Topics
Heartfulness and Compassion​
Heartfulness is a way of living with mindfulness, compassion, and responsibility that enhances well-being and transformation. Practiced in groups, it creates a learning and healing community where people cross borders, finding genuine connection with self, others, and spirit. From Mindfulness to Heartfulness: Transforming Self and Society with Compassion elucidates eight principles of heartful living, through stories integrating Japanese spiritual wisdom and scientific research with personal insights and experience.
Identity and Tranformation
Human development is a cyclical process of becoming whole through accepting and connecting to one’s authentic self and vital energy. When Half is Whole: Multiethnic Asian American Identities illuminates the universal nature of identity construction through life stories of people who embody mixedness and paradox. These narratives provide insights into how we navigate and transcend social identities based on racial, sexual, and national boundaries in a globalized world.
Storytelling and Healing
Compassionate storytelling and listening are the heart of narrative psychology and medicine that promote sustainable healing resources, social justice, and community health. Experiences of vulnerability and cultural humility enhance healer education, well-being, and medical practices. Co-authored with psychologist Richard Katz, Synergy, Healing and Empowerment: Insights from Cultural Diversity shows ways of addressing disparities in health care through a synergy paradigm.
​Multicultural Psychology
Balancing general cultural awareness with a consciousness that is open, curious, and humble moves clinicians beyond assumptions and stereotypes to learn from each individual client. Developed from multicultural training in Japan and the U.S., this therapy is based in mindful compassion rather than a set of skills. Multicultural Encounters: Case Narratives from a Counseling Practice illustrates how we can understand the human condition and respond to the needs of diverse clients.
​Diversity in Japan and the United States
We overcome fears and embrace the gifts of diversity through experiences of empathy. While just laws and policies are essential the borders we construct between us are eliminated through changes of consciousness. A lifetime of lived experiences in the margins and mainstreams in both the U.S. and Japan, is expressed in both his scholarly work and creative activity, such as The Celtic Samurai. Storytelling and research enhance our understanding of human struggles living in the borderlands of race, gender, and identity.