It didn’t start with a grand plan. It started with a borrowed house, a logo, and a quiet belief that people deserved somewhere to go. The way most things that actually matter do.
In 2019, our founder, Mr. Philipp Chen Tan had just gotten his license as a psychologist. He knew what he wanted: to practice therapy and genuinely help people through mental health concerns and life’s harder moments. But finding a place to do that was its own challenge. The job openings he came across were discouraging — a psychologist position paying 25,000 pesos a month, less than what he was already earning as a virtual assistant.
“I saw a job opening — a psychologist position — and the salary for the month is just 25k. And I worked as a VA and was paid even 30k. So like, all that effort for that.”
— Philipp Chen Tan, founder of Inner Peace PH
Rather than wait for a system that wasn’t ready for him, he asked his mother if he could use the family’s ancestral home. She said yes. He repurposed the rooms, put furniture in, got a logo made, and built a simple website.
One client came, then two, then more than he could manage alone. By 2021, he had taken on his first mentee. By 2022, another. And what had begun as one person in a quiet room was slowly, steadily becoming something more.
The stigma of seeking help
For a long time, there was just this weight. It’s a struggle many of us recognize but rarely talk about. The kind that doesn’t always show on the outside, so you learn to manage it, live with it, and, more often than not, hide it. We’re taught to stay “okay” —
to make sure we don’t make anyone else uncomfortable. But then came a realization that the silence was crowded. We saw it in friends who laughed things off too quickly, and in conversations that stopped just short of getting real.
Chen recognized it. Why does something so common feel like something we have to go through alone?
For too long, mental healthcare has felt like it belonged “somewhere else.” Somewhere clinical, distant, and intimidating. We’ve been conditioned to think of support as a place with heavy doors and sterile hallways. It became a destination you only visit when things have already become too much to bear.
Even as the world started talking more about mental health online, that “clinical” wall remained. Awareness was growing, but actually seeking help still felt like a massive, heavy step.
It felt separate from real life.
Mental health in the middle of life
Our mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It shows up in the middle of our routines, in the exhaustion after a long shift, and in the thoughts that keep you up at 2 AM. It often shows in moments that isn’t always a crisis but is just life.
But if our struggles happen in everyday spaces like our homes, offices, and daily commutes then why should the support be tucked away in a corner where no one can see it?
This question became the driving force behind Inner Peace PH’s expansion to Astra Lifestyle Center.
“The intention is really to destigmatize mental health care — to make it not surrounded with discrimination, shame, or judgment, and to actually uplift the people who use the service.”
— Chen, on opening at Astra
When support lives alongside the coffee shop you visit every morning and the grocery run you make every week, it stops feeling like something reserved for a crisis. It starts feeling like something available right now for you.
Permission to “Just Be”
At Inner Peace PH, we believe what people are missing isn’t just awareness; it’s permission. Permission to walk into a space without needing to justify it. Without needing to explain or prove that you’re “not okay enough” yet.
For many, reaching out for support comes with an internal negotiation. A quiet questioning of whether what you’re feeling is serious enough. A tendency to push through and carry on. Even the idea of stepping into a clinic can feel intimidating, disconnected from the rhythm of everyday life.
So the struggle stays unspoken. Managed quietly. Carried alone.
This is the gap that Inner Peace PH was built to address. And as it grew from one person in a repurposed room, to a team of over ten clinicians, to a second branch in a bustling lifestyle center, the mission never shifted. If anything, the expansion demanded a more intentional commitment to it.
“As we expand business-wise, we’re also taking great efforts to expand ourselves internally — through our systems — to make sure that the level of care we provide clients is consistent and standardized.”
— Chen, on scaling with intention
That means more training for clinicians, clearer protocols, and care for the clinicians themselves. Inner Peace PH has built internal support structures for its clinical team: supervision sessions, support groups, and intentional space for those who hold others’ stories to set their own burdens down.
“It’s a given that in our profession, when we take care of the clinicians, they take better care of the clients. Happy clinician, happy clients.”
— Chen
A new chapter
When asked whether he ever envisioned this growth when he first started out, Chen shared a personal answer.
“The part of me that wants to look good would say that I envisioned this from the start. But the reality is I just wanted to practice. I felt called to do more than that — to make sure that others get to practice the best that they can, especially given the gap of services locally.”
— Chen
He didn’t set out to open branches but he found the need to serve more people. The psychologist-to-population ratio in the Philippines remains deeply strained and not everyone who is licensed is in active practice. He recognized this wide gap and hoped that the door at Astra is one more answer to a question that too many people are still afraid to ask out loud.
A better story starts at our Astra doors. If you’re walking by today with a heavy heart, step inside. We’ve closed the distance so your journey can begin right here.
We’ll meet you just where you are.
