English-Speaking Therapy in Japan

Living in Japan can be meaningful, exciting, and deeply enriching.

It can also be unexpectedly lonely.

Many people arrive in Japan feeling capable, independent, and ready for a new chapter. Yet over time, they may notice something harder to explain: increased anxiety, emotional numbness, relationship struggles, burnout, self-doubt, or a lingering sense that they no longer feel like themselves.

Sometimes living abroad does not create new wounds — it exposes older ones.

The distance from familiar support systems, language differences, cultural expectations, career pressures, immigration-related uncertainty, and the experience of constantly adapting can place tremendous strain on our emotional resources.

You do not need to navigate those questions alone.

A Therapy Space That Understands Life Between Cultures

I am a Japanese and U.S.-trained psychotherapist who has lived between Japan and the United States for over twenty years.

My clinical work is informed by both Western trauma psychology and a deep understanding of Japanese cultural contexts. Many of my clients are people who have spent significant parts of their lives adapting to different environments, cultures, languages, identities, expectations, and ways of relating.

Some identify as:

• Expats or foreign nationals living in Japan
• International students
• Multicultural or mixed-cultural individuals
• Third culture adults
• Japanese professionals returning from overseas
• English-speaking residents of Japan
• Individuals in intercultural relationships
• People who often feel they belong to multiple worlds, yet fully to none

Often, these experiences create strengths such as resilience, flexibility, empathy, and curiosity.

At the same time, they can also leave people feeling emotionally untethered, misunderstood, or chronically responsible for adapting to everyone around them.

My Areas of Specialization

I specialize in working with:

• Trauma and PTSD
• Attachment and developmental trauma
• Cultural adjustment and identity-related stress
• Anxiety and chronic self-doubt
• Relationship and intimacy difficulties
• Life transitions
• Burnout among helping professionals, academics, and high-achieving individuals
• Dissociation and emotional disconnection
• Grief, loss, and major life changes

Many of the people I work with have already done meaningful therapy before. They are insightful and self-aware, yet continue to feel stuck in recurring emotional patterns or symptoms that seem difficult to resolve through insight alone.

EMDR and Trauma-Focused Therapy

As an EMDRIA-Certified EMDR Therapist and Consultant-in-Training, I offer trauma-focused therapy that goes beyond symptom management.

Together, we work to understand not only what is happening in the present, but also how past experiences may continue to influence emotional reactions, relationships, self-worth, and nervous system responses today.

My approach integrates:

• EMDR
• Somatic and body-centered approaches
• Attachment-focused therapy
• Relational psychotherapy
• Mindfulness-based interventions
• Memory reprocessing approaches

I move at a pace that prioritizes safety, collaboration, and choice.

Many clients tell me they appreciate having a space where they do not need to explain every cultural nuance before being understood.

Therapy for English Speakers Living in Japan

I provide online and *in-person psychotherapy in English and Japanese for adults and couples.

Whether you are living in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, Fukuoka, or elsewhere in Japan, therapy can offer a space to slow down, make sense of your experiences, and reconnect with yourself in a deeper way.

Healing is not only about reducing symptoms.

It is also about feeling more at home in your own life.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to reach out for a consultation and see whether working together feels like a good fit.

*When schedule allows and clinically appropriate, in-person session will be arranged for EMDR intensives.