Dr Alvin Ng Lai Oon is a Professor at the Department of Psychology under the School of Medical and Life Sciences at Sunway University, Malaysia. He is a clinical psychologist by training, previously attached to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) for 11 years as an instructor and practitioner in clinical psychology. He serves as an Honorary Associate Professor at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, UK, an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, UK, and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Dr Ng’s research areas include mental health literacy, positive psychology, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and cross-cultural factors in psychotherapy.
While no longer in clinical practice, Dr Ng is a passionate advocate of mental health literacy and gives numerous talks on mental health and psychology. He is very involved in initiatives that promote public mental health and professional training in mental health issues, appearing on radio and in the news media. He won the 2017 EduCoop National Outstanding Educator (Psychology) Award in recognition of his contributions towards the development of psychology in Malaysia. Recently, he won the 2020 University of East Anglia Engagement Award for Group Achievement together with his collaborators from UEA, Prof Sian Coker and Dr Paul Fisher.
Dr Ng recently chaired and hosted the 7th Asian Cognitive Behavior Therapy Conference 2021, that received over 7,400 registered participants from more than 80 countries. He is currently the Secretary of the Asian Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association, and was the Founder President of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology that he helped establish in 2010.