Japanese Kampo

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · 552 · Japan

What it is

Kampo (漢方) is Japan's traditional herbal medicine. It derives from Chinese herbal medicine, which reached Japan in 552 AD by one account, and was the backbone of Japanese medicine for more than 1,500 years. Dates for its arrival differ between accounts (a 7th-century date is also given in…

Format

• Engagement and assessment (sessions 1–3, inside your normal intake). Goals: learn whether the client uses Kampo, who prescribed it and why, and what it means to them; complete the CFI core (16 questions) and any supplementary modules that fit. Move on when you have the client's explanatory model, a…
• Formulation and coordination (sessions 2–5). Goals: write a cultural formulation that holds both the client's Kampo understanding and your psychological formulation; agree with the client what you will share with the prescribing physician or pharmacist. Move on when roles are clear: the prescriber…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• ICD-11. Chapter 26 (Traditional Medicine Conditions, Module 1), released with ICD-11 in 2018, classifies traditional medicine disorders and patterns from East Asian medicine, including Japanese Kampo, Chinese and Korean medicine. It is a tool for classification, statistics and research, and it does not certify efficacy or safety.
• Version followed: Kampo as practised inside Japan's national health insurance system, meaning prescription ("ethical") extract formulations prescribed by medically licensed physicians, as described by Japanese physician-researchers, the Japan Society for Oriental Medicine's ICD-11 work and Japanese regulatory labelling (PMDA); the psychotherapist's own work alongside it follows the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation…
• Who holds authority. In Japan, Kampo is prescribed within ordinary medical licensure: physicians who prescribe it must hold Western medical training, a requirement traced back to the Meiji era, and one Japanese physician-educator states that only doctors and pharmacists trained in Western medicine practise it. Specialist-physician (漢方専門医) and certified Kampo pharmacist systems exist; there are about 2,000 Kampo…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Psychotherapy alongside Kampo (the length of your usual treatment). Goals: deliver your usual evidence-based therapy, using the client's own terms where helpful; check in briefly about Kampo care at reviews; route any physical or medication concern to the prescriber.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• 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

• Escalating symptoms; isolation from medical care. It is working when medical review happens.
• A formulation that silently drops the Kampo view. It is working when the client recognises themselves in it.
• Abrupt stopping; relapse signs; family pressure for or against Kampo. It is working when medicine changes happen only through the prescriber.
• Interpreters adding their own views on Kampo; labels mistranslated. It is working when the client's own terms reach your notes and the prescriber.
• Products sold with claims to treat serious illness; no prescriber involved at all. It is working when a pharmacist or physician knows about the product.

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.