Dr. Ong Mian Li (he/him) earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the top programs in the nation, where he received national recognition for his clinical work, research, and service contributions to psychology. Dr. Ong further deepened his expertise by completing a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical child psychology at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, where he collaborated with some of the best medical professionals in the world to manage children and adolescents facing life-threatening complex medical illnesses.

As a tribute to his dedication to providing psychology to all, Dr. Ong was the first doctoral candidate in the history of the American Psychological Association to receive the distinguished Citizen Psychologist Presidential Citation for outstanding contributions blending teaching, research and service in psychology.

Experience

Understanding that mental health concerns stem from early development, Dr. Ong sought out intensive training to competently treat children, adolescents and their families holistically. Across these settings, Dr. Ong conducted individual and group psychotherapy, psychiatric evaluations and was part of multidisciplinary teams managing children, adolescents and families presenting with complex medical illnesses, including chronic pain and terminal illnesses.

Dr. Ong’s clinical experience includes work with children, adolescents and adults in the following areas:

• Outpatient and inpatient hospital settings
• Adolescent psychiatric emergency departments
• Community-based primary care clinics
• Internationally recognized eating disorders program

Current Work

Dr. Ong currently divides his time among clinical, research, advocacy, speaking and consultancy roles:

Clinical: As the Founder and Principal Clinical Psychologist of Lightfull Psychology and Consulting, Dr. Ong conducts psychotherapy with adults, families, children and adolescents both locally and internationally.

Teaching: Dr. Ong also routinely delivers symposia to teachers, fellow professionals and graduate students and medical students around cognitive debiasing and behavioral management.

Consulting: Dr. Ong consults for corporations who are looking to sustainably build mental health resilience and awareness in their stakeholders through mental health programming. Some of his clients locally include NTUC First Campus, EtonHouse Community Fund, EtonHouse International and Prudential Pacesetters.

Advocacy: As founder of Helping Give Away Psychological Science, Dr. Ong collaborates with internationally-renowned colleagues to make the best psychological science available to all through open-access methods. He also volunteers with Unlocking ADHD.

Media Engagements: Dr. Ong regularly serves as a panel expert on hot-button issues in parenting and mental health. In Singapore, he has guested on:

• Channel NewsAsia
• 958 RADIO FM
• Content contributor to various parenting sites
• Singapore Global Network (coming in 2025)
• Thrive Global by Business Times
• Samaritans of Singapore (coming in 2025)

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us for a more comprehensive list of media engagements that Dr. Ong has conducted.

Research: Dr. Ong has conducted research on a number of topics, including pediatric bipolar disorder, psychological assessment, primary care and implementation science. He continues to contribute to research and clinical tools in psychology, and routinely serves as journal reviewer for scientific journals in psychology.

Dr. Ong’s publicly available research can also be found on PubMed, Google Scholar and ResearchGate.