In Malaysia, where silence often surrounds the subject of mental health, Dr. Chua Sook Ning decided to speak. Not just speak—act. As the founder of Relate Malaysia, a pioneering mental health organization, Dr. Chua has spent the better part of a decade confronting stigma, educating the public, and transforming how mental health care is understood and accessed across Southeast Asia.

With academic roots grounded in rigorous institutions—McGill, Harvard, and the University of Waterloo—Dr. Chua could have remained in the halls of global academia. Instead, she returned home with purpose. What she saw in Malaysia wasn’t just a lack of infrastructure—it was a culture of silence, fear, and misinformation about mental health. And she decided to build a movement.

Relate Malaysia, founded in 2015, was her answer to a broken system. It was the first to offer online, evidence-based psychotherapy in Malaysia, democratizing access to mental health services for rural communities, working-class individuals, and those too afraid or ashamed to walk into a therapist’s office. At a time when therapy was still viewed as luxury or weakness, Dr. Chua reframed it as necessity.

Yet Relate is more than just a service. Under Dr. Chua’s leadership, it has become a research engine and advocacy platform. One of its pivotal moments came in 2020, when the organization released a groundbreaking report estimating the cost of mental health struggles on Malaysian businesses—an economic argument that cut through public indifference. Two years later, the Malaysian government issued a nationwide directive urging employers to support employee mental well-being. Policy started listening to data—and that data had Dr. Chua’s fingerprints all over it.

Her credentials speak volumes. She is the only Malaysian certified by the Beck Institute in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and one of the few professionals in the region qualified in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT). She’s also a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and an MPH graduate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

But it is her voice—clear, patient, and insistent—that echoes in every space she enters. Whether she’s delivering a TEDx talk or training clinicians across Malaysia and Singapore, Dr. Chua has one message: mental health is not a privilege; it’s a right. And it belongs in homes, workplaces, schools, and policy rooms.

Her own mental health story fuels her advocacy. In interviews, Dr. Chua has spoken openly about her experiences with loss and burnout, particularly the suicide of a close friend that deeply affected her path. It’s this personal connection that makes her work both urgent and intimate—rooted not only in data, but in grief, love, and care.

Relate Malaysia is now more than a clinic or nonprofit—it’s a cultural force. Through education campaigns, school-based programs, corporate workshops, and public training, the organization has reached thousands. Dr. Chua’s approach weaves together science, humanity, and policy with remarkable precision.

She isn’t stopping. Whether it's lobbying for more mental health funding, advising regional health bodies, or mentoring the next generation of therapists, Dr. Chua continues to push the field forward. In a region where mental illness is still heavily stigmatized and underfunded, she remains a rare and necessary voice.

Dr. Chua once said, “We don’t need to wait for the world to understand us—we can start by understanding ourselves.” With Relate Malaysia, she’s helping thousands do just that, one conversation at a time.