Our Story

The Soke

The principals of The Kuaya are Siti Hajar Onn and Liam Sloane.

While living in the UK, Siti and Liam were introduced to The Soke, a London-based mental health centre rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, the national regulator. Their relationship with The Soke developed beyond admiration from a distance: they became investors in the organisation and also experienced its services first-hand. That combination of personal and professional involvement gave them a close view of how a different kind of mental health model could work in practice.

What struck them was the way The Soke brought clinical seriousness together with a more human experience of care. It was not simply a collection of individual practitioners, or a place people came to only when they had reached a point of crisis. It offered a joined-up way of thinking about psychological wellbeing, where psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, coaching and specialist assessment pathways could sit alongside one another, and where the first step was not a diagnosis or a label, but a careful understanding of the person and their circumstances.

For Siti and Liam, that experience prompted a bigger question: what might it mean to bring this standard of care to Malaysia? They saw the possibility of creating something that could serve Malaysian individuals and families in a way that was clinically robust, culturally sensitive and relevant to modern life. Their ambition was not to copy a London model wholesale, but to take what they had learned from The Soke and adapt it thoughtfully for a Malaysian context.

The Kuaya grew out of that conviction. It represents the first adaptation of The Soke model outside the UK, but it has been created with its own purpose and identity. For Siti and Liam, the aim is to provide a place where people can begin conversations about mental health earlier, more confidently and with less uncertainty about where to turn. It is also intended to support parents, children, adults, couples and families in finding the right level of help before difficulties become more entrenched.

Their wider vision is for The Kuaya to contribute to a gradual shift in how mental health is understood in Malaysia. They want psychological care to be seen less as something hidden, exceptional or shameful, and more as a normal part of looking after oneself and one’s family. Over time, they hope The Kuaya can help set a new expectation: that mental health care can be clinically excellent without feeling impersonal; sophisticated without feeling inaccessible; and deeply respectful of the cultural context in which it is delivered.

At its heart, The Kuaya reflects Siti and Liam’s desire to do something meaningful in Malaysia. It is the result of a personal journey, a professional partnership and a belief that better mental health support can have an impact beyond the individual client: shaping families, strengthening communities and helping future generations grow up with a more open, informed and compassionate understanding of psychological wellbeing.