Junmei Wan

Junmei has received rigorous training and supervision in the person-centred and psychodynamic approaches at the University of Edinburgh and subsequently Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. EFT is an experiential approach supported by research findings, aiming to bridge the emotional and rational brain to transform maladaptive emotions into adaptive ones.

Previously, Junmei was a research scientist in the industry of designing aircrafts and spaceships to explore outer space. Her interest switched to being a people helper following a calling 15 years ago. Currently, she is a researcher in the area of psychotherapy and counselling, the exploration of our inner space. Her research interest is in understanding the effect and changing mechanisms of innovative therapeutic approaches.

Junmei has experimented with the integration of EFT with creative activities, such as performance arts and prayer. Additionally, through accompanying people in exploring their inner space, she has experienced with them, that in the depth of our pain, there is strength, resilience, and unrelenting yearning for meaning and love. “Training in a foreign culture was a humbling, strengthening and life-changing experience for me, which helped me to understand my own pain, for example, the feeling of being an ‘other’ in a deeper way”.

Junmei believes in working with clients collaboratively, trusting the agency and growth tendency within them, facilitating them to explore, understand and transform their relationships with self and others in a safe environment. She sees the clients as an expert of their own experience, and the therapist as an expert of the process.

Junmei has worked with people who have depression, social anxiety, low self-esteem, transitions/cultural adaptation, grief and loss, self-harm, addiction, trauma and relational issues.