May has been an interesting month.

With the introduction of the new Phase 2 and after a week, Phase 2 (Heightened Alerted), we have to move our centre operations to more conservative manpower. Staggered work time for my clinicians was made, with a maximum number of team members allowed in the centre at any one time. Schedule for clients was arranged on days where their clinicians are down at the centre.

I have facilitated a webinar on ‘Workplace Stress & Burnout’ for BOC Aviation on 7th May 2021 (Friday). It was well-received by the organisation.

My team has touch-based with the 2021 Executive Committee members of SIM Psychology Society. We are discussing possible collaborations to provide mental health outreach into the community again.

The Lion Mind Website has also undergone a series of major revamp. It is now more user-friendly and clearer, with major recategorization of content.

While this Phase 2 (Heightened Alerted) is not an easy period for many of us, it is important for us to seek professional mental health help.

Do you know the difference between a Counsellor and a Counselling Psychologist? While both are trained to provide quality counselling service, a Counsellor is trained more in-depth to provide counselling services. However, a Counsellor may or may not have a first (bachelor’s) degree in Psychology. Counsellors may proceed to acquire other skills such as Psychological Assessments after they have graduated. Counselling Psychologist spent the same amount of time in their postgraduate as a Counsellor, but the former is also trained in Psychological Assessment, research methodology and research statistics. Thus, a Counselling Psychologist may be able to provide Psychological Test and / or Diagnosis, depending on the graduate training programme. Counselling Psychologists, similar to Counsellors, normally would hone their skills after graduation. TL;DR: Counsellors have more in-depth training and skills in counselling, Counselling Psychologists are more of a generalist (with more variety of skills) in providing counselling and psychological assessments.

As a Counsellor who has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology (NUS), a master’s degree in Counselling (Monash) and graduate training in Counselling Psychology (NTU), I am able to provide some Psychological Tests (MMPI-2, NEO-PI-3, BASC-3, etc), provide in-depth case conceptualization & formulation, and be trained to provide a diagnosis (if needed). Thus, it is important to know what services your mental health clinician is able to provide.

I am happy and excited for our team member – Kevin, who have a wealth of experiences as a mental health clinician (Counsellor, Social Worker), to join us as a Counselling Psychologist / Principal Counsellor at The Lion Mind.

Stay safe! #SGUnited