Research

Embodied psychology is an area of psychology that assumes that movements of the body form the mind. It focuses on responses that involve both the body and mind such as respiration, facial expressions, body posture, personal space, and personal contact to study mind-body correlations, thereby aiming for an understanding of humans as "body and mind as one."

Eastern mind-body practice (or "bodywork") involves martial arts, traditional yoga, laughter yoga, meditation, speed-reading, etc. We are conducting empirical studies on mind-body transformation induced by these various practices, as well as mechanisms underlying such changes at the psychological, physiological/endocrinological, and behavioral levels.

With its origins in the Western psychotherapy and neuroscience, somatic psychology studies humans as a unity of "soma" and "psyche." Somatic psychology also involves practice and investigations on "somatics," that includes various soma-based practices such as touch therapy, dance/movement therapy, psychosomatic therapies for trauma treatment, etc.

Mindfulness is an area with increased academic and public interest in recent years. We are conducting empirical studies on mindfulness from multiple perspectives, including interventions and practices in various contexts involving healthy adults and clinical populations, as well as associations with relevant psychological traits and/or lifestyles.

Contrary to Western traditional mind-body dualism, Eastern mind-body theory assumes that a practitioner engages in embodied practices that can help one to get over an everyday analytical view that makes a distinction between mind and body, and to attain an ideal, spiritually higher stage of "Shin-Shin Ichinyo," in which mind and body are regarded as one unity.

CAM refers to a systematized form of therapeutic components involved in Eastern mind-body practices, and includes various practices such as osteopathy, acupuncture, natural/organic food, fasting, regimen, etc. These practices can help to alleviate symptoms of psychosomatic disorders and/or unidentified complaints.