Shinreikyo healing

1. Introduction

Version followed: Shinreikyō (神霊教) as described in the Kokugakuin University Encyclopedia of Shinto entry and in Klaus-Peter Koepping's 1977 fieldwork-based study in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, with the movement's later self-presentation as reported in a 2006 practitioner's account (Laing, Acupuncture Today). Present-day leadership, fees and practice details may differ from these accounts [uncertain: not verified].

What it is. Shinreikyō is a Japanese new religion founded by Ōtsuka Kan'ichi with his wife Kunie. Founding dates differ by source: Koepping and the Danish encyclopedia Lex date the first organised group (Reigen Kaku, "Mansion of the Divine Spirit") to 1939; the Encyclopedia of Shinto dates the launch to 11 February 1947 [uncertain: sources differ]. It was incorporated as a religious juridical person in June 1948 (re-registered under the Religious Corporations Law in 1953, per the Encyclopedia of Shinto). The founder's birth year is given as 1885 (Koepping) or 1891 (Encyclopedia of Shinto); he died in 1972, after which Kunie Ōtsuka took the title kyōbo ("mother of the faith") and became members' spiritual guide. The movement began in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, opened a Tokyo branch in Akasaka in 1954, and later acquired mountain land in Akikawa (western Tokyo) as a sacred centre; the Encyclopedia of Shinto lists the headquarters as Tokyo. Membership figures: about 100,000 nominal (Encyclopedia of Shinto); 150,000 claimed by the founder in the 1970s against Koepping's own estimate of about 30,000. [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto; Koepping 1977, pp. 114–116; Lex]

Core idea of change, as the movement holds it. The founder is presented as the present-age messiah who follows Buddha and Christ, and as a channel of cosmic vital energy; his wife compared him to a generator station distributing that energy (Koepping, pp. 116–117, 120). The central deity is Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi, with Amaterasu-Ōmikami as the cosmos's vitalising force (Koepping, p. 120). Illness and misfortune are attributed to a person "getting out of shape" by neglecting the spiritual, vertical axis of life in favour of the material one; restoring balance and "cleansing the heart" is the path to health and happiness in the present (gendai gokuraku, paradise now) (Koepping, pp. 119, 121–122, 138, 140–142). Healing is attributed to contact with the founder's spiritual power: originally his presence alone, and through sacred salt, spring water, purification gestures, prayer sessions and testimony meetings. Members also describe brain development and an increase in skull capacity, easier births, and a peaceful death called "sublime transmigration" (Encyclopedia of Shinto; Laing 2006). Japanese scholars place Shinreikyō in a "counterculturist" strand of new religions that stresses the supernatural and mysterious and presents miracles as a force opposing modern rationality (Tsushima et al. 1979, p. 157).

Healing claims and evidence status (one line). The movement has claimed cure of cancer and other serious diseases (it ran a campaign to "eradicate cancer" from 1966, and the Tokyo branch once displayed the slogan "Greater miracles than Lourdes"); no controlled or independently verified clinical evidence for these claims appears in the sources cited, and the published support consists of members' testimonies and one practitioner's favourable report. [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto; Koepping p. 115; Lex; Laing 2006] Nothing in this guide presents Shinreikyō practice as treating cancer or any physical disease; all medical decisions belong to the client and their treating doctor.

What the psychotherapist does with it. This is a religious movement, not a therapy. The therapist's work is with a client who belongs to, grew up in, has left, or has a relative in Shinreikyō: exploring what the faith means in the client's life, cultural assessment, differential assessment without pathologising belief, supporting autonomous medical decisions alongside the client's doctor, family conflict, grief, dependency and safeguarding. [synthesis]

2. Framework

2a. The movement's own structure of practice (as published)

• Entry and contact with the founder's power. People come into contact through branches and ritual centres (historically Nishinomiya and Akasaka; churches in Tokyo, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka and Kanazawa are also reported), public signboards and, from 1973, campus "spiritualist research groups" (Encyclopedia of Shinto; Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified] for the branch list).
• Ongoing practice. Prayer sessions; a purification sequence on entering a centre (washing with spring water, then a hand gesture from above the head to the stomach with a short formula of syllables the group itself calls meaningless, said to quieten ordinary noise and "tune in" to cosmic forces); use of sacred salt (goshin'en) and of water from fountains at the Akasaka centre; testimony meetings; members keeping journals of healings and reporting them to headquarters (Koepping pp. 117–118; Laing 2006).
• Expected transformation. Koepping identifies five levels of transformation expected of followers: symbolic, cosmic, ethnic (Japan as centre of a coming age of peace), status, and personal ("cleansing the heart") (pp. 140–142).
• Leadership. Founder (to 1972), then kyōbo Kunie Ōtsuka. Current leadership [uncertain: not verified].
• Session counts, durations, fees. None published in the sources used; do not assume any.

2b. The therapist's work with a Shinreikyō-connected client [synthesis]

No source sets out a clinical protocol for this population; the phasing below is general culturally responsive practice and is the guide's own synthesis. No session counts are given by any source.

3. Guiding principles

1. Describe, attribute, do not adjudicate. Concepts such as the founder's divine power, cosmic energy, sacred salt and sublime transmigration are the movement's beliefs; say "members believe" or use the client's words. Meaning: neither endorse nor debunk in session. [synthesis]
2. Healing claims stay attributed; medical care stays with the doctor. Meaning: never suggest the faith treats disease, never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine or treatment; route every medical question to the treating doctor. [synthesis]
3. Autonomy with information. Adults may decline treatment; the therapist's job is to help the decision be informed, free and the client's own. Meaning: explore pressure, fear and hope; check the client has heard the doctor's view in full. [synthesis]
4. Children's safety comes first. Japanese government guidance treats keeping a child from medical care, or from treatment a doctor judges necessary, as neglect even where it is religiously motivated, and calls for protective action without hesitation when a child is at risk (MHLW Q&A, 2022). Meaning: know your local reporting duty and act on it. [source: MHLW 2022]
5. Group doctrine is not delusion. Belief that the founder was "God made flesh" or that salt heals is shared doctrine (Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]; Koepping). Meaning: assess psychosis or mania by form, idiosyncrasy beyond group norms, functioning and other symptoms, never by content alone. [synthesis]
6. Use the CFI. Meaning: ask how the tradition shapes identity, daily and family life, coping and stress, in the client's words (APA CFI Supplementary Modules). [source: APA CFI]
7. Cultural and historical context. Shinreikyō belongs to a wider family of Japanese new religions in which salvation is this-worldly and felt bodily, and misfortune is linked to a blocked life force and a heart needing reform (Tsushima et al. 1979). It also carries a nationalist vision of Japan as the centre of world salvation (Koepping pp. 120–122, 141). Meaning: understand these frames; do not argue politics or history with the client. [source: Tsushima et al.; Koepping]
8. The therapist is not a healer or religious guide. Meaning: no salt, water, purification or prayer led by the therapist in session; no judgments on whether a miracle happened; no dual role with the community. [synthesis]
9. Watch for symptom reframing. The movement's literature reports "salvation phenomena" (vomiting, fevers, skin discharge) read as signs of cleansing (Laing 2006). Meaning: agree in advance which symptoms mean seeing a doctor regardless of their spiritual meaning. [source: Laing; synthesis]
10. Community involvement only by the client's choice. Meaning: contact a branch leader or fellow member only if the client asks, with written consent and a clear purpose. [synthesis]
11. Doubt and leaving are the client's to decide. Meaning: support staying, questioning or leaving equally; never recruit the client away from or into the faith. [synthesis]
12. Coding. Where a code is needed, ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances) includes "Religious or spiritual problem" (Unbound Medicine); the DSM-5-TR wording of this category [uncertain: not verified]. Meaning: a faith-related difficulty is not, by itself, a mental disorder. [source: Unbound Medicine]

4. Intervention inventory

Shinreikyō's own practices (prayer sessions, purification, sacred salt and water, testimony meetings, healing journals) belong to the movement and are described in sections 1–2 only so the therapist recognises them; the therapist does not perform, prescribe or evaluate them. The interventions below are the therapist's own work. Unless a source is tagged, steps and wording are general culturally responsive practice [synthesis]. All example language is illustrative.

4.1 Opening the conversation about faith and meaning

• Purpose / when: First sessions, or whenever the client mentions Shinreikyō, the founder (members may say Kyōsosama, and Kyōbosama for his wife, per Laing 2006), the centre, salt or a "miracle". Builds safety and gives the therapist the client's own vocabulary. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Ask permission to talk about faith. (2) Ask how the client came to it (born in, joined, relative joined, left). (3) Ask what it gives them now: hope, community, health meaning, family identity. (4) Ask what is hard about it, if anything. (5) Reflect back in their words; write down their terms and use them. (6) State your stance once: you will not judge their faith or tell them what to believe, and medical questions go to their doctor.
• Example language (illustrative): "Would it be all right to hear what Shinreikyō means to you? I'd like to use your words for it, not mine." / "What does the faith help with in your life right now, and is there anything about it that weighs on you?"
• Watch for: Guardedness after past ridicule by doctors or family; the client testing whether you will mock or recruit. Working: the client uses their own terms freely and volunteers both comfort and strain.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module

• Purpose / when: Early assessment, and again at turning points (diagnosis, bereavement, leaving). The module clarifies how a tradition shapes identity, everyday and family life, practices, coping, guidance from leaders, texts or media, and stresses including conflict and discrimination. [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Steps: (1) Use the core CFI (cultural definition of the problem, perceived causes, stressors and supports, cultural identity, coping, help-seeking, clinician–patient relationship). (2) Add the spirituality module, replacing the tradition's name with the client's own term, as the module instructs. (3) Cover each domain in your own words: identity and affiliations (including multiple traditions, since Shinreikyō itself joins Shinto, Buddhist and Christian elements); role in daily and family life; home and centre practices and their importance; how the faith relates to the problem; stresses. (4) Skip or rephrase redundant items; the modules allow this. (5) Summarise the formulation back to the client. [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules; synthesis for step 3 content]
• Example language (illustrative): "How does your practice at the centre fit into your week, and into your family's life?" / "When things are hard, what does your faith suggest you do?"
• Watch for: Family members who answer for the client; the client minimising strain to protect the community's image. Working: you can describe, in the client's words, where the faith supports them and where it adds stress.

4.3 Explanatory Model and Coping/Help-Seeking modules: mapping the illness story

• Purpose / when: Whenever there is a physical or mental health problem. Clarifies the client's ideas about cause, course, seriousness and best help, and who they turn to (religious community, doctors, other healers). [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Steps: (1) Ask what the client thinks is causing the problem and how family and the faith community see it; the movement's own frame links illness to imbalance between spiritual and material life (Koepping p. 138). (2) Ask what outcome they expect and how serious they think it is. (3) List every help source they use: centre, salt or water, prayer, doctors, other healers, over-the-counter remedies. (4) Ask how these fit together for them (side by side, one instead of another, unsure). (5) Note any point where the faith frame and the medical frame pull apart; that is the agenda for 4.4.
• Example language (illustrative): "Some people hold a spiritual explanation and a medical one at the same time. How do the two fit for you?" / "Who else are you getting help from at the moment?"
• Watch for: Undisclosed stopping of treatment; shame about using medicine. Working: a complete, non-judgmental list of help sources.

4.4 Autonomy-respecting medical decision support

• Purpose / when: The client faces a medical decision (e.g., cancer treatment, surgery, chronic medication) and feels pulled between faith and medicine. The movement has presented cancer cure as a central claim (Encyclopedia of Shinto; Koepping p. 115; Lex), and one published member account describes a parent declining hospital cancer treatment in favour of the faith (Laing 2006), so this conflict is foreseeable. [source as given; steps synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Do not give medical advice or say whether to take treatment. (2) Ask whether the client has heard the doctor's full explanation (diagnosis, options, likely course with and without treatment); if not, help them prepare questions for the doctor. (3) Explore the decision: hopes, fears, what the faith teaches as the client understands it, what fellow members or leaders have said, family pressure. (4) Check freedom: would the client feel able to choose differently without losing community, family or standing? (5) Separate "both" from "instead": many clients combine faith practice with medical care; ask which they intend. (6) Ensure any decision is the client's own and revisitable; agree when they will see the doctor again. (7) Record the conversation.
• Example language (illustrative): "I won't tell you what to choose medically; that's between you and your doctor. I can help you think it through so the choice is really yours." / "Is there anyone whose reaction you're worried about, whichever way you decide?"
• Watch for: Fear of being seen as lacking faith; a leader or relative deciding for the client; deadlines in the illness course. Working: the client can state the doctor's view accurately and names their own reasons.

4.5 Coordinating with the client's doctor

• Purpose / when: Any active medical condition, especially where treatment is being delayed or declined. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Obtain written consent stating what will be shared and why. (2) Share only what the client agrees, typically that faith matters to them and they want time and clear explanations. (3) Ask the doctor which symptoms need urgent review. (4) Feed this into the safety-net plan (4.6). (5) Do not ask the doctor to endorse or criticise the faith.
• Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I let your doctor know that your faith is important to you and you'd like decisions explained fully?"
• Watch for: Doctors who dismiss the faith, damaging trust; the client fearing the doctor will be told more than agreed. Working: the client keeps appointments and reports feeling heard by both.

4.6 Safety-net plan for symptoms read spiritually

• Purpose / when: The movement's published accounts describe "salvation phenomena" (vomiting, fever, skin discharge) read as cleansing, and easier births (Laing 2006). If a client reads new or worsening symptoms only this way, care may be delayed. [source: Laing 2006; steps synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Ask how the client interprets new symptoms. (2) Without contesting the spiritual meaning, agree a short written list of signs that mean contacting a doctor or emergency service regardless of their meaning (taken from the treating doctor where possible, 4.5). (3) For pregnancy, confirm routine antenatal care and a birth plan with a midwife or obstetrician. (4) Review the plan at each contact during illness.
• Example language (illustrative): "Whatever these symptoms mean spiritually, can we agree which ones mean you call the doctor that day?"
• Watch for: Rising symptoms reported with calm reassurance; reluctance to tell the centre about medical visits. Working: the client acts on the plan at least once when needed.

4.7 Differential assessment without pathologising belief

• Purpose / when: Concern about psychosis, mania, dissociation, OCD or complicated grief. Shared doctrine (the founder as a divine being, healing by salt, cosmic energy, sublime transmigration, Japan's world mission) is not in itself evidence of disorder. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Establish what fellow members believe, from the client or, with consent, a family member who shares the faith. (2) Look for features beyond group norms: personal grandiose missions, voices commanding harm, beliefs the community itself would not recognise, rapid onset, sleep loss, pressured speech, functional decline. (3) Screen for OCD-type purification rituals: repeated gestures, salt or washing driven by fear and not by devotion, with distress and time loss; if present, consider ERP-based treatment and consultation. (4) Screen for depression or anxiety around illness, and for suicidal thinking with standard risk assessment. (5) Refer for psychiatric assessment where indicated, explaining that the referral is about symptoms, not faith.
• Example language (illustrative): "Would other members of your centre see this the same way, or is this something particular to you?" / "Do the purification steps bring you peace, or do you feel driven to repeat them until it feels right?"
• Watch for: Over-diagnosis by clinicians unfamiliar with the faith; under-diagnosis when symptoms hide inside religious language. Working: a formulation that a member of the faith would recognise as fair.

4.8 Grief work, including deaths read as "sublime transmigration"

• Purpose / when: Bereavement in a Shinreikyō family. Members describe the faithful dead as passing through "sublime transmigration", with the body staying warm and supple and free of rigor mortis, and becoming "eternal kami" (Koepping p. 119; Laing 2006). This can comfort; it can also add guilt or doubt when a death did not match the description, or when a member died of an illness that was expected to be healed. [source as given; steps synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Invite the story of the death in the client's words. (2) Ask what the faith says about this death and how that sits with the client. (3) Listen for self-blame ("my faith was not strong enough", "we should have gone to hospital", or the reverse). (4) Separate grief from blame; normalise mixed feelings. (5) If a medical delay preceded the death, allow anger and guilt to be spoken without the therapist assigning fault. (6) Screen for complicated grief, depression and suicide risk using standard assessment; follow safe messaging. (7) Offer, if wished, the client's own rituals of remembrance as their own.
• Example language (illustrative): "What does your faith tell you about where your father is now? And what do you feel, apart from what you've been taught?" / "It sounds as if you're carrying a question about whether something could have gone differently. We can look at that slowly."
• Watch for: Prolonged inability to function; intrusive guilt; conflict between relatives about the medical choices. Working: the client can hold both the faith's meaning and their own grief.

4.9 Family conflict between members and non-members

• Purpose / when: A relative joins, refuses treatment, gives time or money to the movement, or a member feels criticised by family. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Meet the client alone first and clarify their goal (understand, influence, reconcile, set limits). (2) Help them describe the relative's faith in the relative's terms before stating their worry. (3) Separate the belief (which they may not change) from specific concerns (missed medical appointments, money, isolation). (4) Prepare one specific, non-attacking request. (5) If a joint session is agreed, set ground rules: no debate about whether miracles happen; each speaks about their own fears and wishes. (6) Plan for the relationship to continue whatever the relative decides.
• Example language (illustrative): "What would you most want your mother to know about why you're worried, without asking her to give up her faith?" / to a joint session: "We're not here to settle who is right about healing. We're here so each of you can hear what the other is afraid of."
• Watch for: Ultimatums; the client being used to carry messages; escalation when a medical deadline approaches. Working: concerns are named specifically and contact is kept.

4.10 Child safeguarding

• Purpose / when: A child in the client's family has a medical need and care is delayed or refused on religious grounds, or a child is pressed into religious activity by fear, punishment or late-night attendance. Japan's 2022 government Q&A classes not taking a child to a medical institution, or not allowing treatment a doctor judges necessary, as neglect; it also lists forcing participation by corporal punishment or until late at night, and using fear to force proselytising, and says temporary protection should be taken without hesitation when a child is at risk. [source: MHLW Q&A 2022] Court, regulator or major-news cases involving Shinreikyō specifically: none found in the sources consulted [uncertain: not verified]; this guidance applies to any faith.
• Steps: (1) Ask about children's health and routine care whenever illness or treatment refusal comes up. (2) Know your jurisdiction's reporting law and your service's procedure before you need them (outside Japan, apply local child-protection law). (3) If a child's necessary care is being withheld, consult your safeguarding lead and report as required; tell the client what you are doing and why where it is safe to do so. (4) Keep the focus on the child's health, not the parents' beliefs. (5) For older children, seek their view (assent) and explain confidentiality limits in age-appropriate terms. (6) Never name children in records shared outside the service beyond what reporting requires.
• Example language (illustrative): "I respect that your faith matters a great deal. When a child needs medical treatment, I have a duty to make sure they get it. Can we talk about how to make that happen?"
• Watch for: Parents hiding symptoms; the child expressing fear of spiritual punishment. Working: the child is seen by a doctor and the family stays engaged.

4.11 Dependency, money and social pressure assessment

• Purpose / when: The client describes heavy reliance on the centre for decisions, spending on salt, water, donations or events, or pressure to recruit or testify. Costs and donation expectations are not published in the sources cited [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Ask what membership costs in time and money, without judgment. (2) Ask whether the client could say no to a request from the centre without consequence. (3) Ask whether testimony meetings or healing journals feel freely chosen (the movement encourages reporting healings to headquarters, per Laing 2006). (4) Map outside relationships; note isolation. (5) If the client wants change, work on specific choices, not on leaving the faith.
• Example language (illustrative): "If you decided to give less time or money, what would happen, and how would you feel?"
• Watch for: Debt; hiding spending from family; distress when unable to report a healing. Working: the client makes choices they experience as their own.

4.12 Doubt, leaving and religious transition

• Purpose / when: The client questions the teachings (often after an unhealed illness or a death), is leaving, or grew up in the movement and has left. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Do not push either way. (2) Explore what the faith gave and what it cost. (3) Address loss: community, identity, family ties, explanations for illness and death. (4) Work with fear that leaving will bring illness or misfortune, which follows from the teaching that departure from cosmic law brings illness (Koepping p. 138; Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]): name it as a feeling to be understood, not a fact to argue. (5) Build new support and meaning sources. (6) Treat trauma or depression with standard evidence-based care if present.
• Example language (illustrative): "You can take your time with these questions. You don't need to decide what you believe for us to keep working." / "When you imagine stepping back, what are you afraid might happen?"
• Watch for: Family rupture; anxiety about every symptom after leaving. Working: the client can think about the faith with less fear and more choice.

4.13 Boundaries and referral

• Purpose / when: Throughout. The therapist is not a healer, medium or religious guide. [synthesis]
• Steps: (1) Decline to bring salt, water, purification gestures or prayer into the session as treatment; the client may of course practise privately. (2) Do not offer opinions on whether a healing or miracle occurred. (3) If the therapist has any personal or professional tie to the movement or to a rival spiritual practice, avoid dual relationships and consider referral. (4) Limit self-disclosure about your own beliefs to what serves the client. (5) With written consent and at the client's request, contact a community leader for a defined purpose. (6) Refer: treating doctor for all physical health questions; psychiatry for suspected psychosis, mania or severe depression; child-protection services as required; grief or trauma specialists where needed.
• Example language (illustrative): "Your practice belongs to you and your community. My part is to help with what you've brought here."
• Watch for: Requests to validate a healing; pressure to attend events. Working: clear roles, maintained trust.

Cross-references: related Japanese healing religions in this family are covered at 120 Johrei and 121 Mahikari.

5. Handling problems

No source addresses therapy with Shinreikyō members directly; all guidance in this section is synthesis unless a source is tagged. [synthesis]

• Client wants the therapist to confirm a healing or miracle. Reflect its meaning without ruling on fact: "That experience clearly matters deeply to you. I'm not the right person to judge what happened, but I'd like to understand what it changed for you." (illustrative) Keep medical follow-up separate.
• Client is declining or delaying treatment for a serious illness. Use 4.4 and 4.5; check the client has the doctor's full view; agree a review date and safety net (4.6). Respect an informed adult decision; document it; keep the door open. If capacity is in doubt because of acute mental illness, arrange assessment.
• A child's medical care is involved. Follow 4.10 without delay; consult your safeguarding lead; do not wait for the therapeutic relationship to "allow" it. [source: MHLW Q&A 2022]
• Stuck: the client returns only to whether the faith is true. Shift from truth to function: what does believing, or doubting, do for them this week? Work on concrete decisions in front of them.
• Resistance: the client fears the therapist will undermine their faith. Name the stance plainly (4.1, step 6); invite them to tell you when anything you say feels dismissive; repair promptly.
• Rupture after a perceived slight to the founder or the faith. Acknowledge the impact, apologise for the effect, restate respect, and ask what would help. Do not defend the remark at length.
• Overwhelm during illness or grief. Slow down; ground in present concerns; reduce to one decision at a time; involve supports the client chooses; check suicide risk with standard assessment.
• Non-adherence to medical plans hidden from the therapist. Ask routinely and neutrally about medical appointments; explain that you ask everyone; make honesty safe.
• Family member is the client and wants the therapist to "get them out". Clarify that the therapist cannot act on the relative; work on the client's own goals and communication (4.9). Avoid labelling the movement; quote reliable sources only if needed.
• Symptoms framed as cleansing ("salvation phenomena"). Return to the agreed safety-net list (4.6); if no list exists, agree one now. [source: Laing 2006 for the concept]
• Anxiety that leaving or doubting will cause illness. Treat as anxiety: understand its origin in the teaching, track its pattern, and if it takes an obsessive form (checking, repeated purification, reassurance-seeking), consider ERP-informed work with consent and, where needed, specialist referral.
• Nationalist or political content. Do not debate; ask what the vision means for the client personally, and focus on its effect on relationships and wellbeing (Koepping pp. 120–122, 141 for the content).
• Therapist's own reactions. Discomfort with cancer-cure claims or with nationalist themes can leak into tone. Use supervision; keep comments descriptive.
• Language and cultural distance. Many members are Japanese speakers and terms carry religious weight. Use professional interpreters, not family; check the meaning of key terms (Kyōsosama, Kyōbosama, goshin'en) with the client.
• Records and coding. Record faith-related difficulty as a psychosocial problem (Z65.8 includes "Religious or spiritual problem") rather than a disorder unless criteria for a disorder are met independently. [source: Unbound Medicine]

Sources

• Shinreikyō — Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University
• Koepping, Klaus-Peter (1977). "Ideologies and New Religious Movements: The Case of Shinreikyo and Its Doctrines in Comparative Perspective." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 4/2–3: 103–149. PDF, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
• Tsushima Michihito, Nishiyama Shigeru, Shimazono Susumu, Shiramizu Hiroko (1979). "The Vitalistic Conception of Salvation in Japanese New Religions: An Aspect of Modern Religious Consciousness." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 6/1–2: 139–160. PDF, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
• Andreasen, Esben. Shinrei-kyo — Lex (Den Store Danske)
• Laing, Christine (2006). Shinreikyo: Miracles of Healing From Japan — Acupuncture Today (practitioner's favourable account; used for the movement's self-presentation only)
• Shinreikyo — Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (2022). 宗教の信仰等に関係する児童虐待等への対応に関するQ&A（概要） (Q&A on responding to child abuse related to religious belief, summary)
• American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview Supplementary Modules
• 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