Biography
Ching Mey See (PhD) is a Professor at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. She held the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network) position for 5 years and the Quality Assurance Manager position for 4 years. She engaged the industry and community with the University for research; consultancy; knowledge transfer; and industry/community engagement projects and activities.
Professionally she is an educational and counselling psychologist. Prof. See is a prominent leader in the field of psychology, counseling, special education and community/industry engagement.
Nationally, she is the Secretary of the Board of Directors, Association of Resource & Education for Autistic Children; a volunteer principal of Lions REACH; and a member of Board for Counselors (2000-2012). She is the founding President of the Penang Counselling and Psychology Association (PACP).
On the international front, Prof. See is a Regional Vice-President for East-Asia, International Play Association (IPA); Executive Council Member, International Association for Counseling (IAC); Regional Director of Asia-Pacific, National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC); Council Member, National Board of Certified Counselors International (NBCC-I); Board Member, Asia-Pacific Association of Psychotherapists (APAP); and Past President of the Association of Psychological and Educational Counselors of Asia-Pacific (APECA).
She has published 20 academic books and more than 250 international and national academic journal papers/chapters. She has also presented over 350 academic papers at national and international seminars and conferences on counseling, psychology, mental health, special education and community engagement.
She is the Chief Editor for two international journals and an Editorial Board Member for 8 international journals.
Keynote address
Title: Mind-Body Connection: The Role of Helping Professionals
Abstract
The mind is thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and images. The brain is the hardware that allows us to experience these mental states. Mental states can be fully conscious, subconscious or unconscious. We can have emotional reactions to situations without being aware of why we are reacting. The mind-body connection discusses mental processes that affect our physical state. Our thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. This results in a complex interrelationship between our minds and bodies. Mind-body therapy focuses on treatments that may promote health and wellness. Some examples are cryotherapy, hydrotherapy, meditation, mindfulness training, yoga, massage, music therapy, qi-gong, neurofeedback, biofeedback, acupressure, acupuncture, aromatherapy, craniosacral therapy, hypnotherapy, visual imagery and many others.
Biofeedback relies on instruments to provide a feedback that allows an individual to gain control over a physiological activity for the purpose of improving health and performance. Neurofeedback is a field within biofeedback that trains control over electro-chemical processes in the human brain with specific protocols to elicit desirable brainwave activity. Biofeedback and neurofeedback use the positive reward system. Biofeedback and neurofeedback provide a type of evidence-based practice that is expanding within the health care establishment. Variations such as muscle-brain, hypothalamus-pituitary, gut-brain and heart-rate-variability axes will be discussed too.
In this presentation, the focus is on the role of helping professionals in using various mind-body therapies. Mind-body therapies can be helpful for many conditions because they encourage relaxation, improve coping skills, reduce tension and pain, and lessen the need for medication. By using mind-body therapies, clients are able to reduce somatic, stress induced illness, emotional traumas and anxiety to find inner peace and self-discovery.
