Alicia Pon

Since 1996, I have been practicing across the fields of social work, industrial organizational psychology, child and adolescent psychotherapy, Somatic work, Sandplay and Play therapy, and Analytical Psychology. I hold a doctoral degree from the University of Hong Kong where I researched, practiced and studied on play therapy and end of life issues.

I lecture and supervise undergraduate and post graduate students in the areas of counseling and psychotherapy, grief and loss, trauma work, child and adolescent mental health, play therapy and social work. Besides being passionate with the topics that I am teaching on, I have remained ardent and interested in researching on evidence based practices like play therapy, trauma informed care, and sandplay therapy as well as other topics such as end of life, bereavement, children and adolescents mental health issues.

The many years of clinical experiences provided me with the platform to mold my practice styles and philosophy that come to serve my clients well. These experiences also informed my teaching with the Faculty. I can draw extensively on my clinical experiences of working with clients to give students a sense of the ways in which the theories and concepts of the course can be used to intervene in real-life scenarios.

My basic ethos in guiding and coaching students is to appreciate that our profession is a marriage of Science-Art-Humanity. I believed in helping my students to understand the Science aspect of our profession. My students must be able to critique, analyze, understand and apply the theoretical frameworks to the helping process. In this case, frameworks such as social work, systems, human psychopathology, developmental models, child centric models, analytical psychology, and psycho-neurological principles are all crucial in conceptualizing the client’s and the family’s needs and experiences. I guide my students to look at their work through systematic and systemic lenses in order to appreciate the holistic nature of the clients’ needs.

In my interactions with the students, I also place strong emphasis on guiding my students to sharpen their observations and counseling skills, the Artful application of the case conceptualization and counseling techniques in order to help move the therapeutic process. The lectures, assignments and discussion groups include components of case studies, program examples, role-plays and hands-on activities that require students to engage in critical reflections of their learning process and to practice and utilize micro skills such as engaging, assessment and reflecting skills As Social Work is an ‘applied’ discipline, I believe this approach has strong pedagogical value because it enables my students to realize how the concepts and ideas that they learn in class are relevant to their day-to-day lives and their future internship program and career. The resonance from a deeper level with our clients is something we constantly work on.

Finally, being in a helping profession, it is important to be astute to the reality that we are working with Humans. Incorporated in the design of the lectures, assignments and discussion groups, I provided students with the opportunity to think more reflexively about how their own values, upbringing, subjectivities and experiences can potentially affect the ways in which they view and work with their prospective clients. My students appreciate that they could understand themselves from a more personal level.

I fundamentally believe that the instructor should enjoy the process of teaching and should teach in such a way that the students enjoy the process of learning. For the last 22 years, I have attended many workshops and lectures, and these teachers have instilled a lifelong love of learning in me, and I hope that I can instill the same passion to every student that I have the privilege to meet.

Teaching Areas

• Bereavement
• Children and Adolescent
• Complex Trauma
• Creative Arts, Play and Sandtray Therapy
• Death and Dying
• Grief and Loss
• Somatic Work