Dr. Paul Wong, PhD, CPsych
President, International Network on Personal Meaning
President, Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute Inc.
Dr. Paul Wong’s Website:
International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM)
Dr. Paul Wong’s Biography
Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., C.Psych. is Professor Emeritus of Trent University and Adjunct Professor at Saybrook University. He is a Fellow of APA and CPA and President of the International Network on Personal Meaning (www.meaning.ca) and the Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute. Editor of the International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, he has also edited two influential volumes on The Human Quest for Meaning. A prolific writer, he is one of the most cited existential and positive psychologists. The originator of Meaning Therapy and International Meaning Conferences, he has been invited to give keynotes and meaning therapy workshops worldwide. He is the recent recipient of the Carl Rogers Award from the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Div. 32 of the APA) and a member of a research group on Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life, which is funded by a major research grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Dr. Paul Wong received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Toronto in 1970. He has held professorial positions at various universities, such as the University of Toronto, York University, and Trent University. As the Founding Director of the Graduate Program in Counselling Psychology at Trinity Western University (TWU), he established an accredited and widely recognized graduate program. Moreover, he served as the Division Chair of Psychology and Business Administration at Tyndale University College. He was visiting scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of British Columbia. He has been invited to lecture at numerous universities and institutions in North America, Asia, and Europe.
Dr. Wong has published extensively with more than 120 scholarly journal articles, 60 invited chapters, and 7 books; many of his papers have been reprinted in anthologies. He is internationally known for his research on meaning-in-life, death acceptance, successful aging, existential positive psychology (EPP)—also known as the second wave of positive psychology (PP2.0)—and meaning therapy. His major publications are the two editions of The Human Quest for Meaning: A Handbook of Psychological Research and Clinical Applications (with P. S. Fry) (1998) and The Human Quest for Meaning: Theories, Research, and Applications (2012), as well as The Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping (2006).
Dr. Wong is also known for developing several psychological measurements, including the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale (MJS) (with S. M. Pfeiffer), the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) (with E. J. Peacock), Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) (with G. T. Reker and G. Gesser), the Personal Meaning Profile (PMP), and the Servant Leadership Profile-Revised (SLP) (with D. Page). With more than 8,000 citations (according to scholar.google.com), Dr. Wong is one of the few psychologists who have been cited by journals and textbooks in diverse areas, ranging from animal learning to social cognition, stress and coping to positive aging and dying, and cross-cultural psychology to meaning research.
Dr. Wong is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association. Apart from his current editorial duties for the IJEPP and Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Dr. Wong has previously served on the editorial boards for PsychCRITIQUES, Stress Medicine, and the Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science. He has also served on federal government agencies, including the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Washington, DC and the National Advisory Council on Aging for the Canadian Minister of Health in Ottawa, ON.
Apart from his academic pursuits, Dr. Wong is also devoted to serving people as a Registered Clinical Psychologist and an ordained pastor in Ontario. Currently, he and his wife maintain a private practice through the Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute, Inc. (MCCI). They also offer professional training and supervision for those interested in meaning-centered counselling and therapy (MCCT). The meaning-centered approach is designed to repair what is broken as well as bring out what is best in people. He has applied this approach to developing positive leadership and management as well.
Dr. Paul was also the Founding Pastor of the Chinese Gospel Church in Toronto, as well as the founder of the Peterborough Chinese Christian Fellowship. He has spent more than three decades ministering to refugees, foreign students, and new immigrants. He has contributed many articles to Christian publications and spoken at pastors’ conferences.
Dr. Wong has received numerous awards and honors from around the world, most recently the Carl Rogers Award in 2016 from Division 32 of the American Psychological Association for his “outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of humanistic psychology.” Moreover, he has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Life Education from the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health (2013, Taiwan), the 12th Global Love of Life Medal from the Ta-Kuan Chou Foundation for his contributions to the suffering people through his writings, teachings, and personal example of being a courageous cancer survivor (2008, Taiwan), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the INPM (2008, Toronto). Furthermore, he has received the Statue of Responsibility Award from the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy (1999, Vienna) and the VanCity Cultural Harmony Award from the Society for Community Development (1997, Vancouver).
Dr. Wong is an Honored Professor at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (2015) and an Accredited Honorary Lifetime Member of the International Association of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis at the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy in Vienna (2014). Moreover, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Tyndale University College (2004) and the Paul T. P. Wong Center for Research in Counselling Psychology was established by the Board of Governors at Trinity Western University to honor his contributions (2002).
Dr. Wong has been consulted and interviewed by major TV and radio stations, such as ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, Global News, and CTV News, on a variety of psychological issues, such as the Stockholm Syndrome, PTSD and post-traumatic growth, transformative grieving, and positive psychology. As well, he has been consulted and interviewed by major newspapers, including the New York Times, the Financial Post, the National Post, the Toronto Star, the Vancouver Sun, and Peterborough Examiners. He has been cited by more than 6,000 websites internationally.
Dr. Paul Wong is happily married to Dr. Lilian C. J. Wong, a practicing psychotherapist with a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of British Columbia. Their older son, P. Austin Wong, is the director of business and legal affairs at DHX Media. Their younger son, Wesley P. Wong, is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, associate faculty at Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and a principal investigator at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Paul Wong’s Interview On Meaning And Purpose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjdoLrZlkbI
Professor Dr. Paul Wong On Second Wave Positive Psychology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOQ0RBCragw
COLLABORATION WITH Dr. Dezelic and Dr. Ghanoum:
Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy as the Gold-Standard for Palliative Care
Epilogue by Dr. Paul T.P. Wong in
Meaning in Life in Palliative Care: A Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Approach in Healthcare Through Meaning-Centered Therapy
(Meaning in Life in Palliative Care: A Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Approach in Healthcare Through Meaning-Centered Therapy, Dezelic & Ghanoum, 2015)
Dr. Paul Wong ’s Books:
Co-Editor
~ Existential and Spiritual Issues in Death Attitudes