united - Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors (Singapore)

APACS Newsletter, EZINE Issue 2/13 (Restricted to members only)
UNITED
Unity is often descried using the human body to illustrate the
diversity within the various organs and parts. Each individual
part differs from its physical appearance and functions, however the human body is able to coordinate correctly to bring about
the functions of the human body.
As an association, we are different in terms of culture, religion,
education, interests, political inclinations, ideologies, and others
which make us rather diverse. We bring to the table our specialized skills sets to contribute positively to this profession. Therefore, let’s us play a part to elevate the professionalism of psychotherapists and counselors in Singapore.
Apr 2013
Inside this issue
President Message.. ... 2-3
Membership ................. 4
CEU/Supervision........ 5
Skills Enhancement ... 6
Prepare/Enrich ........... 7
Membership ................. 8
Training.......................... 9
Prof Supervision ......... 10
3rd Asia Pacific RIM .. 11
Articles ........................... 12-15
Special points of interest
Membership Development &
Annual report
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Hello dear members,
Trust you are all well and in the pink of health.
Okay we are now into the first quarter of our second year
(remember we started functioning in March 2012) and personally I think we have done rather well.
Below are the KPIs that the committee has set for itself during the commencement of the first year of the two-year term
of office and the achievements.
“When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get
involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”
Anonymous
APAC(S) - KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR
(KPI) EVALUATION
ETHICS
All members are strongly
reminded
to
dis-
(PERIOD MARCH 2012—Feb 2013)
Item
Set KPI
Achieved KPI
%
1.
Membership Growth
100
70
70%
2.
Membership Development
4
4
100%
3.
Social/Fellowship events
2
0
0%
4.
Bridging Course Porgramme
1 intake
1 intake
100%
5.
Skills Enhancement Workshops 4
5
125%
standards of the com-
6.
International
2 visits
2 visits
100%
munity.
Associa-
7.
Manual of Procedures
To complete Completed
100%
tion’s Code of Ethics will
8.
E-zine
3 issues
100%
be featured in the web-
9.
Webpage
To complete Completed
100%
site and members are
10. Appointment of Advisors
5 nos.
5 nos.
100%
required to consult it
11. Community Outreach
2 projects
1 project
50%
charge your counselling
and
therapy
conduct
and behaviour in accordance to the Association’s Code of Ethics and
to the highest ethical
The
when necessary
2
3 issues
I would like to place on record my thanks and appreciation to the following committee members who have worked extremely hard to achieve the
set objectives.
IMPORTANCE OF GROUP
WORK
AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITIES
Membership growth
Membership development
Social/Fellowship
Bridging Course
Skills Enhancement Workshops
International
Manual of Procedures
E-Zine
Webpage
Community outreach programme
All members
Prem Kumar
Jagit Kaur
Abigail Lee
Evelyn Lee
Jeffrey Po
Jeffrey Po
Eugene Chong
Eugene Chong
Wang Chong Lieh
Besides the above, appreciation and thanks also to our very hardworking Hon Secretary Emilia and Hon Treasurer Robert Tai for
having to perform the tedious administrative and accounting tasks
of the Association
We will be setting the new KPIs in our forthcoming monthly committee meeting.
Our membership strength at the moment is about 70 and we plan
to set a target of 200 by end of February 2014. The ability to find
talents will therefore be wider. It is in this direction that I hope
each and every member can help to introduce friends or associates
to the association.
For this year, we plan to commence marketing the association to
various institutions of higher learning that is involved in topics related to counselling, psychotherapy and psychology. We welcome
any of you who can assist in this direction.
The Kuching conference is coming shortly and about 10 members
have registered to participate in this. You are encouraged to join in
and network to meet your colleges from other parts of the world.
So far 100 abstract papers have been accepted.
There are still some of you who have not renewed your membership. Please do so and save some work for our Treasurer. Also
some of practicing members did not submit their personal development log (the blue log book). Kindly do so for our filing records.
The Association will be unable to certify your practice upon request for verification by organisations/institutions if you do not
submit the log book.
We are here for you but we also need your input and assistance if
the Association is to grow from strength to strength.
With all good wishes
Jeffrey Po, Phd
To succeed at the task in
hand everyone involved
needs to combine their
efforts. If everyone does
their job well, then it increases what the team can
accomplish. This teamwork has to be recognised
by everyone and know
that great things can happen if individuals master
the fundamentals and
work together as one unit.
Everyone has their own
unique role, but each person's individual role must
be recognised and appreciated.
Teamwork is something
that must be a high priority and given constant attention.
Every
player
needs to understand how
important it is for them to
work smoothly together if
they want to be successful.
Each player must be dedicated to the whole team
and be willing to act unselfishly. When challenges
arise (as they always do),
the team needs to have the
resources, accountability
and commitment to deal
with them in a constructive and positive manner.
A sense of teamwork will
play an integral part in
this.
Just
remember
T.E.A.M.
Everyone
-
Together
Achieves
More!
3
MEMBERSHIP KIT
All those who have
applied for membership and duly approved by the Association’s
Executive
Committee will be advised as to when they
can come and collect
their membership kit.
MEMBERSHIP
All members are reminded that membership renewal is to be made
before Apr 2013. The renewed subscription will cover the period
The kit will include
the following items:
January through December 2013. For members who have been ac-
Welcome letter
fees related to the accreditation level. In addition, for those who
Membership certificate
Accreditation certificates (when relevant)
Membership card
credited at the various levels, please include in your renewal the
have been accredited to practice kindly submit your counselling
supervision and personal development log form.
Details of accumulation of CEU points are shown in the
“Counselling supervision and Personal development form”. Those
of attended courses/workshops conducted by the following organisations can use the period spend and relate to the CEU points ac-
Association’s consti-
cordingly i.e. full day workshop – CEU 4 points and half day work-
tution
shop – 2 CEU points.
In addition, please update Eugene of your specialised skills and fo-
NEW MEMBERS
cus group via email, eugenechong@seeding-minds.com. This will
1. Harold Tan (Ord)
be updated on the website.
2. Amy Huang (L2)
3. Veronica Cecilia Nathan (L4S)
4. Pang Yew Yang (L1)
Those who hold accreditation certification is reminded that they
shall to clock in 10 hours of clinical supervision and 25 hours of
personal development.
For clinical personal counselling supervision, members are to engage those approved by APACS as clinical supervisors:
5. Chiang Kue Piau (L2)
6. Lambert Chiang Shih
Kao (L4)- Life Member
4
They are:
1. Dr. Jeffrey Po
2. Mr. Prem Kumar
3. Ms. Karen Sng
4. Dr. Indumati
5. Ms. Ellis Lee
6. Mr. David Kan
7. Mr. Robert Tai
8. Ms. Emilia Yee
9. Ms. Nadia Rahimtoola
10. Mr Eugene Chong
11. Ms. Lee Ching Hoon
12. Mr. Peter Gan
CEU POINTS / SUPERVISION
All practitioner members are to note that CEU points to be clocked
in annually before renewal of your registration. Thus, you need to
accumulate 25 points annually. Besides that, professional supervision of 10 hours annually are required for practitioners. Please approach the approved supervisiors under APACS for professional
supervision.
Please bring along your blue card each time to attend the Association's organised workshop or other approved workshop to record
“The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation,
showing, observation and supervision.”
Bruce Barton
the points.
Members can accumulate CEU
points in the following manners:
1. Read a book, watch video/
movie related to counseling, etc
2 points (Max 4 points)
2. Read a journal/magazine related to counselling etc 1 point
(Max 2 points)
3. Attend APACS or affiliated
oragnisations
workshops/
courses, i.e. full day workshop –
CEU 4 points and half day workshop – 2 CEU points.
4. Attend courses/workshops
organized by
 Asia
Pacific Certification
Board
 Regional Human Skills
 We-Care Association Pte Ltd
Singapore Assn for Mental
Health
 Whole Person Center
5. Participate & Presenting papers in International/Domestic
Conferences, 4-6 points (Max 812 points)
6.Conducting/Organising workshops 2 points (Max 4 points)

5
SKILLS ENHANCEMENT WORKSHOPS 2013
Date
Time
Topics
Workshop Trainer
4th May (Sat)
9.00am – 5.00pm
NLP Tech Model
Mr. Robert Tai
6th Jul (Sat)
2.00pm – 5.00pm
Mindful Awareness Teaching in Young
Children
Ms. Lee Ching Hoon
3rd Aug (Sat)
9.00am – 5.00pm Bioprocess underlying anxiety & Counselling anxiety disorder
7th Sept (Sat)
2.00pm – 5.00pm
Fertility Counselling
Ms. Tanja
5th Oct (Sat)
2.00pm – 5.00pm
Meditative Psychotherapy
Dr. Jeffery Po
2nd Nov (Sat)
9.00am –
12.00pm
Understanding personality & Relationship dynamics through MBTI
Mr. Eugene Chong
Contact Evelyn at evelyn_yoke@yahoo.com for more information
6
Dr. Indumathi
TRAINING
PREPARE/ENRICH CERTIFICATION TRAINING
What is PREPARE-ENRICH?
PREPARE/ENRICH is a customized couple assessment completed online that identifies a couple's
strength and growth areas. It is one of the most
widely used Programs for premarital counselling
and premarital education. There are also customized versions of the inventory used for marriage counselling, marriage
enrichment, and dating couples considering engagement. Based on a couple's assessment results, a trained facilitator provides feedback sessions
in which the facilitator helps the couple discuss and understand their results as they are taught proven relationship skills. The PREPARE/ENRICH
programme is developed by Dr David Olson, to help couples prepare for
marriage (PREPARE Programme) and to enrich the marriage for those
already married (ENRICH Programme).
Programme Objectives
This intensive one-day accreditation training workshop is developed for
helping profession individuals to work more effectively with premarital
and married couples. The workshop teaches and certifies participants to
administer, interpret and counsel using PREPARE, PREPARE-MC and ENRICH. This workshop qualifies participants to start using all four Inventories with couples. They are designed to assist counsellors and couples in
focusing objectively on critical relationship issues.
Each inventory is intended to assess areas in which relationships need to
grow and strengths that will enable them to progress in a positive direction. This is an effective instrument to help in enriching the marital lives
of the couples. The PREPARE/ENRICH inventories are comprehensive,
diagnostically valuable and designed to generate a meaningful dialogue
between the counsellor and the couple. The inventories have been scientifically developed to have high levels of reliability, validity and clinical
utility.
Who should attend?
Psychologists / Counsellors / Social Workers / Therapist / Religious
Leaders & those who are involved in marriage preparation training.
Admission Criteria
Possess a relevant tertiary education in Psychology / Counselling or Social
Work and subjected to admission interview .
Seminar Director: Eugene Chong
Date: 11 May 2012
Time: 9am to 4pm
Venue: TBC
For further information, please contact Eugene Chong at eugenechong@seeding-minds.com, or 94774227. You can visit the website
for more information.
Our association engages
itself with continuous
learning opportunities
for the practitioner to
improve and learn from
a more holistic manner.
Therefore, we have our
monthly workshop that
is happening on a
monthly basis and if you
are a practitioner, come
and be refresh by others
who are also in this field
of work. Such sessions
is important for individual and group growth.
Dear Members,
The Association will
be conducting the
Bridging Courses on
the stated dates
Schedule:
1.Counselling
Skills
(16-17 Mar 2013) Prem Kumar
2.Biopsychology (1314 Apr 2013) - Robert
Tai
3.Developmental Psychology (18-19 May
2013) - Abigail Lee
Contact Abigail at abigailleeys@yahoo.com.
sgfor motre information.
7
MEMBERSHIP GATHERING & DEVELOPMENT
APACS had the first
membership gathering
and development function on the 9th March
2013 and was held in
one
of
the
seminar
room in SMU. Total attendance was 40 and
new members were enrolled into the associaPresident Jeffery present token of appreciation to Mr. Brown
Pereira
tion. Key highlights of
this event is to introduce the association new legal advisor Mr. Brown
Pereira. ACA president
and CEO gave a talk on
the professional registration and accountability. Guest speaker Dr.
Joshua Kua
from Raf-
fles Counselling Centre
shared his experiences
when dealing with depressed clients.
8
Dr. Joshua Kua from Raffles Counselling Centre
The participants who came for the membership development
NEWS SNIPPETS
PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION COURSE—INTAKE 2
The Association conducted an intensive 5-day course on
Counseling Supervision. The course trainer was Mr. Philip
Armstrong, the CEO of Australian Counselling Association.
The following members graduated: Mr. Eugene Chong, Ms.
Nadia Rahimtoola, Ms. Emilia Yee, Ms. Lee Ching Hoon, Mr.
Peter Gan & Mr. David Kan.
CONGRATULATIONS!
WORKSHOP ON CLINICAL
HYPNOSIS & OBESITY
(Organized by London College of Clinical Hypnosis
Asia)
Presented by Matthew
Krouwel, MBSCH, LCCH
expert from UK
Date: 9 April 2013 (Tues)
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Venue : London College of
Clinical Hypnosis Asia
NUS Staff Club
NUS Kent Ridge
Philip evaluating Eugene (right) and Peter
(left) with Nadia as the critique
Contact : 6557 2248 /
9822 5224 (Mobile No)
ADMISSION IS FREE
(LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS ONLY)
Emilia, Ching Hoon and David role play assignment
For more details, please
email : info@hypnosissingapore.com
9
Philip evaluating (L to R) Ching Hoon, Emilia and Eugene
TRAINING CONDUCTED
President Jeffrey participating in “Singapore Conversation”
on the topic of Addiction and role of SANA
APACS Member Gilbert Goh offering some skills with regards to counseling and providing support for couples who
had separated or divorced.
APACS Member Abigail (Chair of bridging course, 3rd from
left) posing with participants in Counselling Theory course
10
CLINCAL SUPERVISION
3rd Asia Pacific Rim International Counselling
& Psychotherapy Conference 2013
This is an intentional conference on counseling and psychotherapy
and if you are interested to learn from experienced trainer
throughout the world, please do not miss out this opportunity.
Registration for delegates is now open. Kindly contact Dr Jeffery
(96188153) for the registration form. Early bird discount closes on
the 1st March 2013. However, normal registration is still open.
Clinical supervision is
emerging as the crucible
in which counselors acquire knowledge and
skills for the substance
abuse treatment profession, providing a bridge
between the classroom
and the clinic. Supervision
is necessary to improve
client care, develop the
professionalism of clinical
personnel, and impart and
maintain ethical standards
in the field. In recent
years, clinical supervision
has become the cornerstone of quality improvement and assurance.
Therefore with such emphasis, it is important for
a practitioner to be supervised in order to maintain
the level of service to the
consumers.
11
ANALYSIS OF REBT
(Contributed my Ms Fadzilah Bte Abdul Rahman
ARTICLES CONTRIBUTION
You are welcome to contribute articles to the
EZINE. Do take note of
some of the basic criteria
when submitting your article.
1. Max 500 words
2. Professionally Written
(Formal)
3. Engagement of thoughts/
reflections
4. Citation and Referencing
required
5. Plagiarism will not be
tolerated
6. APA format
)
The Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) originated in January 1955 as a pioneering cognitive experientialbehavioral system of psychotherapy. It was developed by Albert
Ellis, a renowned figure in the psychology field. Since its inception, REBT had evoked very strong reactions, both positive and
negative from mental health professionals. REBT’s cornerstone
being the ABCD Model, serves as a profoundly encompassing
and concurrently simple approach in looking at every single behavior imagined (Ellis, 1962, 1994).
According to ABCD Mode, the first letter ‘A’ denotes an
individual’s experience that serves as an activating event at a
particular time. On experiencing said activating event, sequentially it may be deemed that said particlar activating event had
triggered or caused the overt responding behavior which letter
‘C’ denotes. However, in actual fact, it is an individual’s belief,
where the letter ‘B’ denotes, that consequent said overt responding behavior in face of said activating event. Hence, an
event does not cause a responding behavior but instead the be-
"The Editor reserves the
right to reject, amend and
edit submitted articles
without prior consultation
with contributors"
"Articles published offers
the views of the writer only
and does not infer and/or
carry the official endorsement, support
or expressed opinion of
the Association"
lief in face of an event is instrumental for the responding behavior. Thus; being able to identify the troubling belief that resulted
in the display of targeted unacceptable behavior, will enhance
the need to challenge said belief and replaced or displaced said
belief with a rational one so as a more reasonable behavior may
prevail (David D., 2005).
As a whole, REBT Therapy is a self-described
“humanistic existential approach to human problems and their
solutions, differentiating between rational and irrational beliefs
12
of the client (A.Ellis and W.Dryden, 1997).
REBT is truly multimodal in techniques within a theo-
retical framework, and although it postulates that some methods are
more efficient than others, REBT particularly emphasized cognitive disputing, rational-emotive imagery and also in vivo behavioral homework
assignment, which in sum certainly proves that it is not mere disputing
belief session or too limited in scope.
REBT is simple in theory but that does not mean REBT is simple
in practice. (Saltzberg,1980). Efforts, thinking and follow through actions
are required. So, although the model seems simple, but doing therapy is
not. They have to search for the most appropriate cognitive, emotive and
behavioral interventions. A lot of effort is needed along the process. There
is a number of pitfalls where therapists could fall into; that includes therapist need’s the client approval, therapists believe client is awful and therapists trying to find a closure by the end of the session. There are indeed
other problems such as too much lecturing, seeing one problem over another and etc (Harris, 1977).
REBT is flexible and comprehensive system that can be used to
help people who are in dilemma. It is covers step-by-step process that are
practical, logical and practicable without having to spend awful amount of
money visiting psychologist, therapist or being overly dependent on others.
Although we are not here to influence people’s view on believing
in REBT, but it helps to raise the knowledge of REBT’s real intent before
jumping into decision about REBT based on what they hear and perhaps
from what they self-belief.
References
Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy. New York: Stuart.
Ellis, A. (1994). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy (rev. ed.). Secaucus,
NJ: Birscj Lane.
David D, Szentagotai A, Eva K, Macavei B. (2005). A Synopsis of RationalEmotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT); Fundamental and Applied Research.
Springer
Science+Business
Media,
Inc.
A.Ellis and W.Dryden. The Practice of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy,
Second Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1997.
Saltzerg L and Elkins R, (1980). An Examination of Common Concerns
about Rational-Emotional Therapy.
Harris, R. RET: Simple but not easy. Rational Living, 1977, 12(2), 9-12
13
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING IN FAMILY NEGLECTED ELDERLY
(Contributed by Mr Karel Karstan)
Statistics showed an increasing number of the elderly population.
Data from United Nations showed that in 2050, it is estimated that there
will be two billion people in the world in which elderly population is bigger than children (aged 0-14 years old) population (United Nations,
2009). With higher life expectancy, as a result of advanced science and
technology in the medical and environmental field, and without proper
psychological treatment in the elderly population, psychological wellbeing in the elderly will surely be problematic.
Economic pressures in Jakarta raises increasing trends of putting
their elderly in the nursing home (Setiyoko, 2011). Elderly living in the
nursing homes often feel isolated, lonely, and demotivated (Hicks, 2000).
Not only putting their elderly in the nursing home, almost about 25% of
the population in the nursing home in our study consists of elderly who
has been neglected by their family. This condition is very vulnerable for
elderly being depressed, apathy, or even demented.
We tried to explore the dynamic of subjective well-being in the
family-neglected elderly. Subjective well-being consists of four components: overall life satisfaction, specific life satisfaction (in the family), positive affects, and negative affects (Diener, 2000). An in-depth interview
was conducted to three elderly (one female).
Our study showed that subjective well-being depends mostly on
the perceived experience and adaptability of the elderly. By this, we could
say that subjective well-being is a psychological construct which is, as it
named, very subjective. Among all elderly we investigated, they shared
the same experience: neglected by family in more than one year. However,
they have different level of subjective well-being. An elderly (AA) being
interviewed said, “when I miss my family, I would ask to the nurse to visit
my family and come back to nursing home later in the evening.” This
showed how he could adapt to the situation, leaving off their ‘prestige’ or
‘elderly’ status that ‘I am the one shall be visited, not the one who come to
them’. The other elderly (AH) said, “I miss my family.. but I don’t know what
else to do others than waiting and watching news in television because I
fear something bad happened to my wife and youngest daughter.” Another
elderly (S) said in desperate, “what else I can do.. there’s nothing in life I
could be proud of. My life is full of pain and unworthy. My family just does
not love me.” AH and S showed stiff and inflexible perspective in the fami-
14
ly. They have very ideal condition that they would probably never be able
to achieve. However, their inflexibility in viewing life put them in the condition of ‘learned helplessness’ that leave them in the depressed, unsatisfied condition.
In the life of AA, we also found the protective factors that maintain his level of subjective well-being. First factor is religiosity. This result
is also supported by several studies that showed how religiosity is correlated with people’s happiness (Halama, Martos, & Adamovova, 2010; Abdel-Khalek, 2010; Henricksen & Stephens, 2010). Religiosity will keep
elderly put trust in the divine source that they believe would grant something good to them in the not-so-good situation they face. Another factor
is Selective Optimization of Compensation (SOC). SOC is a concept defined
by Baltes (in Papalia, Wendkos-Olds, & Duskin-Feldman, 2008). In SOC,
elderly would selectively choose experience in which they could engage in
based on their ability, and become optimal in that experience, as the compensation function of what they could not be able to achieve. In the life of
AA, when he realized that he could not be back to his family, he chooses to
think that residents and nurses are also part of his family. He then nurtures, cares, and helps his relations as if they are his family, as a part of his
adaptive compensation of something he thought he could not achieve.
This study shares some lessons in the counseling areas, especially
in the gerontology field. There is strong urgency in focusing the well being
in the elderly. Much attention shall be made to the family-neglected elderly because it is very vulnerable condition of the psychopathological syndromes, such as: depression, dementia, and psychophysiological symptoms. For the family-neglected elderly, a counseling can focus on humanistic approach as well as training elderly to develop SOC strategies and
spirituality.
References
Abdel-Khalek, A.M. (2010). Quality of life, subjective well-being, and religiosity in
Muslim college students. Qual Life Res, (19), 1133-1143.
Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal
for a national index. American Psychologist, 55(1), 34-43.
Halama, P., Martos, T., & Adamovova, L. (2010). Religiosity and well-being in Slovak and Hungarian student samples: The role of personality trait. Studia Psychologica (52)2, 101-115
Hicks, T.J. (2000). What is your life like now?: Loneliness and elderly individuals
residing in nursing homes. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 26(8): 15-20.
Papalia, D.E., Wendkos-Olds, S., & Duskin-Feldman, R. (2007). Human development
(10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Setiyoko, E. (2011). Terlalu! Ingin Lebaran dengan Asyik, Para Lansia Diungsikan
ke Panti Jompo. Retrieved from http://www.republika.co.id/berita/
ramadhan/pernik-lebaran/11/08/19/lpqpwd-terlalu-ingin-lebaran-denganasyik-para-lansia-diungsikan-ke-panti-jompo.
United Nations. (2009). World population ageing. Retrieved from http://
www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPA2009/
WP2009_WorkingPaper.pdf
15
Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors
(Singapore)
Association of Psychotherapists
and
Counsellors
Singapore
(APACS) is an association for all
practitioners in the healthcare
sector who are keen to be part of
this big family of helping professionals. Although most of us in
the association are psychotherapist, psychologist, counsellor, or
social worker, we welcome other
healthcare professional to join us.
Thus, the approach to meet the
individual or family in a holistic
manner.
Association of Psychotherapists &
Counsellors (Singapore)
Primary Business Address
Blk 124, Hougang Ave 1, #01-1450, Singapore 5301244
E-mail: secretariat@apacs.org.sg
Website: www.apacs.org.sg
STAY TOGETHER AS ONE