Native English speaking and fully Japanese bilingual U.S. Licensed American board-certified psychiatrist from New York and Japan-certified psychologist staff provide caring and compassionate psychological counseling, psychotherapy including insight-oriented psychodynamic therapy, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), supportive psychotherapy, life coaching, marital/divorce, family, child & adolescent counseling, and psychopharmacology-integrated psychotherapy, at this psychology and mental health service. Physically located in Tokyo, we provide effective Skype or phone consultations for persons all over Japan with a focus on the Kansai areas of Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.

See Our Main Page: The Meguro Counseling Center

We are open weekdays, Saturdays, and national holidays from 7:30am to 12:00pm, and weeknights from 6:45pm to 11:15pm. Phone or Skype distance counseling is also available, and Japanese medication prescriptions can be conveniently mailed to your home anywhere in Japan through our fully-integrated medical services (the Japanese National Health Insurance can be used for medication prescriptions). We are an LGBTQ+ friendly center.

Individual therapy often focuses on the Core Issue-Defense Paradigm in psychotherapy. The central theme here is that everyone has certain core issues like feeling inadequate or unloved, that one sometimes makes maladaptive defenses against (ie. trying too hard to get noticed by others or getting into unhealthy romantic relations) that can then lead to trouble for the individual. Understanding and re-working these defenses and how they lead to trouble, as well as minimizing the effects of one's core issues is a very useful tool in therapy. Defenses can also sabotage the therapy if they are not handled properly in the sessions. Please refer to these case examples based on these approaches.

We often uses charts and graphs in order to conceptualize clinical issues in visual form. These are some examples of the many files used in counseling (the graphs require individual discussion in order to make sense in context of each unique situation):

• Core Issues & Defenses; a flow chart of the core psychological issues people have and the adaptive and maladaptive defenses people use. This chart is used to help people understand the fundamental working of, and the weakness and strengths in their personality makeup.
• Mood Effects on Psychology; a diagram of how abnormal mood can lead to negative self conclusions which then promote feelings and behaviors that are not optimal.
• Self Esteem Needs in Relationships; an illustration of how the mechanics of intimate relationships can lead to crashes in self esteem. This graph is useful to help persons who are suffering a break-up in an important relationship.
• Obedience & Defiance Cycle; how a cycle between obedience and defiance can lead to resentment, guilt and fear, secondary depression, anxiety, conflict, and decreased self-assertion. This graph is also used in this case illustration video.

Counseling & Psychotherapy. The first step in determining the appropriate approach is to perform a thorough evaluation. The result of this evaluation and a provisional plan is presented to the client at the end of the first session, although the plan may need to be modified over the first few sessions. We feel that it is imperative that clients become fully educated about how the therapy will work and are active players in this endeavor. The home page here aims to be part of the educational process. One of our educational videos, Major Problems & Interventions , desribes the approaches most commonly used in counseling, and serves as a primer to understand the way your therapist will think about and approach your issues.

Insight-oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy, CBT (cognitive behavioral psychotherapy), supportive counseling, and other forms of psychotherapy and mental health care are practiced at The Meguro Counseling Center. Each individual's needs are into account in the process of determining the best combination of modalities to undertake. Please see the Counseling Approach page for further details.

Marriage Counseling & Divorce. We also see many couples in crisis and have considerable experience with marriage and couples counseling. The pattern of trouble between the partners needs to be elicited and presented clearly to the couple so that they can work on resolving what is usually a negative cycle. Marital conflict sometimes leads to the painful conclusion of divorce. We can provide advice and counseling on child custody, child abduction, and divorce counseling for international couples. See an article on International Divorce in the Tokyo Families Magazine.

Child and Adolescent Counseling. We strive to provide the highest level of care to children and adolescents who frequently present with developmental, academic, behavioral, family and/or peer-relationship issues. See our related site the Child and Adolescent Counseling Service. Articles written by the Center on Student's Self Esteem, ADD/ADHD, and Friendships and Parental Resentment, can be see in the Tokyo Families Magazine.

The Service is run by Dr. D. Marc Bergé, M.D., Ph.D., an American Board-Certified Psychiatrist who is the Director of the Meguro Counseling Center. All the therapists have professional qualifications both in Japan as well as from abroad, and all therapists are bilingual in English and Japanese.