Occupation:
Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist
Time in Japan:
Two and a half years



Where are you from?
I' from the States. I lived in Florida for about 17 years before I came to Japan, and numerous other places before that. I grew up in the Midwest.

What brought you to Japan?
This is my second time in Japan. Thirty years ago I was here with my husband, who was career Navy, and we lived in Hayama. This time I came for a job and stayed in that position for about four or five months. Then I resigned and opened my own office.

How did you go about opening your own office?
Well, it required that I have a Japanese sponsor, so a friend who knew that I faced leaving Japan otherwise said he thought he could help. He knew a wonderful Japanese couple in Tochigi Prefecture who were in a position to sponsor me, and now I do a bit of consulting for them regarding families who have disabled children. The rest of the time I have a psychotherapy and consulting practice with the foreign community.

What kind of clientele do you have?
From the nationality perspective, about half of my clients are from North America. The other half are made up of people from all over the world. The problems are pretty much the same as you encounter anywhere, like relationship issues, work problems, stress reactions, school problems, and more medical issues of depression and anxiety. But because of the international aspect, the life stories are very different from those in the States.

Do you have a specialty?
One focus I have is "family systems therapy," meaning the stresses put on a family when changes occur. That could be couple work, difficulty with kids, or other problems between people within a family or organization. I use a lot of dream and art imagery. I sometimes have people draw, and I look at their art in a psychological way and see what unconsciously might be going on that affects their life.

Do many people come to you with international marriage problems?
Yes. In international marriages often people will look at their problems as a product of their different cultures. That's certainly one factor, but even within the same culture, people decide to share a life with people from different families and different places. Gender differences are almost like a different culture as well, so international differences are just another overlay. When two people decide to make a home together, they come with all their different backgrounds and they need to respect those differences and learn to effectively communicate and negotiate across them rather than try to erase them.

What do you think is the most difficult thing about being a foreigner in Japan?
Not being able to speak the language. I have friends who are fluent in Japanese and I think they have made relationships in a different kind of way than you can if you don't speak Japanese.

Do you have any advice for people coming to Japan?
Be open-minded and adaptable. Adaptability is a necessity when you're living in another culture. You can be really excited about all the differences at first, but after a while you want things to be like you know. Curiosity and a desire to constantly learn new things makes you more patient with things that seem different.

What's your recipe for a happy and successful life in Japan?
Patience and the realization that a different way of living isn't better or worse, it's just different.

Contact Dr Douglass at 03-5570-5225 or email drjdd@twics.com

Dr Jonna D. Douglass spoke to Maki Nibayashi.

Do you know an interesting person in Tokyo? If so, email us at maki@tokyoclassified.com