Meet the Team
Our journey was long in the making. Since 2014, our directors have been collaborating as a diverse team of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and counsellors to promote family therapy in Malaysia – culminating in the setting up of the Andolfi Family Therapy Centre in 2021. Here's a quick introduction to the team.
Honorary Consultant
Prof. Maurizio Andolfi
Maurizio Andolfi, is a family therapist who initially trained as a child psychiatrist. He lived in New York City in the early 70’s where he worked extensively in the South Bronx, and later in South Philadelphia with disadvantaged families.
During his time in the USA, Andolfi studied with Salvador Minuchin, Jay Haley, as well as Carl Whitaker in the following years.
Dr. Andolfi is Professor of Psychology at La Sapienza (University of Rome), Director of the Accademia di Psicoterapia Familiare in Rome Italy, and Editor-in-Chief of the Italian family therapy journal: Terapia Familiare.
In 1999 he was the winner of an American Association of Marital & Family Therapy award for Special Contribution to Marital and Family Therapy. He's the Co-Founder of the European Family Therapy Association and the past-President of the Italian Family Therapy Society. He contributes to the Andolfi Family Therapy Centre by providing training and supervision.
Counsellors
Bawany Chinapan
Bawany is a passionate educator on issues of couple and family functioning, and she's a trained family therapist with ongoing clinical supervision with an internationally renowned master family therapist, Professor Maurizio Andolfi from Italy.
To spread the knowledge, Bawany has been teaching marital and family therapy in a local university's master’s programme and has conducted talks and training in Malaysia, Indonesia, and India.
She has a plethora of qualifications in different modalities of counselling and psychotherapy. And helps people to deal with mental health challenges including stress and trauma.
Darrel Lourdes
Darrel has a master's in counselling (HELP, Malaysia), a graduate diploma in couples and family therapy (Italy), and a certificate in family therapy (Australia). He is supervised by Professor Andolfi, a master family therapist and David Hong, a family therapist with over 30 years of experience.
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Before getting into counselling, he worked at Intel and Shell for over 20 years. He was the HR Director of Shell before pursuing a career in counselling.
David Hong
David Hong is a practising family & couples therapist in Australia with over 30 years of clinical experience; he works with children and adolescents with serious emotional, behavioural, and mental health issues along with their families. David has a special interest in working with ADHD and family systems, and also school refusal and school systems.
David launched the inaugural Graduate Certificate of Family Therapy programme in 2015. Since then, he has been supervising his students to support their ongoing clinical development.
Always a student, since 2005, David has been undergoing advanced training and supervision under the guidance of Professor Andolfi, a master family therapist and trained child psychiatrist. He has attended the Intensive Experiential Clinical Practicum and “The use of self of the therapist” at the prestigious Accademia di Psicoterapia Familiare in Rome, Italy. In 2016, David was invited to attend the Supa-meta Practicum in Todi, Umbria, Italy with 18 family therapists from around the world. And since January 2020 he has been part of the European Family Therapist supervision group conducted by Professor Andolfi.
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Dato Dr. Lai Fong Hwa
Dato' Dr Lai is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist who has been practising medicine for 34 years and uses a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care. He graduated in medicine (1987) and psychiatry (1994) from University Malaya and trained in child & adolescent psychiatry in Oxford, UK from 2001 – 2002. He is also a psychotherapist who qualified in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (Academy of Cognitive Therapy USA) in 2009 and Family Therapy (Accademia di Psicoterapia della Famiglia, Rome) in 2018.
While serving in Hospital Pulau Pinang from 1994 to 2019, Dato’ Dr Lai established smart partnerships with NGOs to expand Penang's mental health and special education services. After UNICEF-sponsored trauma response training in 2007, Dr Lai established a trauma response team in Penang.
After retiring from government service, Dato’ Dr Lai consults part-time at two private hospitals in Penang. He also conducts psychotherapy at a private centre. Dato’ Dr Lai conducts family therapy training for his alma mater, Accademia di Psicoterapia della Famiglia (Rome). After 22 years, Dato’ Dr Lai continues to teach at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and University College Dublin Medical College in Penang.
Dato' Dr Lai's numerous contributions to mental health services in Penang were recognised with 4 awards from the Governor of Penang, including the title Dato' in 2016. In 2006, the Governor named Dato' Dr Lai, Tokoh Orang Kurang Upaya Pulau Pinang. With 2% central vision, Dato' Dr Lai reads and writes independently with the help of apps and devices.
Loh Poh Yee
Poh Yee spent a good 13 years working as a geologist before pursuing her passion for mental health. Her years in a corporate setting make her an effective therapist to guide you through anxiety, burnout, self-doubt, loss of identity, depression, lack of motivation, etc, using the systemic lens. Poh Yee believes in maintaining an open mind to accept, celebrate and embrace the diversity of humankind. Poh Yee is a licensed counsellor and Malaysia Marriage and Family Therapy Association (MyMFT) committee member. Poh Yee is also a licensed yoga teacher who believes in the alignment of the body, breathing and mind for our overall wellbeing.
Sarah Zehan
As a clinical psychologist, Sarah provides assessments and psychotherapy for individuals who are going through mental health related difficulties like depression, anxiety, and stress. She also works with individuals who are going through relationship and attachment-related issues.
In working with children and adolescents, Sarah provides assessments for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Sharmilla Bt Abdullah
Sharmilla is a registered and licensed practising counsellor who works with individuals, couples and families. She holds a Master of Counseling and a Post Graduate Diploma in Multi-Generational Family Therapy (Accademia di Psicoterapia della Famiglia, Rome ).
She is committed to providing her clients with a safe, confidential and non-judgemental environment to work through their concerns together.
Before pursuing her passion of becoming a counsellor, she worked in the banking industry for nine years.
Yvonne Teo
Yvonne journeys with her clients to work on issues arising from interpersonal relationships and the wider family system, and she does this by bringing together her clients and their families.
In the past, Yvonne was with the YWCA Vocational Training Opportunity Centre, where she counsels young women and girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Today, she volunteers in various religious organisations to provide psychological support to adolescents, young adults, elderly individuals, as well as couples and families who struggle through challenges. Yvonne holds a Master of Counselling and a Graduate Certificate of Family Therapy Programme (The Delta Clinic, Australia), and she’s registered with the Board of Counsellors Malaysia.
Cheryl Chin Yi Fen
Cheryl is a dedicated and experienced registered and licensed counselor. She sees individuals, couples and families in her clinical work. Her journey into the field began with work surrounding trauma, grief and loss, crisis intervention and then she further ventured into emotion, systemic and relational work in both clinical and corporate settings.
Cheryl holds a masters in counseling, certification in family therapy (Australia) and graduate diploma in multigenerational family therapy (Italy), supervised by Prof. Dr. Maurizio Andolfi. Additionally, she completed her training in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), supervised by the creator of EFT, Dr. Leslie Greenberg (Canada). She is also trained as a family consultant in collaborative practice, managing divorce and separation cases together with lawyers and team. She strongly believes that a breakdown of marriage does not have to be the breakdown of family.
Minnie Chang
Minnie holds a Masters in Counselling from HELP University and a Graduate Certificate of Family Therapy from the Andolfi Family Therapy Center. When working with clients, she tends to utilize the systemic-focused approach to guide clients in sessions. Minnie has worked with individuals, couples and families. Some of which includes individuals with experience of trauma, loss, addiction, relationship concerns and work-related concerns as well with children with learning needs in schools.
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Minnie believes that each person is the expert of their own life and needs a space to feel safe when exploring their own past or experiences of life. She is committed to help clients find effective ways to manage life transitions by being the empathetic helper to journey alongside clients, empowering and holding space in the course of this journey.
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Intern Counsellors
Rachael D'Rozario
Rachael is a biotechnologist turned youth worker, holds a Masters in Counselling from HELP University and completed her Graduate Certification of Family Therapy at Andolfi Family Therapy Center. She's passionate about accompanying people on their journey through life and helping them to discover the resources that are available to them to help them thrive. She is developing her skills in family counselling at the Andolfi Family Therapy Centre.
Ng Tsu Mae
Tsu Mae has completed her Graduate Certification of Family Therapy at Andolfi Family Therapy Center and is pursuing her Masters in Counselling at HELP University. She is developing her skills in individual and family counselling using a systemic lens. Her desire is to enable her clients to navigate life transitions and move forward with self-acceptance, resolving areas of persistent “stuck-ness.”
Her areas of interest include family therapy, mid-career counselling and transitions, life transitions and acceptance, financial therapy, and third culture children and individuals. She has over 20 years of corporate experience in financial services industry at small and large organizations and has grown up living in different countries.
Special Advisors
Datin Indranee Liew
Datin Indranee has 31 years of teaching experience in Malaysia & England. Her experience teaching in England developed into a passion for training teachers in positive teaching strategies and classroom behaviour management. She works with children and adolescents in school settings to develop learning skills and emotional regulation.
A HRDF Certified trainer, Indranee consults to schools on the UK curriculum (IGCSE) and teacher development. Indranee has presented 21 papers at conferences and is also very active in community work pertaining to mental health and education. She sits on the Penang Education Council and Wawasan Open University (Penang) research ethics board. Indranee also acts as an English speaking examiner for a renowned UK university.
