At VU, Phillip Chen Yi Mei found the knowledge and inspiration to create mindfulness workshops for professionals. He now has an agreement with Ford to deliver workshops to its Australian-based employees.
"I’ve been an engineer with Ford Motor Company since 1980, but 15 years ago, I decided I wanted to help others, and so completed psychological studies at another university. While I became more aware of the complexities of human behaviours, I couldn’t use my knowledge in a practical way. This is why I chose to study counselling at VU – I knew I’d get hands-on experience.
During my studies I completed supervised one-on-one sessions at Doncare and learnt how to conduct counselling for people with emotional problems. The experience was invaluable and complemented course theory. I also had placement at the Anxiety Recovery Centre of Victoria (ARCVIC) where I co-facilitated stress management workshops. This experience provided me with the starting point to develop a workshop ‘Stress Management in the Workplace’.
I found the VU staff approachable and supportive – particularly my thesis supervisors. They made my thesis research meaningful and useful. I was able to collate and develop training material from my research to create the ‘Mindfulness Training for Wellness and Professional Effectiveness’ workshop. I currently have an agreement with Ford to deliver this workshop, to all of its Australian-based employees.
I also provide mindfulness training to corporate clients through my business, ‘StressLess Life’. At some point, I’ll leave engineering to focus entirely on mindfulness training."