The Effectiveness of ‘Dispersive Naikan’: One-day Naikan Conducted in a Psychological Counseling Center

Abstract

  It is said that many find it difficult to continue with ‘daily Naikan’ practice. Maeshiro（1999）described ‘one-day Naikan’ as a method to make such continuation easier. In line with his approach, we have been offering ‘dispersive Naikan’: one-day Naikan practice, conducted in a Japanese-style room in a private psychological consultation clinic, and offered on five separate occasions over the course of a year. This has enabled clients who have previously experienced intensive Naikan Therapy to experience one-day Naikan on an individual and continuous basis.

  Participants brought both ‘everyday’ and ‘extraordinary’ situations to their sessions, gaining different insights from those of the intensive Naikan sessions. We believe that this form of one-day Naikan, conducted in a psychological consultation room with sessions dispersed over the course of a year, is a useful way to deepen the effects of intensive Naikan, and thus to support Naikan clients.