Kurozumikyo (Kurozumi Munetada, 1814)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Kurozumikyō as its headquarters at Shintōzan (Okayama, Japan) publishes it, in particular the "Five Articles of the Marukoto Life" presented by the sixth Chief Patriarch (kyōshu) Kurozumi Muneharu, read alongside the Kokugakuin University Encyclopedia of Shinto entries by Inoue Nobutaka and Helen Hardacre's 1994 historical study. Who holds the office of kyōshu today: [uncertain: not verified].

Kurozumikyō is a religious organisation, not a therapy. It is one of the thirteen prewar "Sect Shinto" (kyōha Shintō) groups and is usually counted among the earliest Shinto-derived new religions [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto, "Kurozumikyō"]. Its founder, Kurozumi Munetada (1780–1850), was the son of a priest (negi) at the Imamura shrine in Bizen (now Okayama Prefecture). After his parents died in an epidemic and he fell gravely ill with what the organisation describes as tuberculosis, he prayed to the rising sun. On the winter solstice of 1814 he had the experience the movement calls tenmei jikiju, "direct receipt of the heavenly mission": in the tradition's account he "swallowed" the sun and became one with the sun kami Amaterasu Ōmikami [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"; Encyclopedia of Shinto, "Kurozumi Munetada" and "The Founder who Swallowed the Sun"]. (Sources give the date as the 11th day of the 11th lunar month, which the Encyclopedia renders as 22 December 1814; the year of the parents' death is given as 1812 in some dictionaries and differently in others [source: Kotobank, 黒住宗忠].)

How change happens, as the tradition teaches it. Each person carries a bunshin (分心 / 分霊), a "divided portion" of Amaterasu's spirit, dwelling in the heart and, in the organisation's own teaching, in the lower abdomen (hara). When this bunshin is awakened through daily worship of the rising sun (nippai), gratitude and sincerity (makoto), a person regains marukoto, "roundness of mind and heart": harmony, joyful gratitude and sincerity. The resulting state is described as yōki (陽気), a cheerful, vital, sun-like disposition [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto" and 信仰と信心 (2016); Hardacre 1994]. Dictionaries summarise the teaching as union of kami and human (shinjin funi / shinjin gōitsu) and stress that hardship is overcome through one's state of mind and by living each day cheerfully [source: Kotobank, 黒住教 (Sekai Daihyakka, Nipponica)]. These are the tradition's beliefs, reported as such.

For the psychotherapist, the guide below describes the organisation as it presents itself, then sets out the clinician's own work with a client who belongs to, grew up in, or is leaving Kurozumikyō. The therapist does not teach or lead its practices.

2. Framework

2a. The organisation's own structure [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"; Encyclopedia of Shinto; Kotobank 黒住教]

Leadership. A hereditary line of Chief Patriarchs (kyōshu) descended from the founder: Munenobu, Muneatsu (first official head, kanchō), Muneyasu, Munekazu (who changed the title from kanchō to kyōshu in 1950) and Muneharu.
Headquarters. Shintōzan ("Mount Shintō") at Onoue, Okayama, with the Daikyōden prayer hall. The move from Ōmoto, the founder's birthplace, is dated 1973 in the organisation's Japanese interview and 1974 on its English page and in the Yamakawa dictionary; it was made so that the sunrise could be greeted in a clean setting away from urbanisation [source: kurozumikyo.com 昇る朝日に手をあわせる(上) (2014)].
Shrines. Munetada Shrine at Kaguraoka, Kyoto (1862), and Munetada Shrine at Ōmoto, Okayama (1885).
Local units. Branch churches (kyōkai) and mission stations, concentrated in the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions. The organisation gives 361 branch churches in Japan; a 2014 government yearbook figure cited by the Nipponica encyclopedia gives 316 churches, 13 mission stations, 1,491 teachers (kyōshi) and 297,545 adherents [source: Kotobank 黒住教]. Figures differ by year and source.
Ministers. Teachers (kyōshi) serve the branch churches. A Kurozumikyō School of Theology exists and edited the authorised founder stories [source: Sakashita review of Stoesz (ed.) 2000]. Entry requirements, length of training and ordination procedure: [uncertain: not verified].
Texts. Munetada never compiled a scripture. The core writings are a short seven-article household text (title given variously as Nichinichi kanai kokoroe no koto, Hibi kanai shintoku no koto or 日々家内心得の事, "daily rules/principles for the household"), his waka poems and letters [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto; Kotobank]. A collected canon, Kurozumikyō kyōtensho, is cited by Hardacre. An authorised English collection of 127 founder stories exists (Stoesz, ed., The Living Way, 2000) [source: Sakashita review].
Periodical. The monthly Nisshin ("Renewal of the Sun").
Rhythm of practice. Daily: sunrise worship (nippai) with recitation of the Great Purification words (Ōharae no kotoba) and goyōki shugyō. Yearly: New Year, Setsubun, Lunar New Year, the Procession of Kami (April), the Great Purification ritual (June), the Winter Solstice festival (December) and others; group pilgrimages to the Grand Shrine of Ise [source: kurozumikyo.com].
No published stages. The organisation does not set out phases of spiritual progress, course levels or session counts. Belonging is lived through daily worship, household ethics and the life of a branch church.

2b. The therapist's work: a working sequence [synthesis]

No source gives a session count or protocol for this work; pace it to the client and the presenting problem.

Engage and assess. Goal: learn what Kurozumikyō means in this client's life (convert, born into a church family, minister's family, lapsed, leaving) and how it bears on the problem. Tools: Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) core and its Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module; routine risk and health screening. Move on when the client's own religious language, practices, supports and strains are mapped and the client has said whether, and how, they want faith included.
Formulate together. Goal: a shared understanding that places beliefs as the client holds them alongside clinical factors (mood, anxiety, OCD, trauma, family stress, medical illness). Move on when the client agrees the formulation and the treatment goals in their own words.
Treat with client-led integration. Goal: deliver the evidence-based treatment for the presenting problem, drawing on the client's chosen resources (gratitude, sunrise routine, bright words, prayer for others, church community) and addressing strains (scrupulosity, pressure to be cheerful, self-blame for illness, filial conflict). Move on when targeted symptoms and functioning improve and religious resources are being used by choice, not compulsion.
Consolidate and coordinate. Goal: relapse plan, links with the client's doctor and, if the client wishes, a minister (kyōshi) of their branch church; or support for an exit and religious-trauma work if the client is leaving. End when goals are met or care is transferred.

3. Guiding principles

Attribute, never adjudicate. Teachings on Amaterasu, bunshin and tenmei jikiju are described as the tradition holds them. In practice: say "in your tradition…" or use the client's words; do not affirm or dispute metaphysical claims. [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto for terms; stance: synthesis]
Client leads on faith content. In practice: ask permission before bringing nippai, prayer or teachings into a session, and let the client decide which practices are resources and which are strains. [synthesis]
The therapist is not a minister. In practice: never lead nippai, recite the Ōharae no kotoba with the client, interpret the founder's poems authoritatively or perform anything resembling majinai; refer doctrinal questions to a kyōshi. [synthesis]
Respect the organisation's own non-exclusivity. The organisation asks followers to avoid "denominational egoism" and respect other faiths [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"]. In practice: clients may hold Kurozumikyō alongside Buddhist family rites or other affiliations; do not assume exclusivity or conflict.
Health questions go to the doctor. In practice: no practice is treated as a cure for physical disease; discuss medical concerns, medicines and any change to them only by routing the client to their physician. [source: Hardacre 1994 for historical tension with physicians; stance: synthesis]
Separate value from symptom. Gratitude, sincerity and cheerfulness are values; compulsive recitation, enforced cheerfulness or guilt over "insufficient gratitude" may be symptoms. In practice: assess function and distress, not the belief. [source: IOCDF on scrupulosity; synthesis]
Restricted practices stay with teachers. In practice: breath-centred cultivation (goyōki shugyō) is described only in outline; clients wanting instruction are directed to their church. [synthesis]
Use the client's language. In practice: keep Japanese terms (nippai, makoto, ohi-sama, bunshin) if the client uses them; check meaning rather than translating into clinical jargon. [source: CFI module guidance to use the person's own terms; synthesis]
Trauma- and adverse-effect awareness. Contemplative and breath-focused practice can bring difficult experiences [source: Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE]. In practice: ask about unusual experiences during worship without pathologising them.
Power and group dynamics are assessed, not presumed. In practice: ask about the client's freedom to question, to leave and to keep outside relationships, as with any religious community; do not label the group. [synthesis]
Own your stance. In practice: reflect on your own religious or secular commitments and keep self-disclosure purposeful and brief. [synthesis; professional competency literature such as Vieten et al. 2013: uncertain: not verified]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A outlines the organisation's own practices as it publishes them, so the clinician can recognise them and work alongside them; the therapist does not teach or perform them. Part B is the psychotherapist's own work.

Part A. The tradition's practices (public outline)

A1. Nippai (日拝): daily worship of the rising sun

Purpose and when relevant (as the tradition states it): the centre of the faith. It began with the founder's sunrise prayer at the founding moment and his family's childhood habit of greeting the sun; the organisation teaches that each day is new and that worship of the rising sun unites the person with heaven and earth [source: kurozumikyo.com 昇る朝日に手をあわせる(上); 信仰と信心]. Hardacre describes nippai as a form of self-cultivation, practised individually or collectively, that "requires no priestly mediation", in which the worshipper absorbs the sun's vitality and nurtures the bunshin [source: Hardacre 1994, p. 158]. The organisation calls it the "paradigmatic" ritual of the faith in the authorised founder stories [source: Sakashita review of Stoesz 2000]. The first of the Five Articles of the Marukoto Life is to worship Kami through the rising sun.
Public outline: facing the sunrise before or at dawn, beginning with recitation of the Ōharae no kotoba (A3), with goyōki shugyō (A2) at its core, and a daily hymn [source: 信仰と信心 (2016)]. Detailed sequence and posture are taught by the church; none is given here.
Therapist steps when a client brings it [synthesis]: (1) ask what nippai is like for them and what they feel or receive; (2) ask how it fits their sleep, work and family; (3) note it as a strength if it brings steadiness, gratitude or structure; (4) if it has become anxious, rigid or impossible (e.g. through depression or shift work), explore that without prescribing a change to the rite and suggest the client discuss adjustments with their minister.
Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned greeting the sun each morning. What does that time give you?" / "On the mornings you can't get up for it, what goes through your mind?"
Watch for: guilt or panic over missed mornings (possible scrupulosity, B5); early waking adding to sleep loss in mood disorders; direct staring at the sun if the client describes it, since sun-gazing can harm the eyes: route to their doctor or an eye specialist [synthesis; the organisation's texts consulted do not instruct gazing]. Working: client reports nippai as nourishing and flexible, not as a test.

A2. Goyōki shugyō (御陽気修行): cultivating yōki (public outline only)

What it is (as the tradition states it): the central part of nippai, in which, as the organisation describes it, the practitioner takes in the sunlight and settles it in the lower abdomen, "offering the day's divine virtue" to the bunshin, which the organisation locates in the hara [source: 信仰と信心 (2016)]. Hardacre glosses yōki as the joy, health and well-being that arise as nippai strengthens human-divine unity [source: Hardacre 1994, p. 158].
Restriction: this is a breath-centred cultivation practice. It is taught within Kurozumikyō by its ministers; this guide gives no posture, breathing pattern, count or duration, and therapists should not teach or rehearse it.
Therapist steps [synthesis]: (1) ask about the client's experience of it; (2) ask whether it ever brings dizziness, breathlessness, panic, pain or unusual sensations; (3) if so, apply B6 and suggest the client raise it with their minister and doctor.
Example language (illustrative): "When you do goyōki in the morning, what happens in your body?" / "Has it ever felt too strong, or frightening?"
Watch for: panic, light-headedness, intrusive memories or depersonalisation during breath focus [source: Lindahl et al. 2017 on somatic and affective challenges in contemplative practice]; clients with respiratory or cardiac illness should have any concern checked medically [synthesis].

A3. Recitation of the Ōharae no kotoba (大祓詞), the Great Purification words

What it is: a classical Shinto prayer of purification recited at the start of nippai. The organisation teaches chanting it aloud from the lower abdomen, valuing repeated chanting and its sound over intellectual analysis, while inwardly calling on the founder; it is described as a time of purification [source: 信仰と信心 (2016); Hardacre 1994, p. 158]. The organisation also holds a June Great Purification festival [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"].
Therapist steps [synthesis]: ask what purification means to the client; distinguish devotional repetition from compulsive repetition (B5); never set or alter recitation counts.
Example language (illustrative): "When you recite the Ōharae, what changes for you?" / "Do you ever feel you have to start again because it wasn't right?"
Watch for: restarting until it feels "just right", fear that an error brings misfortune, or long recitation crowding out daily life: possible scrupulosity [source: IOCDF]. Working: recitation is experienced as cleansing and finite.

A4. The Five Articles of the Marukoto Life and the seven household articles

Content (organisation's English wording, paraphrased): (1) worship Kami through the rising sun; (2) be very good to parents and respect ancestors; (3) use bright and warm words; (4) be kind and helpful to others, especially the disadvantaged; (5) pray for others [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"]. The founder's own seven-article household text (see 2a) is the older core teaching; its article-by-article content is not reproduced here [uncertain: not verified].
Therapist use [synthesis]: these are explicit values the client may want to live by. Use them in values clarification, behavioural activation (acts of kindness, prayer for others as a scheduled valued activity) and communication work (bright and warm words as a chosen style, not a ban on honest negative feeling).
Example language (illustrative): "Of the five articles, which one feels most alive for you right now, and which feels heaviest?" / "Could 'bright and warm words' include saying 'I am hurting' kindly?"
Watch for: articles turned into self-attack ("I am failing my parents", "my words are not bright enough"); filial duty used to justify tolerating abuse (B8). Working: articles guide action without generating shame.

A5. Founder's poems, letters and stories

What they are: Munetada expressed his teaching through waka poems and letters rather than systematic scripture; his sermons were improvised, "as thoughts came" (ukabi no mama no sekkyō) [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto; Kotobank]. The authorised founder stories (127 in the English collection) centre on conversion, healing and ethics; Amaterasu is said to be accessible "wherever true sincerity is found" [source: Sakashita review of Stoesz 2000]. The Encyclopedia quotes his verse that Amaterasu's spirit and a person's spirit, once one, become indistinguishable.
Therapist use [synthesis]: invite the client to bring a poem or story that matters to them; explore its personal meaning; use it as a coping statement the client authors. Do not interpret it doctrinally.
Example language (illustrative): "Is there a poem of the founder's you turn to when things are hard? What does it say to you?"
Watch for: healing stories read as a promise that faith alone will cure illness (B3, B4). Working: the text supports hope and agency.

A6. Prayer for others and service

What it is: the fifth article; the organisation describes ongoing prayer for people in need and a history of welfare work, including a hospital for severely disabled children and disaster relief after the 1995 Hanshin earthquake [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"].
Therapist use [synthesis]: a source of meaning, social connection and valued activity, especially in depression and grief.
Example language (illustrative): "Who are you holding in prayer at the moment? What does that do for you?"
Watch for: caretaking that crowds out self-care; prayer for others used to avoid one's own grief. Working: service connects rather than depletes.

A7. Majinai (禁厭 / まじない): the founder's healing rite (historical)

What it was: the founder's "religio-magical invocations" and healing rites, which attracted many early followers [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto]. Hardacre describes majinai as the inversion of nippai: the sun's vital essence absorbed in worship was blown out upon the patient; after 1846 disciples were authorised to heal in his name [source: Hardacre 1994, pp. 152, 158]. The founder stories include accounts of healing smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy and blindness [source: Sakashita review]. Whether and how majinai is offered in branch churches today: [uncertain: not verified].
Evidence status (one line): these are faith accounts; no clinical evidence shows that majinai or nippai treats physical disease.
Therapist steps [synthesis]: respect healing prayer as the client's religious resource; check that it is used alongside, not instead of, medical care; route any treatment decision to the doctor.
Example language (illustrative): "Your church's prayers matter to you while you go through this. How do they sit alongside what your doctor has advised?"
Watch for: stopping prescribed treatment (Hardacre records an 1828 case of a patient discarding a physician's medicine after majinai); shame if healing does not come.

A8. Annual rites, pilgrimage and church gatherings

What they are: the yearly festival cycle (see 2a), group pilgrimages to the Ise Grand Shrine and participation in its periodic rebuilding festival (shikinen sengū) since 1985 [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"]. Historically the founder led worship, sermons and prayer at gatherings in members' homes where seating ignored social rank [source: Kotobank 黒住教 (Sekai Daihyakka)].
Therapist use [synthesis]: accommodate scheduling around major festivals; explore the community as social support; note anniversary reactions (e.g. a first solstice festival after a bereavement).
Example language (illustrative): "Are there festivals coming up that we should plan sessions around?"
Watch for: isolation when a client cannot attend because of illness or conflict; exertion or travel during pilgrimage for medically frail clients (route to doctor).

Part B. The psychotherapist's work

B1. Cultural assessment with the CFI and its Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module

Purpose and when to use: at intake, or whenever religion seems to bear on the problem. The DSM-5 CFI Supplementary Module 5 (16 questions) explores spiritual, religious and moral identity; the role of the tradition in daily, family and community life; how it relates to the problem (including help from practices, leaders and texts); and sources of strain such as conflict or discrimination. Module 1 (Explanatory Model), 3 (Social Network) and 7 (Coping and Help-Seeking) are also useful. Clinicians may reproduce the modules for use with their patients [source: APA, CFI Supplementary Modules]. Module items are not reproduced here.
Steps: (1) run the CFI core; (2) add Module 5, using "Kurozumikyō" or the client's term (e.g. "our church", "ohi-sama") once named; (3) map: affiliation (convert / family / minister's family / lapsed / leaving), daily practices (nippai, recitation, prayer for others), community role, beliefs about the cause of the problem (e.g. clouded bunshin, lack of gratitude, misfortune), help already sought from a kyōshi; (4) note strains; (5) agree whether faith will be part of treatment. [synthesis on steps]
Example language (illustrative): "Some people find their faith helps with problems like this, some find it adds pressure, and many find both. How is it for you?" / "In Kurozumikyō terms, how would you explain what is happening to you?"
Watch for: answers that sound like what the client thinks the therapist wants; reluctance to criticise the church or family; a religious explanation that coexists with a medical one (common and not a contradiction). Working: the client offers their own language and both supports and strains.

B2. Client-led integration: gratitude, makoto and marukoto as therapeutic resources

Purpose and when to use: when the client wants their faith in therapy and its values fit the goals (depression, adjustment, grief, relationship problems). [synthesis]
Steps: (1) ask which teachings help (gratitude, sincerity, roundness of heart, bright words); (2) translate one into a concrete, chosen behaviour for the week (e.g. a gratitude note after nippai, one kind act, one honest and warm conversation); (3) review the effect on mood and relationships; (4) keep the client as authority on doctrine, the therapist as authority on the clinical method.
Example language (illustrative): "You said marukoto means a round heart. What would one small 'round' action look like this week?"
Watch for: gratitude prescribed against grief or anger ("I should just be grateful"), which can suppress needed emotion; therapist drift into preaching. Working: the practice adds meaning and the client chooses it freely.

B3. Working with "cheerfulness" and mind-over-illness teachings in depression and chronic illness

Purpose and when to use: the tradition stresses living each day cheerfully (yōki) and teaches that recovery depends on one's state of mind [source: Kotobank 黒住教, 黒住宗忠]. A depressed or chronically ill client may read low mood or slow recovery as personal spiritual failure. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) ask how the client understands yōki and what they believe their illness says about them; (2) validate the value of brightness; (3) with permission, explore whether the tradition also holds room for suffering, rest and receiving help (suggest the client ask their minister, rather than the therapist answering for the tradition); (4) use standard CBT or behavioural activation for depression, framing small steps as compatible with the client's values; (5) address self-blame directly.
Example language (illustrative): "You feel you're failing at being yōki. Depression makes brightness hard for anyone. Could recovering, step by step, be part of growing toward it rather than proof you have failed?"
Watch for: hidden suicidal thinking beneath a cheerful presentation: assess risk using current standards whatever the presentation; masking of symptoms at church; refusal of medical treatment on the belief that attitude alone will heal (route to the doctor; do not advise on medicines). Working: self-criticism falls and help-seeking rises.

B4. Health coordination

Purpose and when to use: any medical illness, any question about medicines, very early rising affecting sleep, or sun exposure. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) ask about current medical care and how the client combines it with prayer or healing rites; (2) with consent, communicate with the client's doctor; (3) if the client is considering stopping treatment for religious reasons, explore it respectfully and ask them to discuss it with their doctor (and, if they wish, their minister) before any change; (4) for sleep problems linked to dawn worship, explore the client's own options and route medical aspects to the doctor.
Example language (illustrative): "I'm not the right person to advise on your medicine. Could we make a plan for you to talk this through with your doctor this week?"
Watch for: discontinued treatment, reliance on healing stories (A7), sun-gazing eye symptoms. Working: the client holds faith and medical care together.

B5. Scrupulosity: purity, recitation and gratitude obligations

Purpose and when to use: when practice is driven by fear and doubt. IOCDF describes scrupulosity as OCD with religious or moral obsessions: fear of offending the divine, of punishment, need for certainty; compulsions such as repeated prayer until it feels "just right", excessive confession, reassurance seeking from religious leaders and loved ones, and repeated cleansing or purifying rituals; avoidance of services or texts is also common. Scrupulous behaviour usually exceeds religious norms, focuses narrowly and causes distress; "OCD can masquerade as religion" [source: IOCDF]. In this tradition it may attach to restarting the Ōharae no kotoba, fear that a missed nippai brings disaster, purity concerns, or checking one's heart for "insufficient gratitude" [synthesis].
Steps: (1) assess with a standard OCD interview and measure; (2) psychoeducation separating OCD from faith, aiming at life "consistent with their beliefs and values" [source: IOCDF]; (3) with consent, consult the client's kyōshi (optional, client's choice) on what the tradition actually requires, e.g. whether an imperfect recitation must be redone [source: IOCDF on optional role of leaders]; (4) build an ERP hierarchy only from exposures within what the tradition permits (e.g. reciting once without restarting; tolerating the thought of a missed morning) [synthesis]; (5) reduce reassurance seeking from ministers and family by agreement.
Contraindications, safety and consent: never design exposures that require the client to violate their faith; obtain explicit consent for each step; pace to tolerance; screen for depression and suicidality before intensive ERP [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Your minister said one sincere recitation is enough. OCD says it must be perfect. This week, can we practise trusting the minister over the OCD?"
Watch for: ERP turning into a new ritual; therapist arguing doctrine. Working: practice time shrinks, distress falls, religious life feels freer.

B6. Challenging experiences in worship and breath-centred practice

Purpose and when to use: when a client reports fear, panic, perceptual changes, involuntary movements, insomnia, a lasting altered sense of self or overwhelming unity experiences around nippai, goyōki or intensive pilgrimage. The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study (Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE) identified 59 kinds of challenging experience across seven domains (cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self, social), lasting from days to more than a decade, with influencing factors including practice intensity, trauma or psychiatric history and quality of supervision [source: Brown University 2017 news release]. That study sampled Buddhist meditators; its relevance to Shinto sun worship is by analogy [synthesis]. Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (systematic review of meditation adverse effects), Britton's Cheetah House resources and Treleaven's 2018 Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness address related ground [uncertain: not verified].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) normalise without dismissing; (2) assess function, sleep, mood, psychotic or manic features, dissociation and trauma reminders; (3) grounding (eyes open, feet on floor, naming surroundings, ordinary activity); (4) with the client, consider reducing the intensity of the practice and discussing it with their minister; (5) refer for psychiatric assessment if psychosis, mania or severe dissociation is suspected; (6) where no disorder is present, consider the DSM-5-TR category for a religious or spiritual problem (Z65.8) as the focus of care.
Example language (illustrative): "Experiences like this are reported by people in many traditions. Let's look at what is happening, how it is affecting your days, and what would help you feel steady."
Watch for: pathologising a valued experience of union (tenmei jikiju is the founding experience of the faith) or missing illness behind spiritual language. Working: the client feels steadier and sleeps and functions.

B7. Collaboration with the client's minister (kyōshi)

Purpose and when to use: doctrinal questions, scrupulosity (B5), accommodation of practice during illness, community support. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) only at the client's request and with written consent; (2) agree in advance what will and will not be shared; (3) frame the contact around the client's goals; (4) ask the minister about the tradition's view, not for a clinical opinion; (5) review the contact with the client afterwards.
Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I spoke with your minister, with you present or with your permission, about what your tradition expects when someone is unwell?"
Watch for: the client feeling pressured into or out of contact; confidentiality slips in a small community. Working: guidance from both sides points the same way.

B8. Family, filial piety and ancestors

Purpose and when to use: the second article asks followers to be very good to parents and respect ancestors [source: kurozumikyo.com "Marukoto"]; the founder's turning point is linked in the tradition to grief for his parents and remorse at being unfilial [source: 昇る朝日に手をあわせる(上)]. Relevant in grief, caregiving strain, intergenerational conflict and abuse. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) explore what filial respect means to the client; (2) in grief, use the client's ancestral and memorial practices as supports; (3) in conflict or abuse, separate respect from submission; safeguarding and safety planning take precedence.
Example language (illustrative): "Honouring your parents matters deeply to you. Can honouring them include keeping yourself safe?"
Watch for: duty used to silence abuse; caregiver burnout framed as virtue. Working: the client acts on values without self-harm.

B9. Religious community dynamics, leaving and religious trauma

Purpose and when to use: a client is questioning, leaving, or distressed by community pressure. Kurozumikyō is a long-established, legally recognised hereditary-led organisation; independent investigations, court findings or major news reports of misconduct or coercive control: none found in the sources consulted. Historical tension with physicians and mountain ascetics (yamabushi) over healing in the 1820s is documented [source: Hardacre 1994]. As with any religious community, assess its effects on this particular client. [synthesis]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) ask about freedom to question, take part or not, and keep outside relationships; (2) ask about family consequences of leaving (especially in minister families or where the church is family-run); (3) support whichever choice the client makes; (4) for distress after leaving, use standard trauma-focused or grief work; (5) do not label the group.
Example language (illustrative): "What would happen in your family if you stepped back from the church? What would you lose, and what might you gain?"
Watch for: therapist bias for or against religion; loss of community and identity after leaving. Working: the decision feels the client's own.

B10. Role boundaries, self-disclosure and competence

Purpose and when to use: throughout. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) do not lead worship, recitation or healing rites; (2) avoid dual relationships (e.g. treating a fellow church member); (3) disclose your own beliefs only briefly and for the client's benefit; (4) seek consultation or training in religious and spiritual competence (published competency sets such as Vieten et al. 2013 [uncertain: not verified]); (5) follow your professional ethics code on respect for religion, competence and multiple relationships [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a minister of your faith, so I'll leave questions of teaching to your church. What I can do is help with how this is affecting you."
Watch for: being drawn into doctrinal debate or spiritual direction. Working: roles stay clear and the client uses both resources.

5. Handling problems

The organisation's sources do not address psychotherapy; the guidance below is [synthesis] except where a source is named.

Client unsure whether to bring faith in. Offer it as optional and revisitable; proceed with standard treatment; return to the CFI Module 5 questions later. Example (illustrative): "We can leave your faith outside the room, or bring it in whenever you like."
Stuck: "If I were truly grateful I wouldn't feel this way." Name the double bind; treat the depression or anxiety with the standard method; suggest the client ask their minister how the tradition understands suffering in a sincere person; keep the therapist out of doctrine (B3).
Resistance to a "Western" or secular therapist. Acknowledge the difference, ask what a helpful outsider would understand, invite correction of your terms, and offer a culturally matched referral if the client prefers.
Overwhelm or frightening experiences during nippai or goyōki. Grounding, assessment for psychosis, mania, dissociation or panic, temporary reduction of intensity by the client's choice and in discussion with their minister, psychiatric referral where indicated (B6) [source for phenomena: Lindahl et al. 2017].
Non-adherence to between-session tasks. Check whether tasks clash with the dawn schedule, festival calendar or family duties; re-plan around them; link tasks to the client's own articles of practice where the client wants that.
Scrupulosity resists ERP. Recheck that exposures stay within what the tradition permits; with consent, bring in the kyōshi's view; reduce reassurance from ministers and family by agreement; consult an OCD specialist (B5) [source: IOCDF].
Client stops medical treatment in favour of healing prayer. Respect the faith, express concern clearly, ask the client to discuss it with their doctor before deciding, document, and assess capacity and risk if the condition is serious. Do not advise on medicines (B4) [historical precedent: Hardacre 1994].
Rupture over religion (the client feels judged or preached at). Name it, apologise for any misstep, ask what landed badly, and restate the roles (B10).
Family or community pressure. Map who exerts it and how; separate the client's own wishes from inherited obligation; plan conversations; safeguard where abuse is present (B8, B9).
Children and adolescents. Obtain consent from parents and assent from the young person; ask the young person's own view of church practices; follow local safeguarding procedures if any practice harms a child. Harmful practices involving children: none found in the sources consulted.
Suicidal thinking hidden behind "brightness". Ask directly in every case; follow current risk-assessment standards; involve the doctor and, with consent, family or community supports in safety planning.
Therapist's own discomfort or enthusiasm. Supervision; check for over-identification or dismissal; refer if competence is lacking.

Sources

Sources cited:

Books and works cited (via the sources above):

Stoesz, W. (Ed.) (2000). The Living Way: Stories of Kurozumi Munetada, a Shinto Founder. AltaMira Press.
Kurozumikyō kyōtensho (collected writings of Kurozumi Munetada), as cited by Hardacre 1994 [uncertain: edition and date not verified].
Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE. The varieties of contemplative experience [details as reported by Brown University].
Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica; Treleaven, D. (2018), Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness; Vieten, C., et al. (2013), spiritual and religious competencies [uncertain: not verified].
ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances

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