About Joey

Hi, I’m Joey and I am a psychotherapist. For a long time I have been blessed to work in mental health field and am very passionate about supporting people with the difficulties and challenges that life can bring.

As the founder of Healthy Mode Consulting, I have many years of experience working in the hospital psychiatric service and community mental health services, with extensive expertise in treating complex clinical cases. I have completed comprehensive training and supervision in a range of therapeutic approaches for different psychological issues.

I adopt a warm and approachable manner, listening attentively to fully understand how best to support your needs. Many clients have remarked that my therapeutic approach is uniquely effective in addressing issues they had been unable to resolve in the past.

I was originally trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) then was trained in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) for both Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Eating Disorders. Like CBT and DBT, these skill-based interventions are taught using cognitive and behavior-oriented therapeutic techniques and the primary treatment focus is on the present. Through my work with people who experience recurring life patterns, I have come to strongly believe that the origins of problematic patterns and challenging relationships stem from unmet core emotional needs in early life. Feelings generated by unfilled needs are deep and are parts of client’s life that they don’t have cognition. It’s based on an emotional state rather than an intellectual level- it is particularly important to clients who experience complex trauma, attachment disruptions or personality vulnerabilities/disorders because some of these stuck points are deep and doesn’t have as much of a cognitive tone to it.

I started my Schema Therapy (ST) journey in 2022. ST has a strong emphasis on early development and experiential techniques, such as imagery rescripting and chair dialogues, which are extensively used to change the client’s emotional experiences. If the DBT therapist acts as a ‘coach’ for the client, while the ST therapist acts, to a limited extent, as a ‘good parent’ and uses interpersonal problem patterns that arise within the therapeutic relationship to change modes.

The majority of my work is now in Schema Therapy. I have completed trainings accredited by International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) in the field of treating Chronic mood and anxiety disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Avoidant/Dependant Personality Disorders, Complex PTSD and Eating Disorders. I am currently undergoing process to be an ISST Accredited Schema Therapist (Individual). I also integrate skill-based methodologies such as CBT, ACT and DBT into my approach when appropriate. Additionally, I have special interest in working with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) population. I have completed training in the Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and have been using this methodology with OCD clients.

I am a trilingual therapist, apart from English, I also speak Mandarin and Japanese. I am passionate about working with culturally and linguistically diverse clients.