This paper examines the clinical application of Buddhist-informed psychotherapy through a case illustration of Dharma Therapy. Grounded in the Buddha’s suffering-elimination framework and the core principle of Dependent Origination (Sik, 2010), Dharma Therapy offers a distinct therapeutic model for counselling practice. This descriptive case study explores the implementation of Dharma Therapy across nine counselling sessions with a participant experiencing psychological distress. Three core research aims guide this work: (a) to qualitatively depict the lived experience of Dharma Therapy from the perspective of a distressed individual; (b) to generate contextualised practice documentation for Buddhist counsellors, outlining the unique procedural steps of Dharma Therapy for suffering reduction and supporting contextual cognitive appraisal of physical and psychological concerns within Hong Kong settings; and (c) to document therapeutic outcomes including instilled hope, reduced subjective suffering, and lowered stress following the nine session intervention. The findings indicate that Buddhist frameworks can exert positive effects on psychological healing, extending well beyond purely religious or philosophical functions. This presentation further discusses the feasibility of adopting Buddhist-oriented counselling as a mental health intervention in Hong Kong.

Emotion regulation is commonly conceptualized through established psychological models; however, its meanings and functions may vary across cultural and linguistic contexts. Although cultural psychology has examined culturally embedded ways of regulating emotion in Chinese contexts, the relationship between everyday Cantonese emotion-regulation expressions and established psychological constructs warrants further clarification. This study examines Cantonese expressions associated with managing negative emotions, particularly “Jan” (忍; forbearance) and “Tai-hoi” (睇開; taking a broader perspective), and investigates whether their psychological interpretations vary across contextual and motivational conditions. Using a GPT-5.6-based simulation experiment, systematically constructed scenarios manipulate emotion-regulation expression, relational context, and underlying motivation. GPT-5.6 evaluates each scenario in relation to expressive suppression, experiential avoidance, acceptance, cognitive reappraisal, and distress tolerance. Model-generated responses are analysed in R to examine whether contextual and motivational manipulations produce systematic differences in the psychological interpretations of “Jan” and “Tai-hoi”. The analysis tests whether outwardly similar emotion-regulation behaviours are differentiated into distinct psychological processes when their underlying motivations and relational contexts change. Rather than treating model responses as representations of human psychological processes, the study examines the extent to which an AI model distinguishes culturally embedded contextual meanings within established emotion-regulation constructs. The findings provide a computational basis for identifying potential convergence, divergence, and ambiguity between Cantonese emotion-regulation expressions and established psychological constructs. This study contributes to the indigenisation of emotion-regulation research and provides a foundation for future human validation and culturally responsive psychological research in Hong Kong.

Psychotherapy services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) people in Hong Kong are scarce, and the few that exist reach the client through a sign interpreter (SI). The therapist is then the only person in the psychotherapy room without access to the language the therapy is conducted in. Yet, core clinical skills like reading the process, tracking the alliance, and holding boundaries all depend on being able to see and understand what is happening. This first study explored the lived experience of hearing therapists, SIs, and D/HH clients in SI-involved psychotherapy service. Using Multiperspective Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, four clinical psychologists, four SIs, and three D/HH clients completed two-hour semi-structured individual interviews, with D/HH interviews conducted in Hong Kong Sign Language by a hearing counselling psychologist. D/HH clients described a readier trust in SIs–hearing people who sign and who already help them in daily life–than in a hearing therapist who knows neither the language nor Deaf culture. The findings further reveal that transference and countertransference ran along both the therapist-SI and SI-client edges. SI’s roles expanded from literal translation toward clinical judgment, making decisions that would ordinarily belong to the therapist. These relational currents and decisions together shaped the therapeutic alliance, largely outside the therapist’s purview. Therapists were unsure whether the SI was a language bridge, a cultural consultant, or a therapeutic partner in the course of psychotherapy. This tension, more than any technique, calls for hearing therapists working with SIs to remain actively aware of their assumptions about the SI’s role and of their own professional position within this triad, rather than treating either as a settled background to the psychotherapy work.

This study explored how Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT) could improve self-efficacy, meaning-making, symptom relief, and well-being among people with schizophrenia (PWS) living in halfway houses. Grounded in narrative and self-identity theories, the study emphasised reconstructing personal stories to promote mental health and psychosocial recovery. An 18-session group intervention was conducted with 51 participants from 10 halfway houses. The intervention incorporated psychoeducation on stigma, cognitive restructuring, and narrative enhancement to help participants identify and cope with self-stigma. Attention was also given to the influence of Eastern culture on self-expression and the importance of cultural adaptability in facilitating engagement and recovery. A mixed-methods design was adopted. Within-group analyses using paired-samples t-tests indicated that the intervention significantly improved participants’ self-efficacy, sense of personal meaning, and recovery. Although repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that the time-by-group interaction was not statistically significant, an analysis of clinical significance revealed a marked increase in personal meaning in the experimental group, compared with a decline in the control group. Qualitative interviews with nine participants were analysed using NVivo 2023. All participants reported experiences of personal growth, including cognitive restructuring, considering multiple perspectives, developing a sense of security, improving interpersonal relationships, and gaining a more hopeful view of the future. These findings corroborated the quantitative results and suggested that NECT may reduce self-stigma and promote self-affirmation among people with mental illness. Overall, NECT helped participants reframe negative narratives and develop more positive self-perceptions and future outlooks. However, changes in quality of life and self-stigma may require longer intervention period, more targeted strategies, or additional support from staff. Continued follow-up contact, mentor guidance, and culturally responsive interventions are recommended to sustain therapeutic gains and promote recovery, social integration, and well-being among PWS.

In light of Hong Kong’s aging population, the demand for informal caregiving has risen substantially, with family members and friends often assuming responsibilities without formal training. These caregivers frequently struggle to balance their duties with personal needs, leading to heightened stress and burden. Expressive Arts Therapy (EXAT) has been proposed as an intervention to alleviate these challenges. This mixed method pilot study examined the potential effects of EXAT on stress reduction and caregiver burden among informal caregivers of older adults. Forty four participants were randomly assigned to either an EXAT group or a control group. The EXAT group engaged in six weekly sessions lasting 1.5 hours each. Outcomes were assessed using the Chinese Version of the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (CPSS 10) and the Chinese Short Version of the Zarit Burden Interview (CZBI Short) at baseline (T0) and immediately post intervention (T1). The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) process record form documented predominant components across sessions, while qualitative data were collected through art based assessments, individual sharing, focus groups, and facilitator observations. Repeated measures analysis revealed a significant time × group interaction, with the EXAT group showing greater reductions in CPSS 10 and CZBI Short scores compared to controls (all p < .001). Within group improvements were also significant after treatment (all p < .001). Content analysis identified six therapeutic elements contributing to stress and burden reduction: movement and physical activity, sensory self soothing, emotional release through artistic expression, enhanced self care and mastery via creation, improved concentration through arts engagement, and social connection through shared experiences. Findings suggest that short term EXAT interventions can effectively reduce stress and caregiver burden among informal caregivers of older adults. Further research with larger samples is recommended to explore potential long term benefits.

Young adults may sacrifice sleep for work, social activities, and personal time, making short sleep a relevant early target for promoting mental well-being in non-clinical populations. This mixed-methods study examined how motivation, intention, perceived barriers, and adaptive strategy development shaped change among 84 habitual short sleepers in Hong Kong who completed a personalized, motivational interviewing-informed sleep intervention with a one-month follow-up. Most participants described personally meaningful reasons for improving sleep, particularly greater energy, concentration, memory, mood, productivity, and daytime functioning. Yet many simultaneously described competing goals, most commonly work or study, social connection, and me-time or recovery, suggesting that sleep often competed with other valued needs and priorities. Quantitatively, motivation and intention changed across the intervention (ps ≤ .002), while perceived sleep-duration barriers decreased during the active intervention and partly rebounded by follow-up (p < .001). Higher motivation and intention were associated with larger gains in morning vitality during Phase Two and at follow-up, whereas greater early-intervention barriers were associated with smaller vitality gains. Qualitative process findings further showed that feasible change required more than selecting a strategy once: strategies needed to match the underlying functions of barriers and remain low-burden within daily routines. Participant feedback about successes, difficulties, and changing circumstances informed repeated review and adaptation of plans. These findings suggest that early sleep intervention for mental well-being should build on existing motivation while using collaborative, iterative support to reduce barriers and translate personally valued intentions into feasible and sustainable action.

Outcome studies of mindful parenting programmes often report post-intervention gains without articulating how change actually unfolds inside the family. That gap matters in Hong Kong, where high-pressure schooling, dense schedules, and Chinese cultural expectations around filial harmony shape what parents can realistically adopt. This qualitative sub-study of an eight-week integrated Mindful Parenting group, delivered to twelve mothers at a Hong Kong international school, examined the lived mechanisms of change parents reported during and after the intervention. Open-ended written reflections were collected at the end of the programme and at one-month follow-up, and were analysed thematically across the twelve parents who returned at least one response (n=12), with each parent counted once per domain. Coding followed a reflexive thematic approach organised around parent self-regulation, the parent-child relationship, practical tools, and systemic barriers. The resulting themes were then read against the descriptive quantitative trajectory of the matched cohort (N = 5) in a joint display. Six themes emerged. Reflective listening was the most widely named change (75 per cent), followed by the intentional pause and empathy for the child’s feelings (67 per cent each), reduced conflict and warmer home atmosphere (67 per cent each), commitment to sustaining the practice (58 per cent), and a non-judgmental, non-blaming stance toward self and child (50 per cent). Parents identified busy schedules and old habits as the dominant barriers (58 per cent). Read against the quantitative pattern, the qualitative shift preceded measurable stress reduction, indicating that internal stance and low-cost relational tools carry the earliest change. For time-pressured Chinese and international-school parenting communities, stance-based and listening-based practices serve as culturally acceptable entry points to broader behavioural change. Limitations include a small self-selected cohort and reliance on written self-report.

Background: The Tai Po blaze in Hong Kong caused severe casualties, widespread destruction, and mass displacement, disproportionately disrupting children’s routines and educational pathways. In view of that, Hong Kong Shue Yan University and Save the Children Hong Kong (SCHK) provided comprehensive and evidence-based psychosocial interventions to the affected children living in Taipo between February and June 2026.

Methods: The project team adopting a longitudinal study aimed to (1) deliver trauma-focused interventions including play therapy, expressive-arts therapy, and counselling; and (2) evaluate neuropsychological outcomes in children and parents using both quantitative measures and qualitative interviews.

Results: Among 74 children (2–16 years) and 74 parents (29–71 years), 51 children received play therapy (6 sessions) and 23 participated in expressive-arts therapy groups (8 sessions). Multi-modal assessments showed reduced behavioural difficulties (e.g., inattention improvement by 26.32%), marked improvement in emotional wellbeing (anxiety decreased by 85.71%; trauma distress reduced by 65.38%), increased resilience by 14.6%, and strengthened family functioning.

Conclusion: Trauma-informed play- and arts-based interventions, complemented by counselling and stakeholder capacity-building, are associated with meaningful improvements in neuropsychological and psychosocial outcomes. The study also informs the development of intervention model to better target mental health risks and protective factors after community disasters.

Attachment theory posits that early caregiving experiences shape internal working models that influence lifelong psychological adaptation. Although insecure attachment consistently predicts lower resilience, the underlying psychological mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. Self-compassion, characterized by self-kindness, recognition of common humanity, and mindful awareness of distress, may constitute an important intrapersonal process through which attachment insecurity influences resilient functioning. This study examined whether self-compassion mediates the associations between insecure attachment and resilience among adults with histories of childhood emotional maltreatment. Data were drawn from Hong Kong Chinese adults reporting childhood emotional abuse and/or neglect (n=157). Participants completed online questionnaires via Qualtrics to assess ACEs (ACE-IQ), dimensions of anxious and avoidant attachment (RAAS-C), self-compassion (SCS), and resilience (CD-RISC-10). Correlational and mediation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS module in JASP. Ethical approval was obtained from the Departmental Research Subcommittee at Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Results indicated that both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were significantly associated with lower resilience among individuals reporting childhood emotional maltreatment. Crucially, self-compassion significantly mediated the indirect effects of both attachment anxiety (β=-2.44, p<.001) and attachment avoidance (β=-2.50, p<.001) on resilience. In both models, the direct effects of attachment insecurity on resilience became non-significant after accounting for self-compassion, demonstrating full mediation. Research findings indicate that self-compassion plays a crucial role in mediating the negative effects of attachment insecurities on resilience after experiencing emotional trauma during development. The findings highlight self-compassion as a potential mechanism linking early relational vulnerabilities to adaptive functioning in adulthood. From a practical perspective, these results suggest that self-compassion could be a focus in resilience-building interventions for adults with histories of emotional maltreatment. Limitations and suggested future research directions are discussed.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Mission ReST, a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and individually tailored resilience programme for undergraduate students, informed by the Youth Resilience Process Model (Y-RPM). Using a single-group pre-post design, 640 completers from a Hong Kong university received one individual and two group gamified sessions over six weeks. Resilience (Brief Resilience Scale) and depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21) were assessed at baseline and post-intervention; respective paired-samples t-tests and sensitivity analyses were conducted for the full sample and vulnerable subgroups with low resilience or at least moderate psychological distress. Data were collected between September 2024 and December 2025. Across the full sample, the intervention produced a small but statistically significant increase in resilience (T0: M = 3.16, SD = 0.61; T1: M = 3.24, SD = 0.58; p < .001, d = 0.16), while psychological distress remained stable. Crucially, vulnerable subgroups demonstrated significant improvements in resilience and across all DASS dimensions (ps < .010, d = 0.21–0.70). Participant ratings indicated high satisfaction, perceived helpfulness, and sustained strategy utilization, supporting intervention acceptability. Overall, Mission ReST is a highly feasible and acceptable universal intervention capable of buffering emerging adults against academic and developmental stressors. Crucially, its pronounced benefits for students with low baseline resilience or elevated distress underscore its value as an efficient, non-stigmatizing entry point within university stepped-care frameworks. Future longitudinal controlled trials incorporating process evaluations are warranted to confirm sustained effectiveness and clarify mechanisms of change.

Children’s social-emotional learning (SEL) involves understanding internal states and processes that are not directly observable, as well as learning and rehearsing responses to them. This presentation describes the practice-based development of magic-assisted props designed around two related principles: symbolic representation of internal processes and rehearsal beyond the intervention session. First, emotions, thoughts, intentions, and other social-emotional experiences are represented through narrative characters and visual symbols. Changes in these experiences—such as increases or decreases in emotional intensity, shifts in mood, or the spread of feelings between people—are then represented through corresponding visual transformations produced through magic. Because the internal state is first established within a narrative and visual representational system, the magic effect is designed to extend that representation rather than rely solely on a verbally imposed metaphor. For example, an “anger” character may be placed into a bottle and, following slow breathing, be revealed in a transformed state. Second, selected magic effects are simplified so that children can learn to perform them and take the props home. Their accessible and engaging nature may encourage children to repeat the performances for family members and peers using the same narrative and behavioral scripts, creating opportunities for between-session rehearsal. This approach is embedded within a locally developed SEL program implemented for more than ten years. However, the proposed symbolic-representation and rehearsal pathways, as well as the broader program, have not yet been systematically evaluated. Future research should examine children’s understanding of the intended symbolism, frequency and fidelity of between-session rehearsal, retention of targeted social-emotional concepts, and potential generalization to everyday social-emotional functioning.

Aggressive behaviour in the preschool years is associated with later social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties. In Hong Kong, intervention evidence for preschool children with elevated aggression remains limited, particularly for programmes that distinguish reactive and proactive aggression and incorporate both emotion-regulation and moral-empathic targets. This study evaluated an Emotion- and Morality-Focused Early Intervention (EFI) in a four-arm randomised controlled trial across 17 kindergartens. Children aged 4–6 years with elevated parent-reported aggression were individually randomised to one of the conditions available at their participating kindergarten: Parent-Child Parallel, Parent-Only, Child-Only, or Waitlist Control. The complete-case analytic sample included 186 children assessed before intervention, after the eight-week programme, and at three-month follow-up. Relative to the waitlist, all three active formats showed significantly greater reductions in parent-rated total, reactive, and proactive aggression, with improvements generally maintained at follow-up. Parent-reported child emotion regulation and cognitive empathy also improved, alongside improvements in parents’ own emotion coaching, particularly in parent-involved formats. While parent-rated aggression was the primary trial outcome, teacher-rated evidence was more limited: reductions in aggression were less consistent, and teacher-rated prosocial behaviour did not improve significantly, suggesting that intervention-related change was more clearly evident in home and caregiving contexts than in the classroom. Although this trial does not establish the relative effectiveness of individual intervention components or delivery formats, the findings support further development and evaluation of a developmentally adapted, family-inclusive approach to indicated early intervention in Hong Kong kindergartens, with implications for culturally responsive prevention work with Hong Kong Chinese preschool children and their caregivers.

Given rising concerns about adolescent mental health in Hong Kong, our institution conducts an annual survey to understand students’ mental health, collaborating with schools to screen students at risk of mental illnesses and recommend services to address their needs. In the 2025/26 academic year, the survey aimed to estimate the prevalence of distress and well-being, and examine their associations with appearance anxiety and social comparison. We collected 1,318 valid self-report questionnaires from 2,310 students across six secondary schools requesting screening service. Based on school needs, selected grades (with parental passive consent) participated. Measures included psychological distress (DASS-Y), well-being (MHC-SF), appearance anxiety (AAI), social comparison (INCOM), and additional measures including life satisfaction in various aspects and other interpersonal constructs. DASS-Y results showed 17.2% of students with moderate-to-extremely-severe depression and 15.2% with moderate-to-extremely-severe anxiety. Only 30.7% reported a Flourishing level of well-being, and 22.5% had a risk for appearance anxiety. Female reported higher levels of psychological distress, lower well-being, and higher level of appearance anxiety than male. Most unsatisfied life aspects were time management (41.3%), academics (36.2%), and public examinations (35.6%). Appearance anxiety positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress (rs = .43 to .48, p < .001), and negatively correlated with aspects of well-being (rs = –.24 to –.30, p < .001). Social comparison positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress (rs = .33 to .44, p < .001), and appearance anxiety (r = .49, p < .001). Levels of psychological distress decreased from last year using DASS-Y, and were much lower than using DASS-21 in previous years. Distress may co-occur with appearance anxiety along with social comparison tendencies. Schools are suggested to keep monitoring students’ situation using similar instruments to observe trends, and provide self-image interventions to students with emotional needs. Practical concerns related to screening inattentive respondents were discussed.

Counselling psychologists (CoPs) possess specialized competencies in psychological assessments, counselling and psychotherapy, multicultural practice, and evidence-based intervention. Despite their growing presence in educational settings, the systematic contributions of CoPs within local schools remain underexplored. This presentation examines the role of a stationed counselling psychologist in a local primary school and illustrates an integrated practice model that operates across individual, group, and systemic levels. Drawing on frontline professional experience, the presentation highlights how CoP can contribute not only to direct clinical support for students but also to the development of a comprehensive school-based mental health framework. At the individual level, the CoP adopts a scientist-practitioner approach, engaging in assessment, intervention planning, implementation, and outcome evaluation to address students’ psychological and emotional needs. At the group level, the CoP contributes to participant selection, programme design, and intervention evaluation to ensure that services are responsive to students’ needs. At the systemic level, the CoP collaborates with school management, counselling personnel, teachers, and other professionals to enhance early identification, prevention efforts, counselling accessibility, and mental health promotion. Such collaborative practices establish a comprehensive mental health support network that fosters student well-being within the school community. This presentation proposes that the integration of counselling psychologists within school systems can strengthen multidisciplinary collaboration and enhance the effectiveness of whole-school mental health support. Implications for school-based counselling services, special educational needs (SEN) support, and the future development of counselling psychology practice in educational settings are discussed.

Previous studies indicated that male sex workers face mental health issues, stress, and challenges due to their social roles, career development, work-related challenges, and social stigma. In Hong Kong and South Korea, free-of-charge NGOs, social workers, and even mental health hotlines are available to male sex workers for help-seeking requests. However, no male sex workers tend to seek help from such services. The purpose of this study is to compare the resistance of help-seeking motivations of male sex workers in Hong Kong and South Korea, particularly how cultural orientation and disappointment with non-targeted services impact their help-seeking motivations. Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Service Use (ABMHSU) and Minority Stress Theory serve as the theoretical frameworks guiding this study. Based on the thematic approach with 12 male sex workers from Hong Kong and South Korea, the semi-structured interview technique was employed. Three core themes were yielded, including (1) disappointment with the general counseling service, (2) blaming the victims with judgmental comments, and (3) cultural shame and masculinity. Three contributions are outlined. Theoretically, this study fills the research gaps in comparing the cultural backgrounds and resistance to help-seeking motivations among sex workers in Hong Kong and South Korea. In practical terms, this study offers a blueprint for counselors, social workers, and NGOs to enhance their services for marginalized populations who experience stigma within their communities. Socially, this study conveys strong messages to policymakers and government departments to upgrade current policies and management to meet the needs of diverse stakeholders in the communities.

Asexual individuals remain underrepresented in mental health research, limiting the evidence base for developing culturally responsive interventions. Building on a prior qualitative exploration of Chinese asexual individuals’ mental health challenges and help-seeking experiences, the present study examined rumination, hypervigilance, and internalized asexual stigma as potential mechanisms linking asexuality-related discrimination to psychological distress in an international sample. Drawing on the psychological mediation framework, the study examined both direct and vicarious discrimination and integrated general psychological processes with an asexuality-specific minority stress process. Participants were 398 asexual-spectrum adults recruited through Prolific. Mediation analyses showed that both direct and vicarious discrimination were associated with greater psychological distress indirectly through heightened rumination and hypervigilance. For direct discrimination, internalized asexual stigma also emerged as an upstream process, contributing to sequential pathways through rumination and hypervigilance. In contrast, internalized stigma did not play a comparable mediating role in the association between vicarious discrimination and psychological distress. These findings extend the psychological mediation framework to asexual populations and suggest that discrimination may affect their mental health through both shared psychological processes and identity-specific pathways. The findings regarding vicarious discrimination further indicate that intervention efforts should address not only individuals’ direct experiences of discrimination, but also the psychological effects of witnessing or learning about discrimination against other asexual people. Rumination and hypervigilance may represent potential targets of intervention to reduce the mental health impact arising from asexual-related discrimination. Although the present sample was international, the psychological processes examined were informed by qualitative analyses of Chinese asexual individuals’ accounts, providing a foundation for future investigation of these processes in Chinese communities.

Counselling psychology training in Hong Kong takes place within a particular postcolonial and multilingual context. Professional training draws substantially on Western psychological knowledge and is predominantly conducted in English, while much counselling practice takes place in Cantonese within local relational and organisational contexts. This study explored how counselling psychology trainees experience and negotiate the transition from training to practice in Hong Kong as a psychosocial process of professional becoming. A longitudinal qualitative design was adopted. Eight trainees participated across three time points as they moved from early training into university-based clinical practice and community placements. Their experiences were considered alongside those of recent graduates, faculty members, and agency managers. Data were analysed using Psychosocial Thematic Analysis, attending to what was said, what appeared difficult to articulate, and how participants’ accounts were shaped by wider social, linguistic, institutional, and historical conditions. The findings suggest that professional becoming is not simply a process of acquiring competence and becoming more confident. Trainees were also negotiating questions of language, knowledge, legitimacy, and professional identity. In particular, the movement between English-medium training and Cantonese-speaking practice involved more than translating psychological terminology. Trainees gradually found ways to translate, adapt, and make use of what they had learnt in response to local clients and practice settings. Their experiences therefore also show how professional knowledge can be reworked through practice, rather than simply applied to it. These findings have implications for how counselling psychology training may continue to develop in Hong Kong. In particular, they suggest the value of moving towards a more decolonising and genuinely plural curriculum. This does not mean rejecting Western psychological theories, but reconsidering their position as the assumed centre of professional knowledge. Western theories could instead be brought into closer dialogue with Hong Kong, Chinese and East Asian perspectives, local cases, Cantonese clinical meanings, and knowledge emerging from practitioners’ and clients’ lived experiences. Training may also provide more space for bilingual formulation, code-switching, and reflection on how language shapes therapeutic relationships. Such changes may support trainees in developing a less dependent and more contextually grounded relationship with professional knowledge. Rather than learning only how to apply established theories, trainees can also be supported to reflect on, adapt, and contribute to the knowledge they use, strengthening the continuing development of counselling psychology in Hong Kong.

Animal-Assisted Services (AAS) are increasingly recognized in Hong Kong as preventive and strength-based modalities to promote community human mental well-being. However, the local landscape remains fragmented and lacks a unified protocol to protect therapy dog welfare. Adopting the One Welfare framework, which asserts that human mental health, animal well-being, and environmental safety are deeply interconnected, this qualitative multiple-case study investigated stakeholder perspectives to inform a context-sensitive, ethically grounded welfare protocol. Using Grounded Theory analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 practitioners across three stakeholder groups: AAS psychotherapists (n=4), therapy dog handlers (n=8), and agency managers (n=5). Transcripts were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding, achieving an inter-rater reliability of 90%. Findings revealed three core dimensions necessary for safeguarding therapy animals while delivering human-centered Services: mental well-being safeguards, physical health protection, and environmental and socio-cultural dynamics. Mental safeguards emphasized recognizing animal stress cues, formal practitioner education, and structured session designs. Physical health protections relied on positive training, health care, retirement plan, and handler execution, and environmental dynamics involved managing venue hazards, urban transit restrictions, and service user expectations. To build sustainable, strength-based community Services that foster mutual well-being without exploitation, Hong Kong must establish a centralized registration system, unified welfare protocols, and comprehensive stakeholder training.

Counselling practice is shaped by the cultural contexts through which clients understand themselves, their relationships, and their well-being. In Chinese communities, expectations around family responsibility, achievement, interpersonal harmony, and emotional expression can influence how clients experience difficulties and recognise their own strengths. Drawing on the author’s clinical experience as a certified counsellor in Hong Kong and a licensed counselling psychologist in Taiwan, this presentation offers a practice-based reflection on how culture shapes clients’ understanding of strengths and resilience. Clinical observations concerning family relationships, mental exhaustion, achievement, and emotional expression revealed three interconnected patterns: strength is often defined through fulfilling family and relational obligations rather than personal accomplishment; achievement-related exhaustion is frequently normalized, delaying recognition of distress; and clients often express resilience through emotional restraint, requiring therapists to adjust how they discuss vulnerability in session. Together, these reflections suggest that strengths-based counselling is most effective when it explores how strengths are locally defined and expressed, rather than assuming a universal model of resilience or well-being. Comparing practice across Hong Kong and Taiwan highlights both shared and distinct cultural dynamics, offering a foundation for culturally responsive, strengths-oriented approaches to counselling in Chinese communities and pointing toward future empirical research in this area.

Referential activity (RA), the process of linking emotional and imagistic experience to language, is theorised to facilitate psychological insight and emotional integration (Bucci, 1997, 2021). Most research on RA and structured dream interpretation has been conducted with Western, English-speaking, or clinical samples. This study examined associations among Big Five personality traits, a superego composite, referential activity, and dream-interpretation outcomes in a non-psychiatric Cantonese-speaking sample in Hong Kong. Eighty-three adults completed 216 written dream interpretations using Hill’s three-stage (exploration–insight–action) self-guided protocol. Independent raters, masked to other data, scored the transcripts using Bucci’s original Referential Activity Scale (Concreteness, Specificity, Clarity, and Imagery), supported by supplementary local guidelines for Chinese-language narratives, together with an observer-rated Dream Insight measure. Multilevel mediation analyses showed that RA was strongly associated with observer-rated insight (b ≈ .78, p < .001). Openness, Extraversion, and (negatively) Neuroticism demonstrated full mediation through RA on insight, while the superego composite showed null effects. RA declined significantly from the exploration/insight stages to the action stage (partial η² = .339). The four RA subscales were highly intercorrelated and showed excellent internal consistency (α = .951–.980) after averaging across raters. These findings indicate that the core referential process can be reliably assessed in authentic Chinese-language dream narratives when scoring is supported by culturally and linguistically appropriate guidelines. They also suggest that personality is associated with insight via referential activity, and indicate a notable reduction in RA during the action stage of self-guided dream interpretation. The study contributes to process research in counselling psychology within Chinese communities.