Introduction to Psychology Matters Asia

Published on April 25, 2011

It is an exciting event to launch Psychology Matters Asia, or Psych Mat Asia as we like to refer to it, after months of hard work. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this site. It is our earnest hope that Psych Mat Asia becomes a useful information hub for mental health professionals and their clientele in the Asia region.

This portal was created for several reasons. First, there are currently no extensive listing of psychotherapists across Asia that exist online.  Such a register of psychotherapists would be extremely useful to those persons seeking psychotherapy for the first time and who are looking for a therapist in their particular city or even a specific locality within that city. To this end, Psych Mat Asia provides a way for psychotherapists to list their names, location and contact details.  This makes it possible or potential clients to find a therapist in their locale.  In addition, the psychotherapist register available on Psych Mat Asia permits psychotherapists to list their areas of experience; this will help clients find therapists who have experience in their particular problem e.g. adult ADHD, perfectionism etc.  There is also a “premium” listing available that provides flexibility to the listed entity on how they would like to reach out to the clients they want to target. This enables clients to find therapists who use a particular kind of treatment that the client prefers e.g. cognitive behavioural treatment for depression. 

The second motivation is to have an online therapist listing which could be used by psychotherapists to refer a client to an appropriate therapist in another region of Asia. From time to time, psychotherapy clients may be forced to relocate to another part of Asia because of their job or other reasons.  In fact over the years, with the increasing economic growth of Asia combined with globalization, this is becoming a more frequent occurrence. This website is the brain child of Dr. Brian Scott, a clinical psychologist currently based in Singapore. Having worked previously in Hong Kong and Malaysia, Dr. Scott had gone through these process of referrals. Sometimes he would know of a psychotherapist in the region they were moving to, but most times that is not the case.  The psychotherapist listing facility of Psych Mat Asia permits one to do this.  It allows one to select a therapist who has appropriate experience for our client’s issue and can continue using the same modality of treatment that has been utilized. 

A third reason for creating Psych Mat Asia was to provide an online opportunity for the exchange of information about mental health services and practices in the Asian region.  To this end, this initial version of Psych Mat Asia provides a platform for mental health professionals to write and post articles on some topic relevant to mental health in Asia.  It is then possible to search this data base for any particular topic e.g. treatment of gambling addiction. It is our hope to build up a data base of information specifically on topics of interest to psychotherapist working in the Asian context, as well as for our readers who may be looking for information on issues they are experiencing. 

In summary to mental health workers, Psych Mat Asia provides a way for mental health workers in Asia to post articles, share their therapeutic experiences, and discuss with other professionals ways to improve their psychotherapeutic efforts. To people seeking therapy, our listing of therapists can help you make a more informed decision on who can better help you with your issues.

In the future, we hope to add the useful features, for example:
• List job openings for mental health professionals in the Asia region
• A section where mental health professionals could indicate that they are looking for a particular job.
• Announcement of courses, workshops and seminars which are necessary for continuing education requirements of various professional associations.

If you have any information you would like to provide on any of the above topics please email us at admin@psychologymatters.asia or use the inquiry form in the About PM.A page.

A request for your assistance in improving and expanding Psych Mat Asia
Although the current website is the result of months of preparation we realize that it is still a work in progress. In order to make it more useful we need feedback and suggestions from you, the reader.  It will take time to smooth out the various functions of this website.  We will need your patience, comments, and suggestions to develop the website and its data base. Our objective is to provide a useful information portal for both mental health professionals and for the consumers of mental health services here in Asia.  We would be most appreciative of any ideas you might have how this website could be expanded to better meet your needs.


Category(s):Other

Written by:

Psych Mat Asia Editor

Psychology Matters Asia Editor