For Practioners

I Didn't Expect My Work to Challenge My Faith: A Psychologist's Journey Between Faith and Therapy

I didn’t expect my work to challenge my faith. It didn’t happen all at once. No crisis. No dramatic turning point. It came quietly. In the people I was trying to help. I grew up in a Christian family. Faith wasn’t just something we believed. It shaped how I understood suffering, how I saw people, how I made sense of healing. So when I became a psychologist, I assumed the two would naturally fit together. And for a while, they did. But not always. And that “not always”… stayed

Ivan Lim

Apr 223 min read

The Compassion of Christ – Rediscovering Empathy Through a Christian Lens

By Dr. Ivan Zy Lim, Clinical Psychologist, Transcultural Psychotherapist Specialist, PATH Trauma Consultant & Founder, Inner Quest Centre In Part 1, we explored the cultural roots of empathy through Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. In Part 2, we stepped into the real-world work of Safety Ambassadors, those who carry empathy into crisis moments, anchoring others with presence and care. Now, I want to offer a third lens that has quietly, steadily shaped my life and work: t

Ivan Lim

Aug 5, 20253 min read

Part 2: When Empathy Is the Lifeline – What Frontline Care Taught Me About Healing Presence

Part 2: When Empathy Is the Lifeline – What Frontline Care Taught Me About Healing Presence By Dr. Ivan Zy Lim, Clinical Psychologist, Transcultural Psychotherapy Specialist, PATH Trauma Consultant & Founder, Inner Quest Centre In the first part of this series, we explored how Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist philosophies reframe empathy, not as a purely internal emotion, but as a relational ethic, a spiritual presence, and a path to liberation. That exploration laid a philoso

Ivan Lim

Aug 1, 20253 min read

Rethinking Empathy - Bridging East and West in Psychotherapy (Part 1)

Part 1: Rethinking Empathy – Bridging East and West in Psychotherapy By Dr. Ivan Zy Lim, Clinical Psychologist, Transcultural Psychotherapist Specialist, PATH Trauma Consultant & Founder, Inner Quest Centre Let’s begin with a quiet truth: Empathy isn’t universal in the way we often assume. Yes, we all feel pain, joy, and grief. But how we express, respond to, and even understand those feelings is profoundly shaped by our cultural blueprint. In Western psychology, empathy is o

Ivan Lim

Jul 28, 20254 min read