Morita Therapy –
7th International Congress
Delegate Attendance
Sebel Albert Park Hotel, Melbourne, Australia
4 – 6 March 2010
It is my sincere desire that this 7th Congress puts Shoma Morita, MD squarely in the circuit of historical figures in psychiatry, while showing how Morita Therapy is a culturally viable treatment outside Japan. Thus the overriding theme, 'Contexts' for Psychosocial Health. We are planning a sequence of ‘roundtable’ discussions around various themes so that we might know each other better during an interactive, dynamic and enjoyable exchange. Similarly, a small university press journal is being planned from conference papers selected following a double-blind review process: Morita Therapy Congress, Melbourne 2010: Theory, Practice and Research.
Please participate in this conference as a delegate, speaker, and/or sponsor. Contact the conference management office to express your interest in participating.
I look forward to welcoming you to Melbourne in 2010!
Associate Professor Peg LeVine
Congress Chair: 7th International Congress of Morita Therapy
Congress Chair
Peg LeVine (EdD, PhD) is an Adjunct Professor at Monash Asia Institute (Monash University) and the Director and Associate Professor of Rural Mental Health (University of Tasmania). She is a scholar and practitioner of Morita Therapy. As clinical psychologist/arthropologist and academic researcher, she consults in AustralAsia with a focus on contexts for mental health -- post trauma. Dr LeVine provides supervision and training at the LeKond Institute in Victoria, Australia.
Peg is also a sculptor of wax, ceramic, stone and bronze and incorporates art in her clinical practice.
LeVine's new book is due for release in March 2010 and is titled: "Morita Therapy Outside Japan: Therapy. Practice. Essence" with State University of New York Press. This follows from "Morita Therapy and the True Nature of Anxiety-Based Disorders (Shinkeishitsu)". [Morita's 1928 publication translated by Akihisa Kondo and edited by Peg LeVine (SUNY Press, 1998). And her newest work, "Love and Dread in Cambodia: Ritualcide Under the Khmer Rouge" is due out in January 2010 with National University of Singapore Press.
Contact Professor LeVine directly at peg.levine@adm.monash.edu.au
Morita Therapy
MORITA Shoma (Masatake), MD (1874-1938) was a pioneering psychiatrist who practiced in Japan at the turn of the last century. A contemporary and reader of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), and William James (1842-1910), he was philosophically aligned with Zen, while contributing a theory and practice grounded in medicine. For instance, historical figures such as Karen Horney, Fritz Perls, Eric Fromm, Carl Jung, DT Suzuki and Alan Watts were engaged in philosophical and practical dialogue regarding psychoanalysis, Zen and Morita therapy in the 1950s and 60s.
Morita was disillusioned with the state of mental health care in his era, particularly as he watched patients being confined in dismal places and treated in ways that perpetuated their despair. In response, he began treating patients in his home in a rural ‘green’ setting, with an initial emphasis on complete rest of mind and body. He progressed his therapy to include diary writing, art therapy, and outdoor activities in nature. From his recorded observations of patients with anxiety, he designed a progressive four-stage treatment to facilitate patients’ responsive engagement with their environment. Morita therapy is indigenous to Japan and provides a sophisticated theory on human development that informs psycho-social assessment and treatment. This therapy has since been found effective in treating a range of anxiety disorders, trauma-based disorders, including borderline features, dissociative-based disorders, and contextual and clinical depression.
Today, the classical treatment is applied in public and private hospitals in Japan, and extends to Australia, China, Korea, and Russia, and more recently to developing regions in SE Asia. Also, Morita theory has been incorporated into postgraduate counseling psychology coursework in North America and parts of AustralAsia.
Although Morita therapy has taken a long time to propagate outside Japan, neo-therapies have brought comparative dialogues to the forefront, such as Mindfulness Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. This 7th International Congress provides a lively forum for such discerning dialogue, and gets Morita Therapy on the Western map as an evidence-based treatment.