In my ongoing journey of self-discovery and finding a way to support other people, psychology always surprises me. It has not only helped me to understand other people, but it has also helped me to dig down to understand more about my own mind and my own feelings as well.
Meet our Experts
Dr Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Anh
Driving awareness of youth mental health in Vietnam
Hi, I'm Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Anh, a Psychology lecturer at School of Science, Engineering & Technology at RMIT Vietnam, where I also take on the role of a program manager.
So I'm deeply concerned about the mental health and wellbeing of the whole society in Vietnam, especially the young people.
I have more than 15 years teaching psychology and most of the time I work with high school and university students. So, based on my teaching experience, I see that the young people in Vietnam nowadays are facing a lot of unprecedented challenges.
And most of the common pressures that I heard from the young people are excessive academic demands, uncertainty about the future, and also high parental expectations.
So, usually they struggle with these challenges by themselves because they find it really hard to seek advice or support from the adults.
I found out that it is very important to build the inner strength for them so that they can manage their emotions, their difficulties by themselves, and they also know when and how to reach out for help when they need.
So, one of the projects I'm working right now is enhancing educators’ abilities in schools regarding mental health and wellbeing. This project comprises three main components.
The first is raise teachers' awareness to help them understand what mental health and wellbeing is.
Secondly, focus on building skills for teachers to recognise developing symptoms of mental health problems among their students and strategies to approach and initially support them with care and love.
And lastly, we also build up the self-care and wellbeing skills for teachers so that they know how to take care of themselves, and they also can transfer these skills to their students as well.
So, inspiring student to love psychology is a multiple stage approach. It's about helping students understand that psychology is not just about therapy or counselling, but it is a science of everyday life, focusing on understanding the complexities of human behaviour and what’s behind the behaviour.
Ultimately, psychology aims to help people to be happy from inside and live in harmony with other people.
So, outside of work, I indulge in various interests. I practise mindfulness every day and even when I'm too busy, I still spend about five minutes to do mindfulness to heal my feelings and to relieve myself from stress and tiredness and explore more about my personal growth.
So, devoting time to my family, especially my two children, has also been instrumental in my journey of self-discovery.
My motivation stems from my children, and by increasing mental healthcare and wellbeing for all, I believe that we can create a safer and more sustainable world for our young generation.