Atlas›Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines›Guide 279
Guide XIII-279

Tenrikyo service

Nakayama Miki1838Tenri, Nara Prefecture, Japan
A 37 · L 49 · M 1413 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Service (otsutome) as Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, publishes it in its English materials (the Tenrikyo newsletter pages and Tenrikyo Online), with the Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in America handbook for local-church practice. Psychotherapy guidance is general professional practice, marked [synthesis] where it is not from a source.

Tenrikyo is a Japanese religious organisation, not a therapy. Britannica dates its founder, Nakayama Miki (called Oyasama), to 1798–1887. It describes the movement as one of the 13 Kyoha Shinto groups recognised from 1908, with its centre at the Jiba in Tenri City [source: Britannica]. Tenrikyo dates the founding of the teaching to 26 October 1838 [source: Tenrikyo Online, Grand Service and Monthly Service].

The Service is Tenrikyo's central rite. Headquarters calls it the most important rite and the fundamental means to "single-hearted salvation" [source: Tenrikyo, The Service]. It has two parts:

  • The Kagura Service. Ten masked performers encircle the Kanrodai, a stand marking the Jiba, the spot where Tenrikyo teaches humankind was conceived. Their hand gestures represent God the Parent's workings at creation [source: Tenrikyo, The Salvation Service; Tenrikyo Online].
  • The Teodori, or Dance with Hand Movements. Three men and three women dance it [source: Tenrikyo, The Service].

Both parts are sung and danced to the Mikagura-uta, the songs for the Service, with nine instruments.

How change happens, as Tenrikyo states it. Tenrikyo teaches that misusing the mind gathers "dusts": self-centred states such as miserliness, covetousness, hatred, self-love, grudge-bearing, anger, greed and arrogance. These are said to cloud the mind and invite trouble [source: Tenrikyo, The Dust of the Mind; Tenrikyo Mission HQ in America handbook]. The Service is presented as the way to:

  • call forth God the Parent's blessings;
  • unite the minds of performers and worshippers with God;
  • move the world towards the "Joyous Life" [source: Tenrikyo, The Salvation Service; Tenrikyo Online].

These are the tradition's own beliefs. They are reported here, neither endorsed nor dismissed.

The psychotherapist's role. The therapist does not teach or perform the Service. The work is to understand what it means to the client and use it as a resource when the client wishes. It also means handling the clinical issues that can sit alongside it: guilt about "dust", illness beliefs, scheduling, community and family dynamics, and when to involve the church [synthesis].

2. Framework

A. How the Service is organised, as Tenrikyo publishes it

  • Kagura Service. Performed only at the Jiba, at Church Headquarters in Tenri [source: Tenrikyo Online, Grand Service and Monthly Service].
    • It is held on the 26th of each month.
    • Its musicians are senior Headquarters officials who rotate their roles monthly [source: Tenrikyo, The Salvation Service].
    • It has three other names: Joyous Service, Salvation Service and Service of the Kanrodai [source: Tenrikyo, The Service].
  • Calendar at Headquarters [source: Tenrikyo, The Service; Tenrikyo Online]:
    • Autumn Grand Service, 26 October (founding of the teaching, 1838);
    • Spring Grand Service, 26 January (Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life, 1887);
    • Monthly Service on the 26th of the other months;
    • Oyasama's Birth Celebration Service, 18 April;
    • New Year's Day Service, 1 January.
  • Local churches. Local churches may perform the Teodori, but not the Kagura Service [source: Tenrikyo Online].
    • The American handbook describes the church monthly service in three parts: a seated service, then the first and second halves of the dance [source: Handbook].
    • The dance is performed by six dancers, three men and three women, in unison with the music.
    • Of the nine instruments, men play six (the flute, the only melodic instrument, plus percussion). Women play three strings: koto, shamisen and kokyu [source: Handbook].
  • Morning and evening services. These are held daily at the Jiba and at local churches. Headquarters times follow sunrise and sunset; each church sets its own times [source: Tenrikyo Online, Morning and Evening Services].
    • Five performers play five instruments, and the wooden-clapper player leads.
    • Worshippers pay respects together, then sing the first three sections of the Mikagura-uta with the hand movements. Tenrikyo publishes the number of repetitions of each section.
    • Respects are then paid to Oyasama and to the Mitama-sama (the spirits of predecessors).
    • Some churches then practise the Teodori, read from the Ofudesaki (a Tenrikyo scripture) or give a short talk.
  • The songs. Oyasama taught the Mikagura-uta between 1866 and 1882 [source: Tenrikyo, Mikagura-uta].
    • Part one has three sections, used in the Kagura and seated services.
    • Part two is for the Teodori: the Eight Verses of the Yorozuyo and the Twelve Songs, each a counting song from one to ten.
  • How members learn it [source: Handbook; Tenrikyo Online, Shuyoka and Morning and Evening Services]:
    • Members learn the hand movements and instruments at church, for example after the morning service.
    • Shuyoka is a three-month Spiritual Development Course in Tenri, with classes in other languages. It teaches doctrine, the Mikagura-uta, dance and instruments, and includes hinokishin (volunteer service).
    • People aged 17 or over may attend the Besseki lectures. They may then receive the Sazuke, which Tenrikyo describes as the Divine Grant of prayer for those who suffer. The handbook links its effectiveness to the Service [source: Handbook].
    • The Sazuke is conferred by Tenrikyo itself and is not described further here.

B. The psychotherapist's work alongside it [synthesis]

These phases are this guide's own clinical structure. No Tenrikyo or clinical source gives one, and no session count is given in any source.

  1. Engagement and cultural assessment.
    • Goal: learn the client's relationship to the Service and the church. Use the Cultural Formulation Interview core and its spirituality, religion and moral traditions module.
    • Move on when the client's meanings, practices and community ties, and their link to the presenting problem, are written into the formulation.
  2. Integration and problem work.
    • Goal: with consent, use the client's practice (services, Teodori practice, hinokishin, community) as a resource.
    • Address clinical issues alongside it: self-blame, illness beliefs, scrupulosity, family or community conflict, grief.
    • Move on when goals are being met, or when a problem calls for referral or collaboration.
  3. Collaboration and consolidation.
    • Involve the church minister or Tenrikyo community where the client wishes.
    • Coordinate with the client's doctor on health matters.
    • Plan for relapse around demanding religious commitments, such as Shuyoka or pilgrimage to the Jiba.

3. Guiding principles

  • Describe Tenrikyo in its own terms, attributed [source: Tenrikyo pages cited]. Say "Tenrikyo teaches..." or "in your faith..."; use the client's words (otsutome, Oyasama, hokori, Joyous Life).
  • The client leads on religious content [synthesis]. Religious material comes into therapy only with explicit consent and at the client's pace.
  • The therapist is not a minister [synthesis].
    • Do not interpret scripture, assign services or judge "dust".
    • Questions of doctrine and practice go to the client's church.
  • Medicine and faith are not rivals in this tradition. Tenrikyo's own teaching says doctors and medicine are a gift from God the Parent [source: Tenrikyo, Doctors and Medicine]. It quotes the Osashizu: "The idea that you do not need doctors or medication has never been part of this teaching." Use this when a client feels torn.
  • No health claims. Tenrikyo teaches that the Service and Sazuke can help with illness by cutting off its "root" in the mind [source: Doctors and Medicine; The Service]. This is a religious claim. No clinical evidence shows the Service treats physical disease, and it is never offered as treatment here [synthesis].
  • Treat "dust" as self-reflection, not proof of guilt [synthesis]. The teaching frames dust as something to sweep with God's help, "God is the broom" [source: The Dust of the Mind]. Watch for clients who turn it into proof that they caused their own or a relative's illness.
  • Joy is the stated tone. Tenrikyo describes the services as joyful and asks members to attend "in high spirits" [source: Tenrikyo Online]. Loss of joy in practice can be a useful clinical marker, such as depression or burnout. It is not a religious failure for the therapist to judge [synthesis].
  • Community is both a resource and a possible stress [source: CFI Supplementary Modules, social network and spirituality modules]. Assess both.
  • Even-handedness and self-awareness [synthesis]. Keep your own religious or secular commitments out of the room unless disclosure clearly serves the client. Professional spiritual-competency standards (for example Vieten et al. 2013) support this [uncertain: not verified].
  • No restricted or conferred content. Do not teach, rehearse or improvise the Sazuke or the Kagura Service. Refer to the church [source: Handbook; Tenrikyo Online].

4. Intervention inventory

Tenrikyo publishes no psychotherapy procedures. The Service itself is learned and performed within Tenrikyo churches. The inventory below is the psychotherapist's own work alongside the practice. Steps are [synthesis] unless a source is cited.

4.1 Exploring what the Service means in the client's life

  • Purpose: to understand the role the Service plays for the client: worship, identity, family duty, community, joy or burden. Use at intake whenever a client mentions Tenrikyo, church services or Tenri.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask whether the client would like their faith to be part of therapy. Record the answer.
    2. Ask which services they attend: daily morning and evening services, the monthly service at their church, or trips to the Jiba for the 26th or the Grand Services. Ask what role they take, if any: worshipper, dancer, instrumentalist.
    3. Ask what happens inside them during the Service: gratitude, unity with others, calm, effort, worry about mistakes.
    4. Ask how the problem has changed their practice, and how their practice has changed the problem.
    5. Reflect back in their vocabulary and check your understanding.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned the monthly service at your church. What is it like for you to be there, and has that changed since things got hard?"
  • Watch for:
    • Loss of joy in a once-joyful practice, which may signal low mood.
    • Anxiety about "perfect" hand movements. Tenrikyo's own account notes the importance placed on discipline in the hand movements [source: The Salvation Service]. Heavy self-criticism here may need gentle exploration.
    • Practice kept up only from obligation.
    • Signs it is working: the client speaks freely about the faith and links it to their goals.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

  • Purpose: a structured cultural assessment, for any client for whom Tenrikyo is significant. The American Psychiatric Association's supplementary module covers four areas [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]:
    • spiritual identity;
    • the role of the tradition in daily, family and community life;
    • its relation to the problem and to coping (leaders, texts, prayer, ritual);
    • stresses or conflicts linked to it.
    The social network module covers who in the client's network, including worship contacts, helps or adds stress, and whether the client wants them involved.
  • Steps:
    1. Run the core CFI. Then use the spirituality module in your own words; do not read items aloud mechanically.
    2. Map the client's Tenrikyo network: family who are members, the church community, the church minister.
    3. Ask explicitly about stress or conflict tied to faith, such as family expectations or disagreement about medical treatment.
    4. Ask whether, and how, the client wants church members or the minister involved.
    5. Write the findings into the cultural formulation and treatment plan.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find their faith community a great support, some find it complicated, and many find it both. How is it for you with your church?"
  • Watch for: answers given out of politeness. Japanese and diaspora clients may understate conflict with elders or the church [synthesis]. Signs it is working: specific details emerge, for example who at church knows about the problem.

4.3 Bridging teaching vocabulary with therapeutic work (client-led)

  • Purpose: to let clients use their own teaching concepts in therapy without the therapist acting as a teacher. Use when the client already frames distress in these terms. The concepts include:
    • the eight dusts of the mind;
    • the Joyous Life;
    • the body as "borrowed" from God the Parent, which Tenrikyo states in its medicine teaching [source: Doctors and Medicine];
    • hinokishin, volunteer service.
  • Steps:
    1. Notice when the client uses a concept, for example "I have a lot of anger dust."
    2. Ask what the concept means to them and how their church teaches it. Do not supply the doctrine yourself.
    3. Explore where it overlaps with therapy goals. Sweeping "anger" or "grudge-bearing" may fit with anger work, perspective-taking or forgiveness work.
    4. Agree on wording that keeps both frames honest: "In therapy we are working on the anger; at church you have your own way of understanding it."
    5. If the client wants doctrinal guidance, suggest they ask their minister.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you say you want to sweep away grudge-bearing, what would that look like on a normal weekday? Is there a part of that we could work on here?"
  • Watch for:
    • The therapist drifting into explaining doctrine.
    • The concept being used to shame or blame, for example "my illness proves my dust." If so, move to 4.6.
    • Signs it is working: the client applies a therapy skill and describes it in their own faith language without strain.

4.4 Using the Service and church life as a resource

  • Purpose: to include the client's chosen practice in behavioural and relational plans, such as activation, routine, social contact and meaning. Use when the client values the practice and wants to keep it up or go back to it. Tenrikyo describes the daily services as centred on gratitude, and the Teodori as joyful [source: Tenrikyo Online, Morning and Evening Services; Mikagura-uta].
  • Steps:
    1. Ask which part of church life the client wants more of: a daily service, Teodori or instrument practice, hinokishin, or time with fellow members.
    2. Add it to the activity plan as the client's own goal, at a level the client chooses. The therapist sets no number of services or practice targets.
    3. Review how it went: mood before and after, sense of connection, any barriers.
    4. If depression or anxiety stops attendance, problem-solve practical steps, such as attending part of a service or going with a friend. Check with the client that any change is acceptable in their faith; doubts go to their minister.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said you used to feel lighter after the morning service. Would you like to plan going back once this week, in whatever way feels doable?"
  • Watch for:
    • Practice becoming avoidance, for example spending all one's time at church to escape a conflict at home.
    • Overcommitment and exhaustion.
    • Guilt when sessions are missed.
    • Signs it is working: practice brings connection or joy rather than strain.

4.5 Accommodation in scheduling and treatment

  • Purpose: to stop therapy clashing with religious obligations.
  • Steps:
    1. Note the client's fixed dates. At Headquarters these are the 26th of each month, 26 January, 26 October, 18 April and 1 January [source: Tenrikyo, The Service]. Ask about the local church's monthly service date, which varies by church [uncertain: dates of local monthly services not verified].
    2. Plan around long absences. Shuyoka, the Spiritual Development Course in Tenri, lasts three months and has a full residential schedule [source: Tenrikyo Online, Shuyoka]. Agree on remote sessions, a pause, or a relapse-prevention plan beforehand.
    3. Build daily morning and evening services into sleep and routine planning, since Headquarters times follow sunrise and sunset [source: Tenrikyo Online, Morning and Evening Services].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's look at your church calendar together so our sessions don't land on your monthly service."
  • Watch for: a client who hesitates to ask for accommodation. Raise it yourself. Signs it is working: no missed sessions or missed services because of clashes.

4.6 Illness beliefs and coordination with the client's doctor

  • Purpose: to support medical care when a client or family links illness to the mind, the Service or the Sazuke.
    • Tenrikyo teaches that the Service and Sazuke aim to cut off the "root" of illness. It also teaches that doctors and medicine are God-given, and that the Service and Sazuke do not compete with medicine [source: Doctors and Medicine].
    • The American handbook says a clouded mind makes people more prone to "trouble and illness", and that the Sazuke can often restore health [source: Handbook].
    • These are religious claims. There is no clinical evidence that the Service treats physical disease.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask how the client and family understand the illness, and what they are doing about it, both religious and medical.
    2. If medical care is being delayed, explore why. The client may find Tenrikyo's own published position useful: medicine is valued, and the view that doctors are unnecessary is rejected [source: Doctors and Medicine]. Present this only as information about their tradition and let the client weigh it. Suggest checking with their minister.
    3. With consent, coordinate with the client's doctor about physical symptoms. The therapist gives no medical or medication advice.
    4. If the client is distressed by worry that they caused the illness, use 4.7.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've been praying for your father and going to the service for him. Alongside that, how are things going with his doctors?"
  • Watch for:
    • Refusal of needed treatment, which is uncommon given the published teaching [synthesis]. Act on urgent risk under ordinary duty-of-care rules.
    • Signs it is working: the client feels faith and medical care can go together.

4.7 Self-blame, scrupulosity and moral injury around "dust"

  • Purpose: to help clients whose self-examination has become harsh, compulsive or shaming. Possible forms:
    • constant checking of one's mind for dust;
    • believing one's dust caused a family member's illness or a misfortune;
    • fear of mistakes in the hand movements;
    • repeated reassurance-seeking from ministers.
    The teaching itself pairs self-reflection with humility and reliance on God's help [source: The Dust of the Mind]. Teaching that misusing the mind invites trouble [source: Handbook] can become fuel for scrupulosity in vulnerable clients [synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Assess whether the pattern is obsessive-compulsive (intrusive doubt, rituals, reassurance, distress out of proportion) or depressive guilt. Screen properly for OCD.
    2. For scrupulosity, offer standard exposure and response prevention (ERP). Build the hierarchy from the client's own triggers, for example allowing an imperfect hand movement in practice without redoing it, or tolerating uncertainty about "dust" without asking for reassurance.
    3. With consent, consult the client's minister on what the tradition actually requires. That helps separate religious duty from compulsion. Clinical scrupulosity resources (for example IOCDF materials) describe this kind of consultation [uncertain: not verified].
    4. Exposure safety and consent: explain the method and get informed consent. Never design exposures that break the client's sincere religious commitments. Go at a pace the client agrees to, and stop or adapt for severe distress, self-harm risk or dissociation.
    5. For moral injury, such as guilt over a family member's death, work on meaning, compassion and repair, with the client's faith resources where they wish.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like reflecting on your mind has turned into checking it a hundred times a day. Would it help to ask your church what is really asked of you, so we can see which part is faith and which part is the worry?"
  • Watch for:
    • The therapist arguing doctrine.
    • The client feeling that therapy attacks their faith.
    • Signs it is working: less checking and reassurance-seeking, and reflection becomes bounded and calmer.

4.8 Grief, ritual and community support

  • Purpose: to draw on the client's religious resources after a loss. Worship includes respects to the Mitama-sama, the spirits of predecessors, at the daily services; churches have a Memorial Shrine for predecessors [source: Tenrikyo Online, Morning and Evening Services; Handbook].
  • Steps:
    1. Ask what the church and family are doing for the deceased, and what the client would find comforting.
    2. Help the client use the community for practical and emotional support if they wish.
    3. Ask about funeral and memorial rites as the client's church practises them. Do not supply details yourself [uncertain: Tenrikyo funeral and memorial rites not verified].
    4. Watch for complicated grief and treat it in the usual way.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you pay respects to the predecessors at the service, does your mother feel close then?"
  • Watch for: grief mixed with self-blame (see 4.7). Signs it is working: rituals and community bring comfort and connection.

4.9 Collaboration with the church minister or community (client's choice)

  • Purpose: to coordinate care when the client wants their church involved, for example for doctrinal questions, accommodation, support during illness or crisis, or the return to practice.
  • Steps:
    1. Get specific written consent: who, what may be shared, and for what purpose.
    2. Agree roles. The minister handles religious guidance and the therapist handles clinical care. Neither crosses into the other's field.
    3. Share the minimum needed. Check back with the client after each contact.
    4. If the client fears church involvement, do not push. Explore the fear instead.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I spoke with your minister about how your hospital stay affects your service duties? I'd only share what we agree."
  • Watch for:
    • Pressure from family or community to involve the church.
    • Breaches of confidentiality in a close community.
    • Signs it is working: the client feels supported by both.

4.10 Family religion, community pressure, leaving and religious trauma

  • Purpose: to support clients who were raised in Tenrikyo families or church households, feel conflicted about practice, or are leaving or have left. Tenrikyo expects every member to do missionary work [source: Britannica], which can shape family and community expectations.
    • Coercive-control findings, court cases or misconduct investigations about the Service or the organisation: none found in the sources consulted.
    • Britannica records persecution of the movement by state authorities in the founder's lifetime.
  • Steps:
    1. Explore the client's own position without steering it towards staying or leaving.
    2. Assess general signs of coercive control as they would apply to any group [synthesis]:
      • isolation from outsiders;
      • threats or shunning for doubt;
      • financial or labour exploitation;
      • control of information or medical decisions;
      • punishment for leaving.
    3. If those signs are present, prioritise safety and autonomy, and document carefully.
    4. For a client leaving, work on identity, family relationships, grief for lost community, and any religious fear or guilt. Use trauma-informed methods where trauma symptoms are present.
    5. For a client staying but in conflict, help them work out the boundaries they want, such as how much service duty to take on.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You grew up in a church family, with service every morning. What do you want your relationship with that to be now, apart from what others expect?"
  • Watch for:
    • The therapist's own views about religion pulling the client either way.
    • Labelling the group without evidence.
    • Signs it is working: the client makes choices that feel their own, with less fear and guilt.

4.11 Role boundaries, self-disclosure and competence

  • Purpose: to keep the therapeutic frame clear.
  • Steps:
    1. Do not act as minister, teacher or confessor. Do not interpret the Ofudesaki, Mikagura-uta or Osashizu for the client.
    2. Avoid dual relationships, for example if you attend the same church. Discuss and consider referral if this arises.
    3. Self-disclose your own religious stance only when it clearly helps the client, briefly, and then return the focus to them.
    4. Build your competence through consultation and training in spiritual and religious competencies. Vieten et al. (2013) proposed such competencies [uncertain: not verified]. Your professional ethics code requires you to respect religious diversity and to work within your competence [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a Tenrikyo teacher, so on questions about the teaching your minister is the best guide. What I can help with is how this is affecting you."
  • Watch for: the client deferring to you on faith questions. Signs it is working: clear roles that both of you can name.

4.12 Intensive participation, strain and unusual experiences

  • Purpose: to support clients through demanding periods of practice: residential Shuyoka with a full daily schedule, frequent travel to Tenri for the 26th, or heavy church duties [source: Tenrikyo Online, Shuyoka]. Also to assess experiences the client reports during services.
    • The Service is a sung and danced liturgy, not a silent meditation retreat [source: The Service].
    • Research on meditation-related adverse effects (for example Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE, and Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica) concerns meditation, not this rite. Apply it only if the client also does intensive meditation [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps:
    1. Before a three-month course or similar commitment, review sleep, mental-health history, relapse signs and the care plan. Agree how to make contact.
    2. If the client reports distress, exhaustion or low mood during intensive practice, explore grounding and rest, and the options the course itself offers. Encourage them to talk to course staff or their minister.
    3. If the client reports unusual experiences, such as voices, visions, possession-like states or intense religious states:
      • assess carefully, without assuming illness or assuming it is purely spiritual;
      • consider psychosis, mania, depression and dissociation, using function, insight, duration, distress and fit with the client's community norms;
      • ask the client and, with consent, the minister whether the experience is familiar in their community.
    4. Where a religious or spiritual problem is the focus without a mental disorder, DSM-5-TR has a code for it ("religious or spiritual problem", Z65.8).
    5. Refer urgently for psychiatric assessment if there is risk or psychosis.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said that during the service you felt something very strong. How was it for you, and how did people at church understand it?"
  • Watch for:
    • Sleep loss, overwork or missed medication during intensive periods. Medication questions go to the prescriber.
    • Signs it is working: the client takes part in the way they want, without decompensating.

4.13 Referral and signposting to the client's tradition

  • Purpose: to connect a client who wants to deepen or return to practice with legitimate teachers. The Service, the hand movements, the instruments and the Sazuke are learned within Tenrikyo: at local churches, through Shuyoka and through the Besseki lectures [source: Handbook; Tenrikyo Online].
  • Steps:
    1. Suggest the client contact their own church, or a Tenrikyo mission headquarters or church in their region.
    2. Do not teach the movements or songs in session, or suggest bypassing the church's teaching.
    3. Review in therapy how re-engagement is affecting the client's goals.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you'd like to relearn the hand movements, your church is the place to ask. Then we can talk here about how it goes."
  • Watch for: the client using therapy instead of their community for religious learning, or the reverse. Signs it is working: an appropriate link to the community is made.

5. Handling problems

Tenrikyo sources do not address psychotherapy problems. All guidance in this section is [synthesis] except where a source is cited.

  • Client unsure whether faith belongs in therapy. Make it optional. Revisit later.
    • Example (illustrative): "We can leave your faith out entirely, or bring it in whenever you like. It's your call."
  • Stuck in self-blame ("my dust caused this"). Validate the wish to reflect. Separate reflection from self-punishment.
    • Tenrikyo's published teaching that "God is the broom" stresses God's help rather than solitary effort [source: The Dust of the Mind]. The client may find this useful if they choose.
    • Treat as scrupulosity or depression as indicated (4.7).
  • Resistance: fear that therapy will undermine faith. Name your role limits (4.11). Show respect for the faith. Offer to coordinate with the minister (4.9).
  • Non-adherence to medical treatment justified by faith. Explore without arguing. The client may find Tenrikyo's own published position useful [source: Doctors and Medicine]. Coordinate with the doctor. Use ordinary risk procedures where life or health is at risk, including safeguarding procedures for children whose care is affected.
  • Overwhelm during intensive religious commitments (Shuyoka, Grand Services, heavy church duties). Plan ahead (4.5, 4.12): sleep, check-ins, crisis contacts. Encourage the client to tell course staff or their minister when they are struggling.
  • Loss of joy in practice. Tenrikyo frames the Service as joyful [source: Tenrikyo Online]. Joylessness may reflect depression, burnout or a faith crisis. Assess mood first. Do not treat it as a spiritual failing.
  • Perfectionism about the hand movements or the instruments. Normalise learning. Use ERP or cognitive work for compulsive redoing.
    • Tenrikyo's own sources stress discipline in the movements [source: The Salvation Service]. The client can ask their teacher what standard is really expected.
  • Family conflict over practice (for example a teenager reluctant to attend, or a spouse outside the faith). Use family-systems and communication work. Respect each person's autonomy. With minors, attend to assent and to safeguarding if coercion or harsh discipline is reported [synthesis].
  • Rupture: the therapist misspeaks about the faith. Acknowledge it, apologise, ask the client to correct you, and repair.
    • Example (illustrative): "I think I got that wrong about your services. Could you tell me how it actually is?"
  • Unusual experiences during services. Assess carefully and refer if needed (4.12).
  • Client leaving the faith and losing community. Grief work, identity work and building new support (4.10).
  • Therapist's own discomfort with unfamiliar religion, or with mask, dance or healing rituals. Seek consultation. Learn from Tenrikyo's own publications, not from hearsay.

Sources

Sources cited:

Also cited [uncertain: not verified]:

  • Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE, "The Varieties of Contemplative Experience".
  • Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, systematic review of meditation-related adverse effects.
  • Vieten et al. (2013), spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists.
  • IOCDF scrupulosity resources.
  • ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances
  • American Psychological Association, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
← Previous · XIII-278Konkokyo toritsugi mediationNext · XIII-280 →Oomoto chinkon