3557 - DECOLONIZING MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING TRAINING IN JAPAN

Session: 3555 - COUNSELING AROUND THE WORLD: EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES, AND EMERGING CHALLENGES
AUTHORS:
Suzuki Hanako (Ritsumeikan University ~ Ibaraki ~ Japan) , Suzuki Hanako (Ritsumeikan University ~ Ibaraki ~ Japan)
Abstract text:
Legislation on the professional psychology licensure (Certified Public Psychologist) went into effect in 2017, and it was a huge victory in the Japanese psychological world. The Certified Public Psychologists (CPP) are protected by the law and are expected to provide psychological services to maintain and promote mental health of the public. Since the legislation, undergraduate and graduate programs are working together to provide training programs, consisting of broad psychological knowledge from experimental psychology to clinical psychology, including developmental stages, physiological functions, social welfare and legal issues, and intervention strategies, and practicum. Although the law requires the CPPs to provide services to the public, multicultural counseling is not yet a part of the required training program. As Japanese society is becoming aware of the issues around diversity and inclusion, it is particularly crucial that we, psychology professionals, become keener and more sensitive to the social justice issues around those marginalized in our society. Marginalized groups vary with societies and communities; thus, it requires us to investigate our own historical, social, and cultural contexts around the marginalized groups, and merely importing the knowledge from other countries is not sufficient. Decolonization perspectives is key to clinical services because the nature of suffering and recovery depend on the culture, and we need to provide services that are acceptable and beneficial to the local people and community. In this presentation, the presenter will portray multicultural counseling and social justice issues in Japan, the need for identifying the social andm historical situations on diversity and marginalized groups, and the ideas for including the local perspectives and worldviews into training programs and clinical services.