to be a member of in order to practice as a psychologist in the UK or in Malaysia because of a petty complaint made by Alvin which it is obliged to address because I was one of their members.

The only law suit I have pending is against Alvin Ng for his defamation against me.

GetDoc: Dr Ng is not practicing as a private consultant, he is now on to teaching but he still is filing cases against you. Why do you say he is your competitor?

Dr Edward: As said above he has been giving consultations for which he was not properly qualified to do during the time when he complained against me as shown above. So he was a competitor at that time and now he obviously still feels he is still a competitor as he is still teaching without proper qualification as shown above;  the Australian Psychology Board considers teaching to be part of giving consultation (please see appendix 5 and www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/H/HealthPracRNA09.pdf) for which one needs to be a registered psychologist which he is not (please see appendix 3.1, 3.2) and as such he has commited a breach of the national law, misrepresented himself professionally and acted in ways that may “constitute unprofessional conduct.” (appendix 5).

I am also teaching psychology; in fact I have been doing so for the past twenty years and was teaching at the UKM masters clinical psychology programme with Dr. Wan Kadir and other clinical psychologists before Alvin came to do so at UKM. Now I am teaching many professional psychotherapy and psychology courses at the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my/courses) which are accredited and lead towards practitioner membership licenses with the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy (www.MalaysianPsychotherapy.net); the Malaysian Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Association (CBTMalaysia.net); the Psychotherapy chapter of the Malaysian Society for Complementary Medicine; the International Society for Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry: Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (www.ISPCP-TRCP.org); and the World Council for Psychotherapy. These include professional certification courses in Child Psychology, Educational Psychology, Adult Psychotherapy, Couple Therapy, Family Therapy, Sex Therapy, Addiction Therapy, Hypnotherapy, PsychoNutritional Therapy, CBT, Arts Therapy, Music Therapy, Sandtray Therapy, Play Therapy and many other forms of psychotherapy in which I was certified and trained in. This is my contribution to train more competent and professional psychologists to help more people especially in Malaysia but we have students worldwide as our training are accessible via a video conferencing platform called Zoom which can facilitate up to 50 students at the same time from all over the world. We also use this platform to offer treatments to our patients from all over the world. This is why our centre is known as the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my).

When I organised and chaired the hugely successful international psychology conference, the International Asian Pacific Rim Psychotherapy and Counseling Conference 2013 (www.CounselingMalaysia.com) Alvin also made a complaint against me to my sponsor and my lawyer sent a demand letter to Sunway University where he is teaching as he used Sunway University’s letter head to made his complaint to my sponsor. Sunway’s lawyer replied that in fact Alvin made all those complaints outside the jurisdiction of his employment with Sunway University and is in breach of their regulation in doing so and they totally deny having anything to do with his complaint (please see attached letter from Sunway University, appendix 6).

Alvin also made a complaint to my sponsor about our International Asian Pacific Rim Psychotherapy and Counseling Conference 2013 (www.CounselingMalaysia.com) invited keynote speaker, the world reknown psychiatrist, Professor Collin Ross M.D. who has authored hundreds of international scientific papers and books and headed numerous International professional organisations including being Executive Medical Director for Trauma Programs, Timberlawn Mental Health, Dallas; Forest View Hospital, Michigan; & Del Amo Hospital, California; Board Member of the International Society for the Psychological Treatment of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses (ISPS); a Member, American Psychiatric Association; and Founder and President of the Colin A.Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma, USA. Professor Ross is a good friend and colleague of mine and of course he did not care about Alvin’s ridiculous complaint either.

GetDoc: According to this report, it says you were advertising about certain medicines that are actually banned. Can you explain?

Dr Edward: All our advertisements we put in the newspaper are scrutinised and approved by the Ministry of Health (MoH) as all advertisements in the media need to get such approval from MOH before they are actually published. We always do things responsibly.

GetDoc: So what can you tell our readers, about these legal issues?

Dr Edward: As said, there is NO legal issue. We put all our energy into productive matters such as giving evidence based valuable information on psychological assessments and treatments to the public through the media such as yourself and the social media (fb: dredward.chan; blog:malaysianpsychology.wordpress.com; www.Psychology.com.my).

We have also published our own world’s first Psychology Health magazine called PsychologyHealth which is available now in selected bookstores and through subscriptions (www.Psychology.com.my/PsychologyHealth)

GetDoc: Can you tell us about your achievements?

Dr Edward: I am the founder and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Psychiatry; Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (www.IJPCP-TRCP.com). Numerous world renowned professors, psychologists, counselors and psychiatrists have contributed articles for this journal, which is distributed worldwide. This is the world’s first journal to provide a platform for psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors to exchange ideas and collaborate in the areas of psychotherapy theories, researches and clinical practices.

I represent Malaysia in the World Council of Psychotherapy (WCP) and was elected a fellow member of WCP and I have been an active board member promoting psychotherapy and psychology in Malaysia through the various WCP conferences (Please see letter from WCP confirming these facts; appendix 7). Just last year, in fact the World Council of Psychotherapy had its eighth world conference in Malaysia which was organised and chaired by myself: the World Council of Psychotherapy Asia Conference 2015 – www.CounselingMalaysia.com.

I have been elected the president of various International and national professional bodies and was conferred the prestigious fellow membership of these professional bodies including the Asia Chapter of the World Council of Psychotherapy; the International Society for Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry: Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (www.ISPCP-TRCP.org); the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy (www.MalaysianPsychotherapy.net); the Malaysian Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Association (CBTMalaysia.net); and the Psychotherapy chapter of the Malaysian Society for Complementary Medicine.

I was awarded twice the Anak Sarawak Malaysia by the Sarawak State government for having successfully won bids for Malaysia to host International Psychology conferences and was awarded hundred of thousands of ringgit of grants by the State government and the Convention Bureau of the Federal government to run these conferences.

I was invited to deliver the Keynote addresses at the numerous international psychology conferences including:
the recent 9th International Congress of Psychotherapy in Iran, May 2016 (http://iranpsycongress.com/congress-scientific-program/)(appendix 8);

the 1st World Congress on Mental Health: Meeting the Needs of the XXI Century” (7-8 October 2016, Moscow);
the International Conference “Psychotherapeutic Aspects of Mental Health” (http://www.mental-health-congress.ru/) and the presentation has been accepted to be published in the congress scientific publication as well as in the Volume 3 of the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry: Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (ISPCP-TRCP.org);
the International Asian Pacific Rim Psychotherapy and Counseling Conference 2013 (www.CounselingMalaysia.com);
the World Council of Psychotherapy had its eighth world conference in Malaysia which was organised and chaired by myself: the World Council of Psychotherapy Asia Conference 2015 – www.CounselingMalaysia.com.

I have authored numerous scientific papers published in Academic books edited by reputable psychologists such as Professor Tian Oei, Professor of Clinical Psychology of Queensland University, Australia for the “Handbook of CBT Research and Clinical Practices in Asia” and in the and also authored numerous books including the critically acclaimed “Dancing with Crocodiles”, a corporate psychology book reviewed with said positive notes by the New Straits Times, “Are You Man Enough to be a father”, a book on child psychology and “Love is never enough”, a book on couple relationship that has also received critically review for example by the Star newspaper.

I have founded and published the world’s first Psychology Health magazine (www.Psychology.com.my/PsychologyHealth which is the first magazine in the world to provide psychology health information to the members of the public and we have distributed this magazine to all health practitioner clinics in Malaysia.

I am regularly being consulted by the media for my professional views on various topical topics which have been published in the various media for audience worldwide incuding the recent interview and publication by Bernama and Sin Chew Jit Pao for my views on the arrival of the popular Pokemon go aps in Malaysia: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/07/30/doctor-pokemon-go-may-help-people-with-depression/. My views on the infamous child abusers in Malaysia, Richard Huckle was also sought  and published by the press:https://audioboom.com/boos/4668282-psychotherapist-dr-edward-chan-shares-his-thoughts-on-british-child-sex-abuser-richard-huckle-and-his-victims. I have also been interviewed by RTM to give my views on the rise of mental health diseases which is being broadcasted at the main news section on the world’s mental health day on 10th October 2016. So you can say I am quite an influential person!

However, the achievement I am most proud of is having helped and treated successfully thousands of patients including children, teenagers, adults, couples, families and employees of multinational and other corporate companies for the past twenty years in Malaysia and other parts of the world – the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my) has indeed become truly international through my guidance and we now have given hundreds of consultions to patients throughout Malaysia and the world via Zoom, a video conferencing technology ap which our patients can download free onto their smart phone or lap top to receive the consultation where ever they are in the world and they can do that as group members such as family members and couples because Zoom allow for up to 50 participants to participate at any one time, each with his or her own window.

Just the other day as I was walking on the street I was stopped by this woman whom I have not seen for a few years and she came up to me and say thank you to me because of my treatment several years ago of her son, he has now grown up to be a sucessful teenager.

GetDoc: You seem to be very busy, legal cases taking your time and energy, what keeps you motivated and get back to work every single day?

Dr Edward: Yes I am always busy but as said there is no legal case except for the one I am taking up against Alvin for his defamatory activites.

What keeps me motivated is the joy and pleasure to treat patients, to help them get well again. This is also where I get the material for my teaching, from those early days teaching the Masters programme in Clinical Psychology at UKM and now at the International Psychology Centre’s professional certification psychology and psychotherapy courses where I lead a team of psychologists to train more qualified psychologists in various needed fields of psychology: Child Psychology; Educational Psychology; Adult Psychotherapy; Couple and Marital Therapy; Sex Therapy; Addiction Therapy; Hypnotherapy and Corporate Psychology: please see www.Psychology.com.my/courses for more information on these courses which are accredited by various professional national and international bodies such as the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy (www.MalaysianPsychotherapy.net); the Malaysian Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Association (CBTMalaysia.net); the Psychotherapy chapter of the Malaysian Society for Complementary Medicine; the International Society for Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry: Theory, Research & Clinical Practice (www.ISPCP-TRCP.org); and the World Council for Psychotherapy.

I can discuss about the cases I have with my colleagues from real clinical experience of thousands of patients I have successfully treated instead of the mere academic knowledge of academicians teaching at many universities in Malaysia and around the world. This is the significant difference between the International Psychology Professional Psychotherapy courses and academic courses offered by many universities. So it is a collaborative process. My work is engages me totally. I have enormous passion for my work.  I always have a great passion for life.

Ever since my first degree and even before that, I have a huge drive to learn from different sources, I am very open-minded. That’s why I am able to pioneer all these new treatments in Malaysia – psychonutritional therapies, mental health lab tests; innovative psyhotherapies modalities mentioned above to offer the most effective and safest ways to help my patients get well again.

We also need to have challenges in life so we can move forward in life, do something meaningful in life. I head the Nutritional Therapy and Psychotherapy chapter of the Malaysian society for Complementary Medicine and we are lobbying for government support to recognise and pass a legislation for the practice of psychologists and psychotherapists.

We are hoping to get this done soon. We are doing many things in parallel. As said I am also the president of the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy which has been providing credentialing and training of hundreds of psychologists and psychotherapists.

Nowadays there are a lot of universities churning out psychologists and there have been many interns from numerous universities that we have also provided training. So we are playing a role to provide trained psychologists. We are rallying to get more recognition and awareness of help available for patients with various psychological disorders. The international psychology conferences I have organised and chaired mentioned above were part of my effort to do this.

GetDoc: You are a Fellow of the European Centre for Anti-aging & Regenerative Medicine. Is that one of your interests as well?

Dr Edward: Yes, yes… it is. It started with my father’s Alzheimer’s disease. From that day I took an interest in Nutritional Medicine. I also got specially trained by the European Centre for Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine. I think anti-aging and psychology are two sides of the same coin. It has been found that testosterone, which is an important hormone for men is also necessary for women. When this is found to be low, it has been observed that the person suffers from a very high level depression. All these are age-related factors – our treatment for anti-aging is no different from treating our patients for psychology. In essence, anti-aging is another name for making you psychologically, physically and nutritionally well and at your youthful peak. It is all very holistic, I am quite interested in this mainly because I saw my father suffered quite a lot and am determined to help others from suffering from the same fate of prematurely aging and degenerating.

GetDoc: Finally, what message would you like to send across to our readers?

Dr Edward: Well, I wish to say… Empower yourself, you can make the decision about what treatment is best for yourself. Seeing a psychologist is by no means any reflection that you are weak. Getting help is a sign of strength actually. We empower you; we give you choices and options; we give you skills that will help you for the rest of your life unlike other forms of psychiatric or psychological treatment that made you reliant on their drugs or therapy. We don’t want you to see us longer than necessary; we help you heal yourself! We are partners with you in our shared objectives for you to be well and be at your optimum psychological, physical, relationship and spiritual health!

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Tags

• controversy
• dr edward chan
• Psychologist
• psychonutrition
• Therapy