Japanese Jungian psychology

Domain I · Psychodynamic & depth psychology · Hayao Kawai · 1965 · Kyoto, Japan

What it is

This is not a manualised therapy. Kawai (1928–2007) was the first Japanese person to qualify as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute in Zurich. He brought Dora Kalff's sandplay to Japan around 1965 under the name hakoniwa ryōhō ("box-garden therapy"). He also founded the Japan Association of…

Format

• Kawai describes no formal phases, session counts or protocol. What follows is the format he and his Kyoto school used, plus a process arc taken from his own published case. Transition criteria are.
• Format

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Individual sessions, usually weekly, of about 50 minutes. Kawai gave his trainees weekly 50-minute training analyses that ran for over ten years, so very long treatments were normal. That client work used the same frame is inferred.
• This is not a manualised therapy. Kawai (1928–2007) was the first Japanese person to qualify as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute in Zurich. He brought Dora Kalff's sandplay to Japan around 1965 under the name hakoniwa ryōhō ("box-garden therapy"). He also founded the Japan Association of Sandplay Therapy and the Japanese Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists. The Japan Association of Jungian Analysts…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Using technique to compensate for limited personal capacity.
• Holding opposites when a safety decision is actually needed (see section 5).
• Grandiose or magical readings. Keep constellation as an attitude of attention, not a claim about causes.
• Clients making a tray to please you. If one feels it is expected, say again that it is entirely optional.
• Rushing to a tidy story too early. Sign it is working: the client tells their life in a way that feels true and bearable to them.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.