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Therapy Services

Help with Anxiety, Depression

Life in the big city can be rough—too many people, too much noise. The hectic pace and commotion everywhere can stress us out and as a result make us more vulnerable to mental crises of various kinds.

At the same time, we may experience the paradox of being amongst so many others, yet feeling quite lonely at times. Schedules are tight, spontaneous get-togethers feel like an ancient luxury, and when we start losing our balance it may be hard to find someone who listens, someone who can proffer a helping hand when it feels most needed.

Circumstances like these and the many more problems that life can suddenly throw into our face can lead us into anxiety or depression. They can make us paralysed and unable to proceed forward.

Talking to someone professional can create an initial spark, a booster that makes the essential difference. It can help us overcome the hurdle and consequently find a way to get back into the game.

I offer client-centered and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and depression. Tailored for each client, I focus on staying flexible in my outlook while putting my experience and skills at your disposal. Together we will analyse your current situation, the factors that have brought you here, and create a new, feasible path forward that you will be able to forge even under the current troublesome circumstances.

Couples Counseling

Communication between people is a sensitive matter. We all understand things in unique ways. We explain ourselves distinctively and also have different expectations of each other depending on the situation we are in. These facts and many others imply that much can go wrong when we actually try to make ourselves understood.

A loving partnership can turn into a battleground. And in the case of international marriage or partnership, the misunderstandings and troubles can escalate even more, as those involved come from different cultural backgrounds where certain situations might be dealt with in contrasting ways.

Working through these differences and finding new approaches that fit both partners are essential to affecting positive change.

Couples counseling is the way to find this common language. Additionally, it provides a safe place where old hurts that still bother one or the other can be expressed and worked through. Couples can find their way through rocky times in the presence of an encouraging third party, the counselor.

As such, I understand couples counseling to be a method whereby we deal with your issues as a team—a team that is not looking for “the guilty one,” but that tries to build a new, prosperous ground where positive communication can flourish again.

Traumatherapy

Some of us experience traumatising events in life. By trauma, psychology means deeply distressing experiences which go beyond our regular coping skills. In some cases, these experiences are singular events like a natural disaster or violence. For others, trauma is more an accumulation of small disturbing episodes experienced through certain periods in life, like childhood or adolescence.

Whichever might be the case, people who have lived through traumatising events will suffer from a variety of symptoms. For some trauma shows in form of flashbacks or nightmares. For others trauma expresses itself more in a general numbness towards life, an inability to feel or an indifference in relation to occuring events. These symptoms, along with the sensation of not being able to recall certain life periods, can indicate traumatisation.

Meeting with a qualified mental health professional can help to rebuild one’s connection with life as well as alleviate the disturbing, agonizing symptoms. Tokyo Central Counseling offers trauma therapy for both one-time and accumulative trauma.

Addiction Therapy

Tokyo is a fascinating, vibrating metropolis. With almost thirty-eight million people, it is the biggest urban agglomeration worldwide. This city really never seems to sleep, with its colourful illuminations and incomparable sounds, and entertainment available almost 24/7.

In such an arrangement, where something is always going on, one would easily assume that it is more or less impossible to feel empty or bored.

But surprisingly, often the opposite is the case. People are almost enticed to addictive behaviour. The around-the-clock availablity of substances of nearly any kind, for example, certainly does not help. Neither does the fact that lots of social gatherings—both private and business—center on some kind of substance consumption. Risk factors are rife in city life.

People who try to get away from drugs hence find themselves confronted with an armada of temptations. They additionally face danger or relapse, not to be underestimated, after they have decided to quit alcohol or other illegal substance consumption. Naturally, this is where professional help comes into play.

Outpatient addiction therapy helps clients deal with all kinds of temptations and cravings. It is an approach that can lead to a life free from substance dependence. After having evaluated your specific tendencies and risks we will set up a systematic plan that will enable you to work towards regaining control of your life.

Anger Management Counseling

Have you ever felt unnecessarily pushed around or elbowed on the Yamanote Line? Did people in front of you get on your nerves because they were walking too slowly, talking too loudly or cutting in front of you when you were in a hurry? When these situations seem to be accumulating, or when you start recognizing that you are getting worked up at small things a little bit too often, it might finally be time to do something about it. The underlying problem might be anger— an accumulation of stress that you have built up internally over time.

Learning stress management techniques, relaxation techniques and analysing the whole current life situation would be the necessary procedure in order to get the problem under control. Anger is always a sign that one has lost one’s overall balance. And as such it can almost be understood as a seismograph of currently lived stress and frustration. Grabbing thus the underlying roots of the problematic is equally as important as practising coping skills. Both methods are part of my approach towards Anger Management issues.

Let`s discuss and resolve your specific situation. Life does not have to be lived in constant mysery.

Help with Culture- and reverse Culture shock

Japan has generated a unique culture. Its history goes back thousands of years and its cultural distinctiveness attracts millions of tourists every year. Newly arrived foreigners may be puzzled by how people relate to each other, their mannerisms and social. Incomplete understanding can create feelings of helplessness or in some cases can even turn into a full-blown mental crisis.

Japanese citizens who have lived abroad for an extended period of time may encounter similar difficulties. Reintegration into the local community can be tough and bring about various complications of all kinds.

In both cases, it can be helpful to discuss conflicts with a counselor with international experience who can help to bring light into the inner confusion. Let’s analyze what most bothers you currently. Together we can try to understand what particular elements of Japanese daily life get to you. Understanding is the first step towards recovery.