I’m writing this blog to get a discussion going. Malaysia is a fascinating place to be a psychologist. There are very few existing psychological services so we need to develop them. Most Malaysians aren’t aware of how a psychologist might be helpful so we need to explain what we do in an accessible way. There are challenges and differences between cultures which mean that approaches used in other countries with well-developed psychological services may not be appropriate here.
I’m going to write-up my experiences and the dilemmas that I’m facing on this blog. I’ll explain my reasoning and discuss why I’ve made certain decisions. I’d really appreciate any opinions, comments, ideas and suggestions you may have. If you’re thinking that ‘you’ doesn’t include you …. it does:
I think everybody’s opinion is valid. If you’re a clinical psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor, teacher, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, nurse, medical doctor or any other professional that’s brilliant – I want to hear from you. However, I’m equally interested in what non-professionals have to say. If you just happen to have an interest in psychology – let me know what you think. If you, a friend, partner or relative have tried using psychological services then I’d really like to know what you think.
If you live in Malaysia then your opinions will be interesting because they’ll be based on similar experiences. If you live in another middle-income or developing country then it would be great to hear about the differences or similarities in the situations that you’ve come across. If you live in a wealthy country with well-developed psychological services then it would be good to know which parts of your system you’d want to keep and which you’d want changed.
There’s a comments section at the bottom of every blog post that I write. Feel free to ask me any question or make any comment that you like. I will moderate it and remove anything that looks like spam or is abusive towards others. I openly welcome constructive criticism so if you want to say that you disagree with me that’s fine. So do go ahead and use the comments section (at the bottom of this post or any other).