Summit Video
A Brief Bio
Dr. Mark Yang is an American licensed clinical psychologist and is actively involved in the training and supervision of psychology students from the Existential-Humanistic Perspective throughout Asia. His professional interests include: Existential Psychology, Individual and Group Psychotherapy, Grief and Bereavement Counseling, Legal and Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice, and Cross-Cultural Psychology. Dr. Yang is the author of the book Lighting the Candle: Taoist Principles in Supervision Conducted from an Existential-Humanistic Perspective. He is also the editor of the book Existential Psychology and the Way of the Tao: Meditations on the Writings of Zhuangzi and the co-editor of the books Existential Psychology: East-West Volumes 1 & 2. Dr. Yang was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States when he was nine years old. He is also a dog and cat lover.
Websites, Media, Resources
Mark Yang, PsyD
The Global Existential Summit 
What a great gift. I could listen to Dr Mark Yang for hours. He has a lovely voice too.
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I’m in my 2nd year of a mental health counseling master’s program in the US and this discussion solidified so many meandering thoughts I’ve had throughout my coursework so far. Contrary to Dr. Yang’s experience, I actually found my way to counseling through some undergrad philosophy courses I took for fun. I loved the way studying it opened my mind and helped me think in new ways. Counseling felt like such a natural extension of this passion into a new midlife “career”. And, it strikes me that it’s such a missed opportunity that philosophy isn’t woven into counseling programs as they seem so fundamentally co-dependent.
When I opted to take Philosophy of Science as an elective, my graduate advisor questioned the relevance but it has been one of the most beneficial experiences of the entire program — again, because it changed my perspective, reframing my understanding of “science” and revealing how difficult it continues to be to define how it actually works. It made me pay attention to something I’d taken for granted as a given — a very therapeutic outcome. Anyway, I wish there were room to explore even more disciplines like religious studies or humanities but the current system and state licensing mandates have created such a rigid model for what should be “learned” that, as Dr. Yang shared, it takes away so much of the spiritual element/passion but we have to go into debt to get the degree as-is anyway 🙂 A blip in existence haha. I think this all connects to a bigger conversation that was alluded to about what makes a person qualified and the perception of what is scientific and what is not, but for now, I just want to thank Dr. Yang for his candor and perspectives — so thankful for this summit and all the resources that have supplemented my education in this field!
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I feel the same as you Natalie. I could listen to Mark Yang all day. I remember the talk from last year so it was great to hear it again. Nice that he takes the academic stance off and makes it human.
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