Dr. Agnes Ip, Ph.D., LMFT

PLPC Program Creator and Training Director

Dr. Agnes Ip is the Founder and CEO of Presence, Presence Hong Kong, and Presence Canada. She is a California licensed marriage and family therapist and has a Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology. In her early years, she was a church minister in Hong Kong, now she is a lecturer at several seminary schools. Dr. Agnes has been passionate about nurturing the next generation to serve in their families, workplaces, and current cultural context. To help people deal with the challenges in a multicultural environment, Dr. Agnes developed the Presence Life Planning Curriculum (PLPC). With creative and systematic guidance, PLPC enables connections between individuals, families, and communities, thus helping people live out their faith with wisdom.

Dr. Agnes graduated from Alliance Bible Seminary and received her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Azusa Pacific University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in multicultural community clinical psychology at Alliant International University (AIU).

Dr. Agnes has more than 20 years of experience in the mental health profession and served as a mental health therapist for government-subsidized outpatient clinics. She interned at local public schools, domestic violence shelters, and drug addiction rehabilitation centers in the U.S. She also performed psychological assessments for abused children at a government hospital. In recent years, Dr. Agnes has provided clinical guidance for marriage & family therapist trainees and interns from various universities. She is now completing her postdoc degree and conducts teletherapy part time. 

Dr. Agnes is a sought-after speaker and trainer for seminars and conferences on parenting, personal growth, professional psychology, and counseling. Additionally, she trains and coaches couples and families, professionals, small businesses, and organizations. She has trained professionals on how to resolve interpersonal conflict and how to work with difficult people and has coached business owners and high-level executives in human resource management. She has coached professionals in the marketplace as well as church and pastoral staff workers. Moreover, her writing, her professional assessment, and her counseling greatly benefit the community. Dr. Agnes founded Presence Possibilities to help parents understand their children’s learning styles and multiple intelligences, and to help young people to choose their college majors and explore career paths. 

After years of academic research and clinical experiments, Dr. Agnes developed an assertive communication training curriculum for parents and children and published three training books on the topic. This curriculum helps to enhance children’s social abilities and deepens family relationships. Dr. Agnes also founded Re:New a Presence movement to help nurture the next generation’s faith and to encourage them to serve with their creativity and talents in their families, workplaces, and multicultural communities. Specially for the northern American parents, youth, and youth workers, Dr. Agnes developed the  Healthy Dialogue-Intergenerational curriculum to provide two-way communication guidance and help connect youth, families, and churches.

Dr. Agnes and her husband Benny have been married for more than 30 years and have two adult children. She loves improvisational theater and always keeps her curiosity to explore new cultures. In her free time, she enjoys deep conversations with friends over an English afternoon tea. She also likes watching TV drama shows occasionally, and she finds herself most relaxed in mother nature.