横浜心理臨床オフィス・神奈川・カウンセリング・カウンセラー・臨床心理士・心理療法・催眠・臨床動作法・EMDR

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The following is an abstract published for the 1st Pan-Pacific Brief Psychotherapy Conference held on July 28th in Fukuoka Japan, 1995. I held a seminar on “Kanjo-Monitoring,” which later received a lot of positive responses. I made some modifications on this abstract after the conference.

Brief Psychotherapy and Mind-Body Problems
Mind-Body Approach by “Kanjo-Monitoring”
Jiro Otawa
Yokohama Psychotherapy Office

“Kanjo” is a Japanese word that indicates emotion, feeling, passion, sentiment, etc. “Kanjo-Monitoring” enables clients to solve neurotic problems by themselves.
It was originally developed by Yosikazu Kono. (The President of the Kono Psycho-Education Institute). In the process of teaching clients the methods of AT (Autogenic Training), Kono came to a conclusion that to master AT requires some　kind of “acceptable and natural” conscious-set. However, many clients use AT in an “uneasy” or “compulsive” conscious-set because the clients themselves are “uneasy”. People who are distressed often have a frame of reference like “negative,” “impatient,” and so on. When their conscious-set to their body in the practice has changed to “acceptable and natural,” not only can they master AT, but they can also see things in their daily life that are positive and natural. Kono noticed that fact, and so developed the method focused on the conscious-set. It took about a decade. He also noticed that Kanjo often represents their conscious-set. In 1989, Jiro Otawa, a co-researcher of this project, modified some format and published a book called “Kanjo-Monitoring” for conference use. Later in 1992, Jiro Otawa published another book on the same topic for the general public (translated into chinese and published in Taiwan in 1998). Practicing this particular method three to five times a day change the client’s conscious-set to “positive and natural”.

“Kanjo-Monitoring” consists of 3 parts. The first part is “Practice of Sensitivity” that is to pay attention to the experiences of senses and the Kanjo accompanied by the senses. This practice changes the habit of “uneasy” conscious-set to a natural one. The followings are some of the comments made by clients who used the beginning method for a month. “ I can see things more clearly than before, and I realized that I haven’t been easy for all day long,.”

The second part is “Practice of Relaxation.” This part consists of two types of relaxation methods. First one is a modification of Jacobson’s Progressive Relaxation technique, which involves tensing and relaxing the muscles repeatedly, and the other involves the modified version of AT. The difference between this method and Shultz’s is the attention paid to the conscious-set by monitoring Kanjo. For example, a client would say to themselves, “ How do I feel my arm’s temperature?” In this part of the practice, clients can judge their mental attitude to their bodies. This enables them to realize the relationship between conscious-set and relaxation. Neurotic people often have chronic tension. To master how to relax makes major changes; for example, “ When I feel I am tense, I can relax myself.”

The last part is “Practice of Kanjo Control” that is practice the awareness of Kanjo accompanied by self-consciousness, and getting the knack of being positive. Making the habit of living with positive self-consciousness, they can maintain a high self-esteem. So, they no longer blame themselves or fear themselves. After they have mastered that, they can naturally keep their self-consciousness positive, just like the automatic control of an air-conditioner. Many clients say “ I am no longer afraid of my anger,” and “Emotion does not annoy me anymore.” “Kanjo-Monitoring” focuses on Kanjo, which is a psycho-physiological phenomenon. Meaning it treats people mentally and physically.