About Me

🔹Professional Profile 

Dr Amnah Maktar is a Registered Counsellor and Psychology Officer (Counselling) at the South Seberang Perai District Health Office, Ministry of Health Malaysia. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning (C3L), Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

Her work brings together direct counselling practice, academic research, teaching and public education. She is particularly interested in how established counselling approaches can engage thoughtfully with clients’ cultural and spiritual contexts while remaining attentive to professional ethics and the limits of the available evidence.

Her doctoral research focused on TR-TAN, an approach integrating Reality Therapy with Tazkiyah al-Nafs. Through this work, she examined ihsan kendiri among adolescents experiencing mental health difficulties. Her wider interests include adolescent mental health, counselling skills, single-case research and the translation of research into practical educational resources.

🔹 Counselling Philosophy

People bring more than symptoms into a counselling room. They also bring relationships, values, responsibilities and ways of making sense of their experiences. I seek to understand these dimensions before deciding how best to respond.

My practice is informed by Reality Therapy and Choice Theory, alongside an interest in Islamic psychospiritual perspectives where these are relevant to a client’s own beliefs and preferences. I approach this work with respect for client autonomy, professional boundaries and the need to assess each person’s circumstances individually.

🔹 Academic Background

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Counselling
Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah (UniSHAMS), Malaysia | 2020–2025

Master in Counselling
Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah (UniSHAMS), Malaysia | 2015–2018

Bachelor of Shariah with Honours
Kolej Universiti INSANIAH (KUIN), Malaysia | 2012–2015

🔹Professional Registration

Registered Counsellor, Board of Counsellors Malaysia
KB0786 · PA07424