English speaking Psychologists in Tokyo

In a few years I'm thinking of participating in my school's study abroad program in Tokyo. I have bi-polar disorder and receive weekly counseling and take lithium. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to find an English speaking psychologist and have medicine prescribed. I know in the US you usually have a psychiatrist to prescribe medicine and a psychologist who does the counseling. Is it this way in Japan? Would this be covered under the Japan health insurance?

http://www.telljp.com/
http://www.tokyocounseling.com/english/

Hope that helps

Thank you, that was very helpful and I have bookmarked both sites. However, I only saw counseling/psychotherapy, not psychiatry. Would I be able to get prescriptions through a general/family doctor, and would that (the visit and/or the prescription) be covered under the national insurance? (I saw that the counseling would not be.)

This site
http://www.counselingtokyo.com

seems to have English speaking mental health staff and info on medication and treating bipolar disorder in Tokyo and can either help you or refer you to where you need to go.

Consultations with and prescriptions issued by a nationally licensed doctor in Japan are covered by the national health insurance system and you would only have to pay 30% of the charges for these services. General doctors could prescribe medication for mental health conditions but perhaps it would be best to see a psychiatrist. There are around 13,000 doctors qualified in psychiatry in Japan, both in large hospitial and smaller local psychiatrical community clinics which in the main are out-patient facilities. The Tokyo Counseling Center mentioned above has English speaking psychologists who are bi-lingual and TCS has connections with many psychiatrists, including one who has a clinic next to the station in Shimokitazawa where that counseling center is also located:

http://tokyocounseling.com
http://tokyocounseling.com/english/access/

Prescriptions can be taken to local pharmacies and the cost of medications issued there is also covered by the national health insurance system. So the cost of medications in Japan is also very low compare to the States.

Hope this may be of help to you.

There are a number of qualified, English-speaking therapists in Tokyo. Two websites that no one has mentioned are:

International Mental Health Professionals Japan (IMHPJ), an association of professionals with its own Code of Ethics (and procedures to ensure that all members adhere to that code):
www.imhpj.org

And TELL Counseling Service, the face-to-face professional branch of Tokyo English Life Line, which has a number of English-speaking clinicians on staff:
www.telljp.com

Wherever you go, be sure to ask about your psychologist's/psychiatrist's/counselor's credentials and experience, and remember: there is no government regulation of non-medical mental health care in Japan. Anyone can call himself a therapist or counselor - there are no licenses, no review boards.

Good luck!

It is not true that there is no government regulation of non-medical mental health care in Japan. As of June this year (2001) there are 51,941 licensed Psychiatric Social Workers here in Japan. Please see the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Social Workers (JAPSW) website for confirmation of this fact:
Japanese Association of Psychiatric Social Workers (JAPSW)

In Japan Psychiatric Social Workers (PSW's) are nationally licensed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. There are strict licensing regulations for the training of these mental health practitioners and in order to be allowed ot sit the national examination to be qualified as a PSW it is necessary to have graduated from a four year degree course in psychologyfrom a recognized university in Japan. There has been a legal requirement for Psychiatric Social Workers to be nationally licensed since April 1st April 1997.

Please note there is also national licensing and strict government regulation for non mental health field Social Workers in Japan too. Please see these links for more information in Japanese and English:

Japanese Association of Certified Social Workers (JACSW)
http://www.jacsw.or.jp/

Japanese Association of Social Workers (JASW)
http://www.jasw.jp/

TELL mentioned above is a fine charitable Christian founded NGO that is located in the Wesley Center in Tokyo and in the Yokohama Union Church and so is ideal for you if you are seeking spiritual or pastoral counseling.

I agree you should be careful please however, as anyone or group can call themselves mental health professionals in Japan, even if they cannot speak Japanese and so perhaps do not have a true understanding of the mental health law in Japan.

Kind regards

Kind regards

Erika, thanks for correcting my post! You are right in that social workers ARE licensed by the Japanese government. Clinical psychologists, however, are not. Not yet, anyway!

And regarding TELL as a Christian, "pastoral" counseling center, I think that MAY have applied 20 years ago but isn't true anymore.
:-)

Actually Clinical Psychologists in Japan credentials are officially recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and so school counselors in Japan are Clinical Psychologists, and the Japan listed by the World Health Organization.

Governmental agreement is strong and discussions have happened at the highest level of government to draw up plans for Clinical Psychologists to be legally licensed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour. You can see more information on licensed Clinical Psychologists in Japan :

Japan Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists
http://www.jsccp.jp/

Foundation of the Japanese Board for Clinical Psychologists
http://www.fjcbcp.or.jp

Best regards