Culture Shock and Cross-Cultural Therapy with a Japanese Student

When encountering an international student in social or psychological distress, college personnel often seek out a therapist from the student's country or someone familiar with that country. As someone in the second category, I have had the privilege of consulting with many Japanese students in the Boston area, where Japanese therapists have been rare to nonexistent. Although I am unmistakably middle-class Caucasian American, since 1958 I have lived in Tokyo at various times, originally doing sociological research on Japanese family life, and more recently consulting with social workers and psychiatrists in Japanese hospitals and counseling offices. I speak Japanese quite imperfectly but rather fluently.