Akira Ikemi

A Research in the Effects of Active Listening on Corporate Mental Health Training.

A Research in the Effects of Active Listening on Corporate Mental Health Training: Shinya Kubota, et al. Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health—The effects of mental health training for corporate administrators, using Active Listening (Experiential Listening) as a major method was investigated. Sixty subjects took part in the mental health training program which consisted of 2 two‐day workshops (a total of 30 hr). The workshop program consisted of a lecture on stress, techniques of relaxation, the practice of Active Listening, and sharing of personal communication experiences in the workplace. Questionnaires which measured the Type A behavior pattern and the effects of Active Listening were collected in the first and last training sessions. The results showed significant differences in the degree of listening in the workplace in six of 27 items in the listening questionnaire and significant differences in three of seven items in the Type A questionnaire. Active Listening training seems to promote the attitudes of “listening genuinely” or “listening seriously” to workers. The practice of better listening may decrease the characteristics of the Type A behavior pattern such as “being busy” or “making others busy.” The mental health method focusing on Active Listening is discussed as a useful training technique for corporate mental health.

Humanistic Psychologyaq in Japanese Corporations: Listening and the: Small Steps of Change

This article discusses the advent of humanistic psychology and some of its training in Japanese corporations. The social context of such a movement is presented. Research data indicate that workers who perceive their supervisors as having strong person-centered attitudes exhibit less fatigue, depression, and anxiety than those who do not. The data point to the importance of reflecting on how we interact with others and how we may change some aspects of our behavior to create a more human environment for ourselves and others. The second part of this article discusses the effects of teaching experiential (active) listening in corporations to people in managerial positions. One study conducted by the first author is reviewed, showing increased empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness between the first and last sessions of training. Finally, some illustrations of changes in the work environment as a result of training are presented. Listening to others, if done with care, may create small steps of change toward a more human environment in work situations.

Empowering the implicitly functioning relationship

This paper discusses the significance of empowering the implicitly functioning relationship, in both its theoretical and practical dimensions. Seven assertions about the process of experiencing are made. Most of these assertions are the authors rendition of the philosophy of Eugene Gendlin. Giving examples from Experiential Collage Work and ‘the weather inside’, the implicitly functioning felt meaning, or implicit understanding is discussed as well as its explication process, where the implicit aspects of experiencing function together with explicit concepts. The role of reflective listening in the process of explication is discussed, where the author suggests that humans have a “reflective mode of consciousness,” which makes reflective listening effective. The importance of reflective listening along with the listeners felt understanding is emphasized, with examples shown from the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo and from the authors therapy transcripts.

Thermographical Analysis of the Warmth of the Hands during the Practice of Self-Regulation Method (With 1 color plate)

The changes in surface temperatures of the hands, and the permeation of warmth in the hands during self-regulation method (SRM), a new method of self-control, were studied in 5 trained subjects and in 5 beginners. Temperature changes were measured by thermography. Results indicated that both beginners and trained subjects showed similar significant increases in maximum hand temperatures during SRM, however, trained subjects showed significant increases during the control period as well. Further, both groups showed significant increases in the area of warmth permeation during SRM, however, trained subjects also showed a significant increase during the control period. There was a statistical difference between the two groups for the area of warmth permeation at both the end of the control period and the end of SRM. Thus, in SRM, although beginners seem to be able to raise their hand temperatures in a similar degree to trained subjects, the area of warmth permeation is significantly greater in trained subjects than in beginners. These results indicate that SRM is relatively easy to master for beginners. From these results, the technique of SRM, psychophysiological aspects of SRM and methods of self-control in general, and some issues regarding their clinical applications are discussed.

Some Psychosomatic Disorders in Japan in a Cultural Perspective

Social scientists point to Japanese Society as having a high level of group cohesiveness that results from the psychodynamic need to mutual dependency in the Japanese personality structure, which is f

How Getting in Touch with Feelings Happens: The Process of Referencing

AKIRA IKEMI, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and a professor of counseling psychology at Kobe College. He has worked as a clinical psychologist in departments of psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. He is currently working in corporate medical centers from a focusing-oriented perspective that he studied with Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago. He is a certifying coordinator of the Focusing Institute and an executive director of the Japan Focusing Association.

Self-control over stress

Abstract In keeping with the main theme of this Congress—Life Stress, Social Stress and Disease— I wish to discuss the significance of holistic or psychosomatic self-control in the prevention and treatment of disease, the need of which has become evident through our clinical experiences and studies. This discussion will be preceded by some clinical observations of asthma, which, in particular, highlight its bio-psychosocial nature and serve as an example par excellence of the significance of holistic approaches.

The Focusing Manner Scale: its validity, research background and its potential as a measure of embodied experiencing

Focusing is an embodied practice where one attends to a bodily felt sense and uses it in understanding the self and situations. Several focusing professionals have referred to what they call “focusing attitudes” and speculated that incorporating these attitudes enhanced the practice of focusing and psychotherapy. In Japan, Fukumori and Morikawa developed the Focusing Manner Scale (FMS), a scale to measure the degree to which one has focusing attitudes. Since then, many studies utilizing FMS have shown positive correlations or causal relationships between focusing attitudes and holistic wellbeing. The objective of this paper is twofold. The first objective is to inform the English-speaking world about FMS and its research studies. An English version of the FMS (FMS-A.E) is presented in this paper. The second objective is to examine if long-term focusing practice leads to enhanced FMS scores. This examination also sheds light on the construct validity of FMS. A comparison of focusing professionals and people who have had no focusing experience showed that focusing professionals showed significantly higher scores on all subscales of the FMS.

You Can Inspire Me to Live Further: Explicating Pre-reflexive Bridges to the Other

This purpose of this paper is to provide an exploration of how one can affect the other to live further. The theoretical articulations of Carl Rogers and Eugene Gendlin are examined on the concept of presence; Gendlin’s terminologies of felt meaning and felt sense are examined; the understanding of the other is viewed from Gendlin’s articulation of crossing. Throughout this paper, the discussion of these person-centered and experiential concepts is staged on the interplay of the pre-reflexive and reflexive modes of consciousness. From these theoretical considerations and examples from Rogers’ and the author’s sessions, the paper concludes that explications from the felt sense of the other can inspire the other to live further.

The radical impact of experiencing on psychotherapy theory: an examination of two kinds of crossings

ABSTRACT This paper articulates the radical impact of Eugene Gendlin’s philosophy on psychotherapy theories. Since the early beginnings of psychotherapy, what appeared in consciousness was thought to be representations of past events that got repressed in the unconscious. However, Gendlin’s philosophy proposed a radically different model, where consciousness or ‘experiencing’ was observed to be essentially creative. The paper articulates the creative nature of experiencing by examining Gendlin’s concept of ‘experiencing’. Furthermore, it discusses two kinds of ‘crossings’ seen in Gendlin’s philosophy. These are ‘crossing’ as Re-experiencing (Nacherleben), and the ‘crossing’ of two contexts such as a metaphor and a situation. Some of Carl Rogers’ psychotherapy responses are discussed from the point of view of crossing.