Robert Roux Labos, BA-Arch began work in the addictions field in 1995 with one of the Philippines’ best Minnesota Method outpatient treatment facility, located in Makati City, the country’s central business district. In 1998 and in 2010 he was with the two top residential addiction treatment centres in the Philippines. In 2014 he was with an International Treatment Centre in Thailand, prior to being invited as a visiting professor for the Masters Degree Program in Addiction Studies, lecturing on Evidence-Based Treatments (EBT) methods at Mahidol University, Thailand’s first-ranking university.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Thomas has spent around 20 years either studying or working in this field. A recovered addict himself, he knows first hand the pain and misery of Addiction.

Addiction

Prem Kumar Shanmugam is Chairman and Clinical Director of Solace Sabah Addiction Treatment Retreat. Prem co-founded Solace with the vision of helping people with addictions recover and learn to live for life. Prem has worked in the field of addictions and psychology for more than 10 years. Prem is the Past President of the Association of Psychotherapists and Counselors (Singapore) and the Regional Director of the Asia Pacific Certification Board (Singapore) while being one of the founding members as well. Prem is a psychologist, psychotherapist, trainer and facilitator and is actively involved in research in the addiction field. Prem is a certified practitioner in Management of Family Violence Counseling, Certified Clinical Supervisor, Certified Substance Abuse Therapist (Level 4) and a Certified Psychotherapist and Counselor (Level 4).

Addiction

Gholamreza Heydari completed his MD in 1996 and he had MPH and PhD degree on epidemiology from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Dr.Heydari currently is director of Tobacco Prevention & Control Research Center and WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco Control in Eastern Mediterranean region and also chairman and editor in chief of monthly tobacco control journal in Iran. He is conducting several studies on tobacco control and smoking cessation in Iran. He as a national expert in this filed had more than 40 papers internationally. He attended many training courses such as Classical Method in Data Analysis, Erasmus Medical University, Netherlands, December 2001 and Tobacco Free Initiative for Clinicians, St. George’s Hospital, London, England, July 2002 and Smoking Cessation, European Respiratory Society School, Bucharest, Romania, December 2004 and Methods in Epidemiologic Clinical and Operations in Research, American Thoracic Society, Cesme, Turkey, 2011 and 2012.

Tobacco and Smoking cessation

Chris Sekhar is the Clinical Director of Solace Sabah, Kuala Lumpur. He has more than 30 years of counseling experience ranging from substance and behaviour addiction abuse to family issues. His qualifications include a Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling Psychology, a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from De La Salle University, a Bachelor of Theology degree from Malaysia Bible Seminary, and is a Certified Addiction Therapist (CSAT) from the Asia Pacific Certification Board. Chris currently has a Master (Level 4) in Addiction Therapy and is the former President of the Asia Pacific Certification Board.

Substance and behavior addiction abuse to family issues

Prof. Hulse is based at the School of Psychiatry QE11 Medical Centre University of Western Australia. His research career has been directed at developing evidence based information which will enhance clinical practice, and has in the last several years had a particular focus on assessing the safety and efficacy of sustained release naltrexone as a management tool for substance dependence. He has arguably published more than anyone else globally on sustained release naltrexone for the management of heroin dependence, much of this on the Australian naltrexone implant.

Research and Education in Alcohol and Drugs

WK Tang was appointed to professor in the Department of Psychiatry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. His main research areas are Addictions and Neuropsychiatry in Stroke. Professor Tang has published over 100 papers in renowned journals, and has also contributed to the peer review of 40 journals. He has secured over 20 major competitive research grants. He has served the editorial boards of five scientific journals. He was also a recipient of the Young Researcher Award in 2007, awarded by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Addictions and Neuropsychiatry in Stroke

Sandi James is a Psychologist registered in Australia and currently working at University Malaysia Sabah within the Community and Family Medicine Department. Sandi has a particular interest in alcohol and addiction treatment, particularly in harm reduction approaches and community level programs and interventions. She is involved in numerous research and community development projects in Sabah and is on the committee of the newly established Association for the Prevention of Alcohol Misuse (APAM). Sandi is also embarking on research in 2017 to investigate the prevalence and treatment gap for mental health disorders in the polyclinic setting in Kota Kinabalu.

Alcohol and addiction treatment