Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center
English Speaking Counseling in Tokyo Japan
English speaking American board-certified psychiatrist psychotherapist, cognitive-behavioral counseling (CBT) therapist, and Japan-certified Tokyo psychologist staff provide psychological counseling, psychotherapy, support, marital & family counseling, and life coaching, at this psychology service and mental health care counseling service for foreigners in the Shibuya-Ebisu area of Tokyo Japan (Meguro-ku, Shibuya-ku, Setagaya-ku, Minato-ku area of Tokyo, 25 minutes from Yokohama).
Center Overview
Welcome to the home page of the Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center.
The Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center is a counseling and psychology service in Tokyo that has provided professional English speaking psychotherapy, counselling, and psychological care in Tokyo for the international community, as well as counseling in Japanese for the local Japanese community, since 1992. The therapists at the Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center provide individual counseling for children or adults, marriage and couples counseling, particularly Japanese-Western couples, family counseling, divorce counseling, life counseling, career counseling and coaching, and group psychotherapy services in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese. Corporate training and conflict resolution is also available, please inquire for details. In addition, Phone or Skype counseling is often provided for persons living in Kansai (Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto) and other areas of Japan.
Some of the more common problems that the therapists at the Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center have experience treating includes self-confidence problems, relationship/family problems, depression and manic depression, anxiety (GAD) and panic disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) phobias, social anxiety disorder (SAD), alcohol and substance abuse, ADD and ADHD treatment, traumatic experiences (PTSD)/child abuse, feelings of unreality, sleep disturbances, psychosomatic (mind/body) disorders, women's issues, gay and lesbian issues, sex addiction, and child and adolescent disturbances. The Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center therapists have considerable experience in the treatment of anxiety and depression in Tokyo.
- Click here for a QUICK DEPRESSION CHECK.
Approach and Activities
Counseling Approach. Insight-oriented psychodynamic psychotheray, CBT (cognitive behavioral psychotherapy), supportive psychology counseling, and other forms of psychotherapy and mental health care are practiced at The Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center. The Meguro Counseling Center also sees many couples in crisis. The pattern of the trouble between the partners needs to be elicited and presented clearly to the couple so that they can work on resolving what is usually a negative cycle. Please see the Counseling Approach page for further details.
In the case of severe depression or other psychiatric illness, the therapists at the Meguro Counseling Center can advise and recommend a specific psychiatric medication treatment that can be received via referral to a local physician affiliated with the Center, similar to the function of a clinical psychologist in Tokyo. For mild or moderate depression, psychotherapy and other non-medical interventions may be of benefit. These interventions may include using certain supplements, special exercises, and biorhythm therapies. The Meguro Counseling Center staff is familiar with these interventions and uses them in appropriate cases. Persons who entrust the Center with their counseling needs are treated kindly and professionally, and the work at hand in the care of these persons and their issues is taken extremely seriously.
Research Activities. The therapists at the Meguro Counseling Center in Tokyo have published a number of research papers on topics including expatriate adaptation to living in Japan, eating disorders, dissociative disorders and child abuse, parental bonding, personality disorders, schizophrenia, cross-cultural issues related to Japan, suicide in medical patients, psychiatric drug development in Japan, virtual reality for panic disorder and phobias, virtual reality treatment and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), antidepressant clinical trial methodology and development in Japan, and others. They have also given a number of presentations on these and other topics at various international conferences.
This page lists the Center Director Dr. Douglas Berger's research activity, and this page lists the Associate Director Dr. Eames' research projects. Dr. Berger also sponsors The Douglas M. Berger Psychopharmacology Research Fellowship in Japan, and the Meguro Counseling Center contributes a portion of counseling proceeds to research work at the Rockefeller University Department of Neuroscience.
Community Education. The Tokyo Meguro Counseling Center has been providing community education on a volunteer basis on a number of psychosocial topics relevant to living in Japan, and children and families in particular, through the Tokyo Families Magazine that can be read on the articles archive page. The Center also conducts speaking engagements at various support groups, schools, and community organizations on counseling and psychiatric issues (i.e., how psychotherapy works, post-partum depression, child and adolescent issues, etc.), and addresses a number of mental health topics of relevance to the international community in Japan through the media of the Center's home page and related websites (refer to the links on the left margin and page bottom).
Professional Education. The Center highly values the professional standards set by the American Psychiatric Association and the therapists maintain Continuing Medical Education (or other Center-approved continuing education for non-psychiatric staff) in order to provide the highest-quality of care possible. The Center also conducts in-house educational meetings and seminars for the therapy staff who also attend and present research reports at numerous local and international mental-health conferences and symposia. Please also refer to the Meguro Counseling Center Code of Ethics page for further details.
Therapists and Locations
Therapist Staff. The counseling staff includes Doug Berger, M.D., Ph.D, a fully bilingual American Board-Certified Psychiatrist and graduate of New York Medical College who also has a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo Department of Psychosomatic Medicine; Douglas Eames, Ph.D., an American trained in Cognitive-Behavioral therapy; and Ms. Akiko Owada, a Japan-Certified Psychologist in Tokyo. Dr. Berger and Dr. Eames have many years of psychotherapy experience in Japan and have published a number of mental-health research studies in professional journals, and Ms. Owada has written both undergraduate and graduate dissertations in psychology. See the Therapist Profiles page for more details.
Locations. There are three therapy offices conveniently located in the Shibuya-Ebisu area of central Tokyo. Dr. Berger is near Yutenji Station in Meguro-ku (8-minutes from Ebisu or Shibuya, 25-minutes direct by train from Yokohama), Dr. Eames is near Komazawa Daigaku Station in Setagaya-ku (7-minutes from Shibuya), and Ms. Owada is near Nakameguro Station (3-minutes from Ebisu or Shibuya), also in Meguro-ku. Sessions are carried out in English with native English speaking clients, and in Japanese with native Japanese speaking clients.
The Meguro Counseling Center is a community counseling and mental health consultation service. While we are not a facility that provides medical care, we are very familiar with medications used for psychiatric problems and can make recommendations to you for specific medications that fit your needs if psychotherapy is not sufficient. We can refer you to the medical clinic we work closely with where you can receive Japanese prescriptions that we recommend for you. Further information on medical referral is on the Psychiatric Medication page.
Please see the Practice Details page and the Location and Therapy Hours page for more details.
We would be pleased to lend you a helping hand. Please feel free to contact the Center for further information on this counseling service in Tokyo Japan.
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The Meguro Counseling Center consists of Western-trained therapists able to provide face-to-face mental-health care for the international community in Tokyo. With extensive experience in Japan, these therapists have a deep understanding of the stresses of living in Japan.
The Meguro Counseling Center provides community education on mental health topics through the Tokyo Families Magazine. Click the image to see the articles archive.
The Meguro Counseling Center has presented on the topic of Post-Partum Depression to the Tokyo Pregnancy Group. Click the image to see information on Post-Partum Depression.
The Meguro Counseling Center contributes counseling proceeds to research work at the Rockefeller University Department of Neuroscience.
Meguro Counseling Center on Twitter (in English & Japanese).
Meguro Counseling Center on Facebook.
Meguro Counseling Center Lecture Videos:
First Visit Evaluation
Common Issues and Their Treatments