Dr. Jen-Mai Wong is a Licensed Psychologist with the College of Health and Care Professionals of British Columbia (#2665). She has extensive experience providing clinical services to clients presenting with a wide range of concerns such as anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, academic/work struggles, transitional/adjustment challenges, issues of identity, grief/loss, trauma and disordered eating/body image disturbance.
Jen-Mai’s clinical work is grounded in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), however she also believes in adopting a flexible therapeutic process attuned to the needs of individual clients. Therefore she also integrates approaches from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and psychodynamic perspectives to inform treatment planning and therapeutic interventions that best fits each client.
Approach and Values
Jen-Mai approaches psychotherapy in a spirit of collaboration, with the belief that compassionate understanding is key to any therapeutic process. Part of that includes being authentic in the therapy room, and building a space of trust and safety within the therapeutic relationship.
Jen-Mai values the use of evidence-based treatments, while also recognizing that each person’s mental health journey is unique. She therefore emphasizes an ongoing and comprehensive assessment process that seeks to understand the diverse experiences of every individual’s life journey. This in turn, drives personalized treatment plans that can remain adaptive to the experiences of clients as they change in the moment.
Therapeutic goals are not only focused on active learning and growth, but are also undertaken with an eye to developing personal insight and self-awareness. Hope for change, as well as identifying and building on existing strengths is also a mainstay of Jen-Mai’s clinical practice.
Education and Experience
Jen-Mai earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University (an APA accredited program) in 2002. As part of her graduate studies, Jen-Mai moved back to Canada to complete her doctoral internship at the Calgary Regional Health Authority’s Consortium in Clinical Psychology.
Following her clinical training, Jen-Mai worked in a wide range of therapeutic settings including hospital-based treatment programs, community mental health centers, school-based support services, outpatient group practices, teaching institutions and university counselling services throughout both Canada and the United States. Jen-Mai has also served in a number of supervisory roles across a variety of clinical and teaching environments, providing supervision to psychology practicum students, pre-doctoral psychology interns and post-graduate psychology licensees.
Most recently, Jen-Mai served as Assistant and then Associate Professor at the State University of New York’s (SUNY) Fashion Institute of Technology Counseling Center for nearly a decade. Following her return to Canada in 2021, Jen-Mai provided clinical services at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Counselling Service, for both the campus-at-large and in an embedded capacity at Vantage College. Jen-Mai was also involved in the psychology training program at UBC, serving on the Counselling Service’s training committee and as a primary supervising psychologist within the pre-doctoral internship program.
Given her diverse set of clinical experiences, Jen-Mai is adept at working as a generalist psychologist, meeting with clients presenting with a breadth and depth of mental health struggles. However she also has specialized training and is experienced in providing treatment to clients struggling with eating/body image concerns and emotional dysregulation, and has an extensive background in supporting young adult populations in particular.
Jen-Mai is additionally certified in animal-assisted therapy, and has spearheaded the program development and research of animal-assisted therapy initiatives in post-secondary institutions. Benefits of the human-animal bond remains a strong interest for Jen-Mai, and is an intervention that she continues to consider in her clinical work where appropriate.
Please note that while Dr. Wong offers DBT-informed therapy, she does not currently see clients in the comprehensive DBT program. She also does not see clients who are actively suicidal at this time.
Please note that Wise Mind Centre is not a vendor of ICBC and WorkSafe BC. Dr. Jen-Mai Wong does not accept ICBC or WorkSafe BC referrals.