Japanese Version Here (日本語版)

Child Therapy and Counseling in Tokyo: Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Service in Tokyo Japan

English speaking psychiatrist counselor and therapist in Tokyo Japan providing psychological counseling and mental health support for children and adolescents in the international community in Tokyo.

Description of Services

The Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services provides professional and confidential psychological counseling for foreigners (children and adolescents) in both English and Japanese in the Shibuya-Ebisu area of central Tokyo, 4 minutes walk from Yutenji station on the Hibiya and Toyoko Lines. The therapists, counselors, and psychologist at the Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services are fluent in English, Japanese, and Spanish, and are experienced in treating children and adolescents from a number of cultural backrounds, and in particular mixed Western-Japanese children. Family therapy may also be an important aspect of the comprehensive treatment of children and the Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services has considerable experience in family therapy.

The Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services highly values the professional and ethical standards set by the American Psychiatric Association and the therapists maintain Continuing Medical Education Credits in order to provide the highest-quality of care possible.

Some of the more common problems seen at the Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services includes behavioral disorders of childhood and adolescence, learning disabilities, self-confidence problems, relationship/family problems, depression, anxiety/panic, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD), phobias, substance and alcohol abuse, history of traumatic experiences (PTSD)/child abuse, and others.

Although most difficulties that are seen in children and adolescents can be dealt with effectively through counseling and behavioral approaches, there is the rare occasion that medication may be necessary for a severe depression or a clear case of attention deficit disorder that does not respond to psychosocial interventions. Although information and recommendations regarding psychiatric medication can be provided, the Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services works together with a physician licensed in Japan who provides the prescription. The Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Center is not a medical clinic or facility; it is a network of therapists who work independently, each therapist having individual responsibility for the counseling of any clients they see.

Counseling Approach

Therapy with children is very different from that with adults as children often express their feelings and concerns in more symbolic than verbal forms. Because of this, use of art or play is often an effective means to begin to understand the child and help them re-work their ideas and feelings into ways that are more adaptive for them. The therapist's role is often as a guide to help the child to strive to move to more mature developmental levels. Family dynamics are often played out in the child's mind and behavior where it then becomes essential to also have family meetings.

It is also essential for the therapist to be well-grounded not only in behavioral and child psychological development, but also in the neurologic and medical aspects of the psychiatric problems commonly seen in children. In addition to the personality and developmental-phase behavioral problems that are often expressed in the child's relationships with others, these problems include Learning Disorders, Communication Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Autism, Asberger's Disorder, and other related Autistic disorders), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD), Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Tourette's and Tic Disorders, Separation Anxiety Disorders, etc. Depression and anxiety disorders that are most commonly seen in adults may also be seen in children with slightly different presentations than that seen in adults; and it often takes a well-experienced therapist to make these distinctions.

Therapy with adolescents is similar to that of adults but not quite the same. Adolescents are in a developmental phase where they are striving very hard to become separate and independent from their parents, however, they actually still very much have deep attachment needs to their parents and this may lead to conflict. They may go overboard in their attempts to achieve independence, i.e., the so-called "rebellious phase", and they may also engage in unhealthy romantic relationships because of their desire to maintain dependency needs in the face of separation from the closeness with their parents that they knew just a few years earlier as young children.

A central theme for adolecents is that they often make maladaptive psychological and behavioral defenses against certain core issues like feeling inadequate or unloved (ie. trying too hard to get noticed by others or getting into unhealthy romantic relations) that can then lead to trouble for the adolescent. Understanding and re-working these defenses and how they lead to trouble, as well as minimizing the effects of one's core issues is a very useful tool in therapy. A detailed description of this approach can be found here: Core Issue-Defense Paradigm. Adolescence is also the time when the first episodes of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, OCD, and substance abuse appear, and it is important to intervene as eary as possible in the course of these problems.

Please also refer to this page: Approach To Treating The Adolescent for further information on issues in treating adolescents.

Service Director

The Director of the Tokyo Child and Adolescent Counseling Services is an American Board-Certified Psychiatrist, Douglas Berger, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Berger is a graduate of New York Medical College where he also completed a 4-year residency program in psychiatry. Now based in Tokyo, Dr. Berger had served on the Faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry in New York as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Berger has extensive experience working with children and adolescents both as a phychiatrist in New York as well as in seeing child and adolescent patients in therapy over many years in Japan. Dr. Berger is fluent in English and Japanese, and conversational in Chinese.

Dr. Berger's Japanese qualifications include a Ph.D. in Medical Science from the University of Tokyo School of Medicine received while at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at Tokyo University.