Catching up: Penang, Malaysia (August 2010)

In late July, I traveled to Malaysia to deliver a keynote presentation (with Dr. Tom Clawson) on credentialing at the 18th Biannual Conference of the Association of Psychological and Educational Counselors of Asia Pacific (APECA), held in Penang, Malaysia.  On the way there, we overnighted in Singapore and met with an Indian psychiatrist interested in exploring possible linkages with NBCC.  We spent our first couple of days exploring Langkawi a beautiful island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. To get there required a 3-hour ferry from Penang.  On the island, we worked together informally, took a cruise through a tropical rainforest, and visited a batik factory where most of us purchased some of the many different kinds of batik products and where we watched as local artists created batik designs.


The conference chair was Dr. Susie See, a very dynamic Malaysian counselor educator who had previously spent time at NBCC on her research leave.  Conference participants included counselors and other helping professionals from 17 countries.  The NBCC delegation was welcomed very warmly by everyone and we made lots of new friends and connections during the 5 days of the conference.  We stayed in a part of Penang (Georgetown) that has recently been designated as a World Heritage Site.  During the conference, a ceremony was held to officially sign the Memorandum of Understanding that created NBCC-Malaysia.  As Chair, I was the designated signer, and it was an honor to participate in this important creation of an official partnership with counselors in Malaysia.

On the way back to the U.S in mid-August, we once again stayed overnight in Singapore and had the chance to eat dinner at Raffles, a famous bar where the mixed drink Singapore Sling was created.  Our travel time each way of this trip was about 36 hours (including layovers).