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. 2025 Sep;49(3):892-909.
doi: 10.1007/s11013-025-09916-5. Epub 2025 Jun 2.

Yuri's Story: Memory, Relational Healing, and the Reflexive Logics of Art Therapy in Japanese Clinical Psychology

Christopher Chapman  1   2
Affiliations

Yuri's Story: Memory, Relational Healing, and the Reflexive Logics of Art Therapy in Japanese Clinical Psychology

Christopher Chapman. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

Mental health care is a vibrant part of child protective services in Japan, and the adoption and utilization of psychotherapeutic techniques from abroad mark a complex site of cross-cultural exchanges. This paper explores how art therapy has been brought into Japan's protection system and its implications for professional practice. Focusing on clinical psychologist Yuri and her narratives on learning art therapy, this paper utilizes an interpretive and phenomenological framework to illustrate the importance of embodied experience in delivering care and how practitioners may reform their perspectives on care by reframing their own traumatic memories. Yuri's art therapy offers a culturally contextualized view of the self as social, care purpose, and resilience.

Keywords: Care; Memory; Narrative; Subjectivity; Therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

References

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