find your inner edge

Karen is a bestselling author, practitioner, university lecturer and Hong Kong’s renowned expert in Applied Sport and Performance Psychology. Named the 2023 Global Impact Award winner by Boston University Wheelock College of Education in recognition of her outstanding achievement and significant global contribution to the field of sport psychology, Karen has been a strong advocate and major driving force behind the field in Hong Kong and Asia. Her work has been featured on GB News, South China Morning Post, Radio Television Hong Kong, TVB, NowTV, ViuTV, Sportsroad, and many more. She has presented internationally and published books, book chapters and popular articles related to athletes and mental health, youth sport psychology, sport parenting, coaching psychology and sport motivation.

Karen’s passion for Sport and Performance Psychology stemmed from her 7 years as a Hong Kong National swimmer and Hong Kong Sports Institute scholarship athlete. She was awarded the Outstanding Swimmers Award by both the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association and the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and considered an Olympic hopeful in her teenage years. While the mental pressure cost her that opportunity, it inspired her to break the stigma around Sport Psychology, and help athletes of all levels harness the power of their minds to reach their full potential.

Karen brings over two decades of experience and involvement in competitive athletics to current performers, clubs and organizations, and has extensive experience in understanding and treating sub-optimal behaviors using a client-centered pluralistic approach.  She is passionate about sport and performance, and understands the contextual demands that influence a performer’s capacity to achieve at the highest level. She has provided psychological support to numerous top National Sport Associations, elite sport institutions and clubs in the region, including Hong Kong Jockey Club, Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Talent Training Centre (former Apprentice Jockey School), Eastern Long Lions, Hong Kong Golf Association, Hong Kong Baseball Association, Hong Kong Netball Association, Hong Kong Rugby Union, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and many more. She also works with athletes, performers and coaches individually across the globe from recreational to National, NCAA (Div. 1) and professional level. In addition, she collaborates closely with parents on defining their roles as sport parents, guiding them in sending the right messages to their children and ensuring that their children gain the most positive competitive experiences.

Despite working in varied applied settings, Karen maintains deep connections to academia, and holds undergraduate and graduate teaching roles at different universities. She is a lecturer at both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Education University of Hong Kong, and sits on the Advisory Board for Lingnan University’s Master of Social Sciences Applied Psychology program. She is a regular Sport Psychology speaker for the Hong Kong Education Bureau PE Professional Development Program and trains PE teachers on coaching philosophies and creating motivational climates for student-athletes.

Karen wrote the first two Sport Psychology books for Hong Kong - Sport Psychology: Building Self-confidence and Maximizing Potential and Sport Psychology 2: Are You Just An Athlete? (Arcadia Press, in Chinese). Her first book has been shortlisted for the Hong Kong Education City Secondary School ‘10th Best Books’ book award in the Year 2020 and is currently on the Hong Kong Education Bureau’s secondary school recommended book list; her second book is on Eslite HK’s bestseller list. She is also a contributing author of three well-known English reference books in Sport Psychology, Building Consulting Skills for Sport and Performance: An International Case Study Collection by Routledge, Mindfulness and Performance by Cambridge University Press and Performance Excellence: Stories of Success from the Real World of Sport and Exercise Psychology by Rowman & Littlefield. She blogs regularly for local sports news platform Sportsroad, and has previously published articles for Sportsoho and Asia Trail.

One of Karen’s missions is to lead the profession into an elevated position in public awareness. She holds active member status with AASP and assists the Association in a number of varying capacities. She currently chairs the International Relations Committee where she takes a lead role in in the promotion of AASP to Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology professionals and scholars outside North America. Locally, she serves as Managing Council and Vice-President of the Hong Kong Society of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and is also heavily involved with the Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled and the Hong Kong Association of Sports Medicine and Sports Science in the development of Sport Psychology within the local community.

Karen received a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons.) in Psychology at the University of Hong Kong and earned a Master of Education in Sport Psychology at Boston University, USA.​ She is the first Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC®, #499) of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), USA in the greater China area, a Registered Practitioner of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP-R), and a registered Mental Health First Aid Instructor in HK (#244906). Her current areas of interest include human performance optimization, student-athlete identity salience and conflict, motivation, mental resilience and coaching psychology.