Our Approach

Our Commitment to Adapting International Standards of Evidence-Based Best Practices to Chinese Culture

The World Health Organization emphasizes the importance of training more mental health professionals around the world to use high quality evidence-based treatments (WHO Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020). In keeping with this mandate, we in iACE seek to familiarize Chinese-speaking counselors in Asia with evidence-based approaches but to do so in a way that encourages flexible, creative, and culturally sensitive applications to the needs of their clients.

Our Commitment to Clinical Excellence

Our philosophy of training is in keeping with what Scott Miller and his colleagues at the International Center for Clinical Excellence call a “cycle of excellence” that their research suggests distinguishes highly effective counselors from their peers (Miller, Hubble, Chow, & Seidel, 2013). From this perspective, developing mastery as a counselor is not a function of the degrees we earn or our intelligence or our years of experience. It is instead influenced by taking the time to examine what we are currently doing, identify our “growing edges’ (specific ways we can improve), and then intentionally invest time and effort in “informed, deliberate practice” to improve our performance. Our iACE training resources are designed to help counselors engage in this “cycle of excellence” to continually reach for their personal best with their clients.

Carefully Curated Resources and a Learning Community

Online education can be delivered in many ways. Here at iACE we provide counselors with carefully curated online materials that communicate essential knowledge and skills we believe counselors need to effectively address mental health needs in their community. A three-part Workbook entitled Learning Integrative Counseling builds on successful courses on Integrative Counseling that Dr. Martha Chiu taught for Biola University’s Certificate in Integrative Counseling program. Each workbook is accompanied by readings and short videos to enrich the learners’ experience.

We also hope that students will have a sense of being part of a learning community. Toward that end, our workbook materials deliberately include learning exercises (including recommended discussion questions and role play practice) that are intended to be worked on together in small in-person or online group meetings. These meetings will be led by counselors who are already familiar with Integrative Counseling and can use our online resources to teach others.

Use of a Bilingual (Chinese-English) Format

iACE seeks to make an international standard of counselor education available to Chinese-speaking counselors, regardless of their fluency in English. Therefore, all learning materials are available in both Chinese and English.

Respect for Relevant Laws and Ethics Codes

iACE also seeks to encourage counselors to know about and respect all relevant laws and ethics codes. This includes, for example, recommending counselors study and think about how the Mental Health Law of the People’s Republic of China and ethics codes developed by various psychology associations apply to their work. In addition, we expect everyone who uses iACE resources to follow international standards for respecting copyright law.