Dear Friends and Members of the Hong Kong Psychological Society (HKPS),

To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the HKPS, we are pleased to announce that we are hosting a webinar series from 2020-21. We are very honored that we have Dr. Emiliana R. SIMON-THOMAS and Dr. Jennifer YIM as the speakers for our 4th webinar on “Finding happiness even in challenging times”.

Details are as follows:

Date: April 9, 2021 (Friday)
Time: 13:00–14:00

Speakers and abstracts

Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center, where she oversees the GGSC’s fellowship program, is a co-instructor of its Science of Happiness online course and helps run its Expanding Gratitude project.

Emiliana is a leading expert on the neuroscience and psychology of compassion, kindness, gratitude, and other pro-social skills. She earned her doctorate in Cognition Brain and Behavior at UC Berkeley, where her dissertation used behavioral and neuroscience methods to examine how negative states like fear and aversion influence thinking and decision-making. During her postdoc, Emiliana transitioned to studying pro-social states like love of humanity, compassion, and awe. From there, Emiliana served as Associate Director/Senior Scientist at CCARE (the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University), focusing on how compassion benefits health, well-being, and psychosocial functioning.

Today, Emiliana’s work spotlights the science that connects health and happiness to social affiliation, caregiving, and collaborative relationships, as she continues to examine the potential for – as well as the benefits of – living a more meaningful life. In this talk, she will be sharing with us about the “The latest research discoveries about happiness” in the webinar.

Dr. Jennifer Yim is the fellow; approved counselling supervisor; certified counsellor and council member of HKPCA. Registered Social Worker, HK mediator and Mental Health First Aid instructor for youth, adult and elderly. She has rich experiences in counselling, supervision and training, helping numerous youth; adults and families overcome their difficulties and release their suffering. Before joining the TSM Buddhist Spiritual Counselling Center as Center in-charge, she has been working as Associate Master of a College, Head of Student Affairs, Education advisor for the Academy of Gifted Education, counsellor of several universities, family service social worker, mental health group instructor, supervisor of counselling and social work students, visiting lecturer for commercial companies and universities. She has published books and articles on counselling practices, mental health and training manuals on peer counselling.

Inspired by the Buddhist wisdom and its teaching, Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Spiritual Counselling Centre offers professional counselling services to the public to help them alleviate negative emotions, cultivate inner strengths, and to nurture equanimity by incorporating Buddhist wisdom and compassion into their daily living. The presentation will share how Buddhist counselling inspired the service users to transform suffering and to attain happiness in life.

Registration: (http://bit.ly/hkps50webinar4) Please mark down the date and time of the webinar in your diary.

Should you have any inquiry, please contact Mr. Joe NGAI, PhD candidate, at (joe.tkngai@hku.hk). Thank you.