EMDR history in Japan

The first event in EMDR history in Japan was in 1991, Mark Russell, who was a research associate of Dr. Francine Shapiro visited Japan and taught EMD to us in a small meeting because he married with a Japanese wife. After the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, in July Francine Shapiro attended the first Pan-pacific brief psychotherapy conference, which was held in Japan. I presented EMD application to the Great Hanshin Earthquake survivors and Francine consulted me. In 1996, we began level 1 &2 EMDR training with Australian team. Thereafter Dr. Andrew Leeds from California kept coming to Japan for decade. In 1999, the first special issue on EMDR of professional journal was published. In 2004, Japanese version of Francine’s textbook was published. In 2006, the first domestic and academic conference of EMDR was held. In 2008, we began EMDR training with only Japanese team. In 2009, we began publishing Japanese academic journal, which is “Japanese Journal of EMDR Research and Practice”. In 2011, we had Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster, and we published special issue including 14 articles on helping earthquake and tsunami survivors with EMDR. We visited devastated area, saw ten survivors, utilized RDI for 5 people and applied R-TEP protocol to two successfully. Then, we organized EMDR training and consultation group session in marginal area of devastated area. We also discounted attendance fee for therapists who live in the area. In 2012, kids’ book on EMDR was published. In September 2013, 60 minutes TV program, which is exclusively on EMDR was broadcasted by National channel, NHK, and we still receive many telephone calls from audience. Regarding publications, 118 articles or book chapters on EMDR had been published in Japan by 2012. There have been 64 case studies (56%), 37 introductions (32%), 7 reviews (6%), 7 experiments (6%), 2 supervisions (2%), and 1 investigation (1%). Ratio of sex of case studies population was 25 males (29%) vs. 62 females (72%). Ratio of adults vs. children of population was 60(69%): 27(31%). Future tasks are considered that controlled trials should be accomplished, database should be made from case studies, and health insurance system, which can cover EMDR treatment, should be established.

Conference

English

Masaya Ichii
Minako Ohtsuka

Ichii, M., & Ohtsuka, M. (2014, January). EMDR history in Japan. In EMDR: Social and cultural adaptations/integration with other therapies (Tri Iswardani, Chair). Presentation at the 2nd EMDR Asia International Conference, Manila, The Philippines