Psychotherapy Integration in Japan

Psychotherapy in Japan is a relatively new area of practice growing rapidly in the last 10 years, especially in the area of education as the problems associated with school-aged children such as bullying and truancy became one of the major social challenges. The majority of Japanese psychotherapists practice approaches developed in North America and Europe, and Jungian theory has been influential to Japanese psychotherapists. Psychotherapy integration in Japan often take a form of cultural integration that takes two routes: adjusting and modifying technical procedures in the western psychotherapy to suit Japanese client population and developing theoretical concepts that are more in agreement with Japanese culture and its underlying worldview. Psychotherapists in Japan emphasize the importance of a non-talking cure, or silent processes and often employ nonverbal tasks such as drawing and sandbox. They have also developed innovative theoretical constructs that emphasize the importance of healthy dependence between mother and child.