Speaker: Dato' Dr. Lai Fong Hwa, MD
Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist & Cognitive Behaviour Therapist and Family & Couple Therapist (Malaysia)

After graduating in medicine (1987) and psychiatry (1994) from University Malaya, Dato' Dr Lai Fong Hwa served in Hospital Pulau Pinang from 1994 till his retirement in 2019. He trained in child & adolescent psychiatry in 2001 - 2002 in Oxford, UK. A firm believer in the efficacy of a multi-discplinary approach to patient care, Dato' Dr Lai also qualified as cognitive behaviour therapist (2009) and family therapist (2018). With 2% central vision, he was awarded Tokoh Orang Kurang upaya by the Penang Governor in 2006. Dr Lai serves as a church deacon at Island Glades Gospel Centre in Penang.

Speaker: Prof. Dr Retneswari Masilamani
Academician, Occupational Physician & President of a welfare society “Persatuan Kabajikan Yenippadigal Kuala Lumpur.” (Malaysia)

Prof Dr. Retneswari Masilamani is currently a lecturer with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman at Sg Long Campus, Kajang. She is an occupational physician by profession. Her career spans over nearing 4 decades, starting with Ministry of Health, moved to Academia at University of Malaya, where she led the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine before she retired. 

Professor Dr. Retneswari Masilamani has a medical degree from the University of Madras, India, a Master of Medicine in Occupational Medicine from the National University of Singapore and a PhD from University of Malaya. Prof Retneswari is also the president of a welfare society “Persatuan Kabajikan Yenippadigal Kuala Lumpur’ where Yenippadigal means ‘Staircase’. This society mainly was running health education programmes for Tamil schools and lately switched to providing small no of laptops to Tamil schools in 2019 after which the pandemic hit. Her area of expertise is on ‘occupational stress’ and seeks peace through the spiritual pathway. Though she is a hindu she has also attended the Vipasanna Meditation at Kuantan, listens to the Hindu Spiritual Satguru and lately attended Mindfulness workshop by Mr Angus. She exercises daily, follows a low carb diet and intermittent fasting to postpone becoming a diabetic. She tries her best to regularise her meditation sessions at least once per day. She like Khalil Gibran’s poem on ‘Fear’

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Malaysia, Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine – Royal College of Physicians, Ireland, Fellow of Public Health Medicine, Malaysia, Fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Malaysia and the Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. She has organised and coordinated several international and national occupational health and medicine seminars and conferences, being a life member of several Occupational Health and Medicine related societies and associations in Malaysia.

Speaker: Kumāra Bhikkhu
Buddhist Monk (Malaysia)

Kumāra Bhikkhu has been a Buddhist monk since 1999 when he was 27. Being taught by teachers such as Bhaddanta Aggacitta Mahāthera and Sayadaw U Tejaniya, he is open to teachings beyond orthodoxy and tradition, so long as they lead to the ending of suffering. He is fascinated by modern psychotherapy, especially Schema Therapy, which he sees much connection with Buddhism. He has been conducting Spiritual Cultivation Retreat in English and Mandarin since 2012.

Speaker: Dr. Jamilah Hanum Abdul Khaiyom
Assistant Professor & Clinical Psychologist (Malaysia)

As an academic and a clinical psychologist, Dr. Jamilah Hanum’s career in psychology includes working with individuals in educational settings and clinical settings. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). She also practices her clinical skills and provides psychological services at the Psychology Services Unit in the department.

Dr.  Jamilah Hanum was educated at the International Islamic University Malaysia (Bachelor of Human Sciences – Psychology), the University of Melbourne (Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology), the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (Master in Clinical Psychology), and the Universiti Putra Malaysia (Doctor of Philosophy in Psychological Medicine). For the past ten years, she has been a recipient of many research grants such as the Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS), Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP), International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Communication (MCMC), and Research Initiative Grant Scheme (RIGS). She has presented her work at many international conferences worldwide, and some of her work has been published in a high refereed journal. She has authored six books. The most recent books are Spiritual Therapy: An Islamic Perspective and A Manual of Spiritual Therapy: Islamic Perspective. Recently, she has completed one of her sponsored researches entitled “A randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an Islamic psychospiritual ACT-based prevention program for at-risk young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Numerous organizations regularly invite her to talk and conduct workshops in her area of specialization and interests (i.e., Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Relaxation Training, Mindfulness-based Intervention, and Stress, Anxiety, and Depression). However, she is currently focusing much of her time on promoting the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy with Mindfulness in other areas such as overweight, obesity, and diabetes management. Hence, being invited by Abbott Nutrition Malaysia as an Expert Panel of the Diabetes Lifestyle Programme to promote lifestyle change as part of holistic diabetes management for healthcare professionals & patients.

Dr. Jamilah Hanum resides in Sri Gombak, Selangor, with her husband and two children. She enjoys watching Hindi, Korean, and Turkish movies, coloring, swimming, decluttering, talking to plants, and playing with stray cats in her free time.