Professional Experience

Irene is a clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist with more than a decade’s worth of experience working with adults across the lifespan. She is passionate about working with people facing life’s challenges and emotional disturbances. She conducts psychological assessments, short-term interventions, ongoing treatments, consultations and trainings. She treats a wide range of presentations including ADHD, anger, depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, anxiety disorders, OCD, personality disorders, grief and loss, relationship issues, parenting and family issues, adjustment issues, work stress, health-related issues and more. She is especially experienced in helping people suffering from chronic pain issues to effectively self-manage their condition and restore their quality of life.

Irene brings with her extensive experience from her previous roles at a non-governmental organisation and public hospital, where she developed and implemented individual therapy and group programs across multiple settings including Family Medicine, Primary Health Care, Medical (Pain Clinic) and Psychiatry. At our private practice, she is enthusiastic to contribute her knowledge and expertise to provide mental health support for both Cantonese and English-speaking communities.

Irene is warm and empathic, and deeply treasures her relationship with her clients. In her sessions, she takes a respectful, personable and collaborative approach. While skills and strategies may be considered the “hardware” of therapy, she focuses more on the “software” by helping her clients develop deeper self-understanding and identify their underlying emotional needs.

Irene believes that everyone is unique and so is each person’s experience with their suffering and obstacles. Instead of pushing this common humanity away, she actively listens to her clients’ stories, helping them accept the presence of life’s ups and downs, while simultaneously practising self-care and opening up new opportunities together.

Irene is trained in various evidence-based approaches including CBT, ACT, DBT and mindful self-compassion. She adopts a combination of therapeutic approaches depending on each client’s style, emotional needs and goals. She particularly enjoys ACT, which focuses on gaining awareness of how our past influences our present decisions, and enhances our psychological flexibility for uncertainties ahead. She even applies this technique to her own life, as it inspires her to embrace and accept life’s adversities with self-compassion and proceed with self-care.

She shares this quote by renowned psychologist Steven C. Hayes, “The process of living is like taking a very long road trip. The destination may be important, but the journey experienced day to day and week to week is what is invaluable.”

When she isn’t working, Irene enjoys spending quality time with her family in nature, going on road trips with friends, and watching the wild birds on her balcony. Simple pleasures like looking up at the sky and watching the clouds move slowly can make her day.