Morita Therapy Workshop Opportunity

At International Association for Counselling Conference 2014:
Communicating, Connecting and Collaborating on a Global Stage

This workshop introduces participants to the fundamental concepts and clinical methods of Morita therapy and its innovative applications, through mini-lectures, experiential and reflective learning activities, video and visual images, and group discussions. Morita therapy is a form of “liberation counselling” which helps individuals address their self-limiting assumptions, excessive self-focus and preoccupations with affect control, and the narrowed scope of experiences of self and relation to the world. It offers an empowering way of mobilizing a natural healing and self-balancing process and liberating clients from a vicious cycle of futile preoccupations with self and the symptoms toward self-actualization and greater appreciation of self as it is without judgment or manipulative efforts. Workshop participants will learn a general model of Morita-based “Active Counselling” and practise selected counselling skills and intervention activities for practical learning. They will be introduced to examples of recent and innovative applications of the principles of Morita therapy used in Canada, UK, Rwanda, and other countries. Some representative concepts in counselling and psychotherapy (e.g., therapeutic alliance, change process) will be discussed from a Moritian perspective.

Workshop Presenters

Ishu Ishiyama, Ph.D., University of British Columbia (Canada), Secretary General of the International Committee for Morita Therapy, Member of the Executive Board of Directors for the Japanese Society for Morita Therapy, certified Morita therapist

Eugene Mullan, DClinPsy, University of Exeter (United Kingdom), Member of the International Committee for Morita Therapy, Director of Clinical Training at University of Exeter, co-founder of the Mood Disorders Centre and founder of the Clinical Education Development and Research (CEDAR) Group at University of Exeter

Masahiro Minami, M.A. (Ph.D. candidate) University of British Columbia (Canada), Director of the Prison Fellowship Rwanda-Morita Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Research in Kigali (Rwanda), Member of the International Committee for Morita Therapy, certified Morita therapist

Ayumi Sasaki, B.Com., MA student (counselling psychology), University of British Columbia (Canada), assistant to the Secretary General of the International Committee for Morita Therapy

Conference programs

http://ccpa-accp.ca/iacconference/2014IACProgram.pdf