Yang-Shen has a background in international relations, with over a decade of work experience in the Singapore Public Service. Yang-Shen is convinced that the strength of his country Singapore lies not only in her economic vitality, but in the resilience and unity of her community. He sees a strong mental wellness system as fundamental, not a luxury, in sustaining both Singapore’s social fabric and long-term well-being. Yang-Shen believes that much can be learnt from the very young and the very old. His conviction is, drawing from Margaret Mead’s research, that a grouping of individuals become a civilisation when they look out and care for the least among us.

Yang-Shen’s values are guided by a relentless quest for, to quote JRR Tolkien: “peace and quiet and good tilled earth”. He sees art as a way of living. He believes that every individual is innately creative, desires connection, and is on a quest to find 'The Good Life'.

As an art psychotherapist, Yang-Shen's research interests include addiction, dementia, and existential crises including critical life transitions. Yang-Shen’s art therapy practice stands out from contemporary expectations, moving fast to pause, appreciating nature to find, play and discover, and sitting with the tension and unknown to draw out unknown and unmet needs, for smoother living and self development. Yang-Shen is convinced of the power of art, guided by the latest research methods, to allow the client to find and become the best of one’s self. This belief guided Yang-Shen’s masters thesis, when he observed the transformative power of art as the equal and palpable third 'actor' of the art therapy triangular relationship, where art catalysed the client-therapist therapeutic encounter.

Outside the clinic, Yang-Shen collects frivolous factoids about history, gastronomy, and how people groups organise and work together. He is particularly interested in how Southeast Asians live amongst the biodiversity of Sundaland, which includes Singapore and its 63 islands.