Singapore is often considered the cross-roads or intellectual and cultural hub of Southeast Asia. Although small in size and population, Singapore is a city-state that is filled with inter-mingling cultures–including in the domain of professional Psychology. Here is an interview conducted by Dr. Lian-Ya (Katrina) Wong with Drs. Mirasol Delmar and Dr. Sunita Rai. Both of these clinical psychologists can speak with considerable authority about the cultural-intermingling of professional psychological perspectives and practices in Singapore. Dr. Delmar lives in Jakarta Indonesia and immigrated from the Philippines in her early 20s. She works in both Indonesia and Singapore as Director of TASE. Dr. Rai lives in Singapore, yet brings her Indian heritage to the work she is doing with her clinical patients. In this interview, Dr. Wong is joined by Dr. William Bergquist, President of the Professional School of Psychology:
Dr. Mirasol Delmar
As a Clinical and Organizational Psychologist, Mirasol focuses her consultancy on both family wellness and family owned business development. She directs the team at TASE (Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia) to offer premium psychological services to the community. She is also TASE principal consultant in training performance and resilience psychology to corporate organizations.
Mirasol has lectured in the tertiary institutions in Singapore with a focus on adolescent development and behavioural and emotion coaching for children. In this regard, she has worked with numerous parents on handling stress and motivation within the family. She runs regular parent support groups at her centre. In alignment with the growth on neuroscience emphasis, she is currently focusing on how cognitive development in integration with emotional expression enhances logical thinking skills to acquire concepts and information that are grounded in social reality.
Dr. Sunita Rai
Sunita has been practicing mindfulness since 2009. She is a trained Mindfulness facilitator and coach. She uses her unique ability to incorporate psychology and mindfulness into an integrated practice when conducting workshops and in her psychotherapy services. She co-develops curriculums at the Centre for Mindfulness using approaches from mindfulness, psychology and wellbeing perspectives. She conducts workshops in mindfulness for the general public, in schools for students and teachers and also in organisations for staff development. She also coaches individuals in mindfulness to help individuals lead fulfilling lives.
In her doctorate research on wellbeing, she had utilised mindfulness as a part of a unique wellbeing model which she developed. She relies on research evidence and her own experience in teaching mindfulness rather than following fad. She is familiar with various Mindfulness applications such as Generic Mindfulness Practices, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindfulness for Stress Management (MBSR), Mindfulness at Workplace, Mindfulness for Psychotherapists and Counsellors, Mindful Parenting, Mindful Couple Relationships, Mindful Coaching, Mindful Teaching, and Mindfulness and Wellbeing.
Sunita has over 22 years of experience in local and regional marketing; corporate training and staff development; psychotherapy and counselling; education; mindfulness; and wellbeing amongst others. She is a skilled facilitator, coach, psychotherapists and lecturer. She has a Doctor of Psychology, Master of Social Science (Counselling), Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Bachelor of Business in Business Administration with Merit (Marketing Major) amongst her many qualifications. She can converse in English, Mandarin and Hindi.
