Konkokyo toritsugi mediation

1. Introduction

Version followed: toritsugi as Konkokyo Headquarters (Konko-cho, Okayama, Japan) publishes it on its English website, supplemented by the Kokugakuin University Encyclopedia of Shinto entry (Fukushima Shinkichi) and a scholarly article by Delwin B. Schneider. The psychotherapist's work set out below is clinical synthesis, not Konkokyo teaching.

What it is. Konkokyo is a Japanese religious organisation, classed historically as one of the thirteen prewar "Shinto sects". It is not a psychotherapy or a technique. Its founder, known by the divine title Ikigami Konko Daijin, was born in 1814 into a farming household in present-day Okayama Prefecture. Sources give his earlier names as Akazawa Bunji (Kokugakuin) and Bunjiro Kawate (Schneider); Headquarters calls him Bunji. He died in 1883. According to Headquarters, he received the "Divine Call" on 15 November 1859, which it treats as the founding date of Konkokyo. He received the title Ikigami Konko Daijin in 1868 and wrote the Tenchi Kakitsuke ("Divine Reminder") in 1873. The organisation became an independent sect in 1900. Its sacred scriptures, the Konkokyo Kyoten, were published in Japanese in 1983. [source: Konkokyo History; Encyclopedia of Shinto; Religious Beliefs]

Toritsugi. Toritsugi is variously translated as "mediation", "Divine Mediation" or "spiritual intercession". It is the movement's most distinctive practice. As Headquarters describes it, a visitor sits with a minister at a church and talks about a problem or gives thanks. The minister passes these words through Ikigami Konko Daijin to the deity Tenchi Kane No Kami, "who then speaks through the minister". In the organisation's words, the aim is to help the visitor see the problem in perspective and find answers through faith. The minister also offers advice based on Kami-Sama's wishes, answers questions and prays for the visitor daily. [source: Religious Beliefs; How to Worship]

The tradition's account of change. As Konkokyo teaches it, Kami (Tenchi Kane No Kami) and people depend on each other, and many everyday difficulties arise when a person's heart and attitude run against the ways of the Universe. Through mediation, the person is brought into a right relationship with Kami's will. Gratitude, apology and prayer then align the heart, and a hardship can become a blessing. Schneider records the teaching that "the divine favor depends on one's own heart." These are the tradition's beliefs, attributed to it and neither endorsed nor dismissed here. [source: Basic Precepts; Religious Beliefs; Schneider]

For the psychotherapist. A client may already visit a Konkokyo minister for toritsugi, or may be a minister, a minister's family member or a former member. Toritsugi is a religious act performed by an ordained minister. A therapist does not perform it, imitate it or substitute for it. The therapist's own work is to understand what mediation means in the client's life, to support integration that the client leads, to coordinate with the minister if the client wishes, and to watch for clinical issues, including medical and safety issues, that need routing elsewhere. [synthesis]

2. Framework

How the organisation structures toritsugi [source: How to Worship; Konkokyo in Japan; Basic Precepts; Encyclopedia of Shinto; Schneider]

• Setting. Every Konkokyo church has the same layout, including the Central Worship Hall at Headquarters. The main altar to Tenchi Kane No Kami is in the centre, with the Tenchi Kakitsuke above it. The ancestral altar is on the left. The toritsugi seat, where the minister sits, is on the right. The congregation area is called the hiromae. The Kokugakuin entry calls the minister's seated position the kekkai: the minister sits sideways, with the kami on one side and the devotee on the other.
• Access. Churches in Japan are generally open from about 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and "a minister is always available during this time." Anyone, believer or not, may enter. No donation or membership fee is required. Japan has about 1,500 churches, and there are overseas churches and missions, including in North America, Hawaii and Brazil.
• Sequence of a visit, as publicly described:
  1. The visitor sits facing the main altar and prays personally. No set formula is published. Headquarters gives the outward form of bows and claps; that form is not reproduced here.
  2. The visitor may then go to the minister and talk about what they prayed about: worries, thanks, apologies, sorrows or wishes.
  3. The minister listens, mediates, and offers advice that the tradition understands as reflecting Kami's wishes.
  4. The minister keeps praying for the person daily.
  5. The visit is recorded in a Worshipper Record Book, which Headquarters says is kept strictly confidential.
• Frequency. No session count or fixed course exists. Visits are open-ended and initiated by the visitor; requests are made one-to-one, and teaching may be tailored to the person's problems. Schneider describes ministers who sit at the mediation desk "day and night".
• Who performs it. Formal toritsugi is given by ministers (head ministers and assistant ministers) in churches. Ministerial candidates attend the Konkokyo Seminary, a one-year programme that combines physical, spiritual and mental training. At Headquarters, the role of mediation is associated with the successive Konko-sama, the Spiritual Leaders. Lay members are encouraged to practise everyday mediation by listening to others, sharing the faith and praying for them: "Kami wishes for all people to become a mediator."
• Historical notes. Headquarters records that the government suspended mediation in February 1873. The Kokugakuin entry states that toritsugi became central to the institution's self-definition only after the early Showa era. It also records a split between the movement's leader and the transmitter of toritsugi that led to the "Showa 9–10 incidents" (1934–35), and states that in 1954 the movement defined its purpose as realising the Way of toritsugi.

The psychotherapist's framework [synthesis]

The five phases below are a suggested structure for clinical work alongside the practice. They are not taught by Konkokyo. Move to the next phase when its goal is met.

No source gives a session count for this work. Use the session count of the underlying treatment for the client's presenting problem.

3. Guiding principles

• The therapist is not the mediator. Practical meaning: never sit in, mimic or claim the toritsugi role; mediation belongs to ordained ministers. [synthesis; role per Religious Beliefs]
• Describe the tradition in its own terms. Practical meaning: use the client's words (Kami-Sama, okage if the client uses it, toritsugi, Konko-sama) and do not translate them into psychological language unless the client wants that. [synthesis]
• Neither affirm nor dismiss. Practical meaning: treat the belief that the minister relays Kami's answer as the client's belief. Ask what the answer meant to the client, not whether it was "really" Kami. [synthesis]
• The client leads integration. Practical meaning: bring religious material into therapy only when the client raises it or consents, and in the client's own language. [synthesis]
• Respect two confidentiality systems. Practical meaning: the church keeps a confidential Worshipper Record Book; the therapist keeps the clinical record. Share nothing between them without explicit consent. [source: How to Worship; synthesis]
• Know the scope of both roles. Practical meaning: advice given in mediation and clinical advice are different kinds of advice. Help the client hold both without forcing a choice, and route medical questions to the doctor. [synthesis]
• No health claims. Practical meaning: Konkokyo hopes to help resolve problems "from a physical ailment" onward. Treat this as a religious aspiration. Toritsugi is not a treatment for physical disease, and its evidence status as a health intervention is not established. [source: Basic Precepts; synthesis]
• Mind the power of the helping role. Practical meaning: whether the helper is a minister or a therapist, the person seeking help can defer heavily. Watch for over-reliance in both relationships. [synthesis; cf. Schneider on deference to the mediator "as Kami's substitute"]
• Professional ethics apply. Practical meaning: work within competence, avoid multiple relationships, respect religious diversity, and keep your own beliefs out of the work unless a disclosure clearly serves the client. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Toritsugi itself is given only by Konkokyo ministers. Its public outline appears in section 2, and clients who want it should be referred to a church. Konkokyo publishes no clinical procedure. Every intervention below is the psychotherapist's work alongside the practice and is [synthesis] unless a source is given. Konkokyo teachings are cited where an intervention draws on them.

4.1 Religious and cultural assessment

• Purpose: Find out whether and how the client is involved with Konkokyo: as a visitor, a member, a minister, a minister's family member or a former member. Learn what toritsugi does for them. Use this at intake, or whenever the client mentions a church, a minister, Kami-Sama or Konko-sama.
• Steps:
  1. Ask open questions about religious and spiritual background, as the cultural formulation approach recommends. The DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions are the standard tools. [uncertain: not verified; do not reproduce items]
  2. Ask how often the client visits the church, what they bring to the minister, and what happened after recent visits.
  3. Ask about the client's role. Ministers and their families may carry heavy expectations of availability, because churches stay open from early morning to evening with a minister always present. [source: Konkokyo in Japan; synthesis]
  4. Ask what the client would like the therapist to know about the faith, and whether they want it included in therapy at all.
  5. Record the client's own terms and meanings.
• Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned going to the church and talking with the minister. Would you tell me what that's like for you, and whether you'd like it to be part of what we talk about here?"
• Watch for: Assumptions that Konkokyo is "just Shinto" or the same as shrine practice. Embarrassment, if the client expects the therapist to see the faith as superstition. The client's role: a minister client raises different issues from a visitor. Signs it is working: the client explains the faith in their own words, and the two of you agree whether it belongs in therapy.

4.2 Exploring the meaning of a mediation visit

• Purpose: Help the client reflect on what they brought to toritsugi and what they took away (advice, a teaching, relief, a sense of being heard), without judging whether the answer was divine. Use it when the client reports a recent visit or acts on advice received there.
• Steps:
  1. Invite the client to describe the visit in their own terms: what they brought (concerns, thanks, apology, sorrow, wishes) and how the minister responded. [source: How to Worship; Nichi Bei]
  2. Reflect the meaning: "seeing the problem in perspective" is the tradition's stated aim. Ask whether that happened. [source: Religious Beliefs]
  3. Ask how the advice fits the client's values, goals and circumstances, and what they plan to do with it.
  4. Where the advice and the treatment plan seem to differ, name the difference openly and explore it. Do not set the therapist up against the minister.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you left the church, what had shifted for you? ... How does what the minister said sit with what you want for yourself?"
• Watch for: The therapist sliding into evaluating the minister's advice; the client using the visit to avoid hard decisions, or using therapy to get a "second opinion" against the minister. Signs it is working: the client reports greater perspective or agency, and can tell which decisions are theirs.

4.3 Client-led integration of gratitude

• Purpose: Konkokyo teaches thanks to Tenchi Kane No Kami for air, water, food and natural resources, and "to everything", including people, tools and "the tree stump we sit on". When a client already holds this teaching and wants it in therapy, it can be linked to clinical goals such as behavioural activation or work on low mood, in the client's own words. [source: Basic Precepts; synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether gratitude is part of the client's faith practice, and whether they would like to draw on it.
  2. Ask the client how they already express thanks, in prayer or in daily life. Do not supply a script.
  3. Agree a small, client-chosen practice, such as noticing one thing they are thankful for each day, framed in their faith's terms if they wish.
  4. Review it: does it lift mood or connection, or has it become one more obligation?
• Example language (illustrative): "You said thanking Kami-Sama for small things is part of your faith. Is that something you'd like to bring into how we work on your low days?"
• Watch for: Gratitude used to deny legitimate grievances or abuse ("I should only be thankful"); guilt about "not being thankful enough"; the therapist prescribing religious practice. Signs it is working: the client reports more warmth or perspective and no added shame.

4.4 Working with apology and guilt

• Purpose: Konkokyo teaches apology for wrongdoing, including unintended harm: "Even if there was no intentional harm or maliciousness, apologies are in order." For many clients this is a healthy repair practice. For some it can feed excessive guilt or self-blame. This intervention helps the client tell the two apart. [source: Basic Precepts; synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Explore what apology means in the client's practice and in their relationships.
  2. Look at the function: does apologising bring relief and repair, or does it repeat without relief and keep spreading? If it repeats, assess for scrupulosity (4.9) or depression.
  3. Where guilt follows trauma or a moral injury, use the appropriate evidence-based approach, keeping the client's faith language as a resource.
  4. If the client wants it, they can take questions about the tradition's teaching to their minister, and the therapist focuses on the clinical pattern.
• Example language (illustrative): "In your faith, apologising matters. I'm curious whether these apologies bring you peace, or whether they keep coming back with more worry each time."
• Watch for: Self-blame for illness or misfortune, when the client believes problems come from a "misguided heart". Explore the attribution gently; do not argue theology. Signs it is working: apology becomes proportionate and repairs relationships rather than fuelling rumination. [source: Basic Precepts for the teaching; synthesis]

4.5 Accommodation in scheduling and treatment

• Purpose: Respect the client's religious calendar and church commitments.
• Steps:
  1. Ask about regular commitments. Konkokyo holds Monthly Services for Tenchi Kane No Kami and Ikigami Konko Daijin, a spring and an autumn Grand Service, memorial services, and ceremonies for New Year, end of year, marriages and funerals. [source: Services]
  2. For minister clients, ask about duties at the mediation seat and plan sessions around them.
  3. Offer flexible times or remote sessions around major services.
• Example language (illustrative): "Are there services or church duties coming up that we should plan around?"
• Watch for: Over-commitment and exhaustion in ministers or very active members. Avoidance of therapy disguised as religious duty: explore it gently. Signs it is working: few missed sessions, and the client feels respected.

4.6 Coordinating with the minister (with consent)

• Purpose: Some clients want their minister and their therapist to understand each other's role, for example when advice received in mediation affects treatment, or after a crisis.
• Steps:
  1. Raise the possibility only if the client wants it, and get specific, written consent covering what may be shared and for what purpose.
  2. Explain to the client that the church keeps its own confidential Worshipper Record Book, and that clinical records are kept separately. [source: How to Worship]
  3. Keep contact focused on roles and practical support. The therapist does not seek or comment on religious advice.
  4. Report the content of any contact back to the client.
• Example language (illustrative): "If it would help, and only with your agreement, I could speak briefly with your minister so we both understand how to support you. What would you be comfortable with me sharing?"
• Watch for: Pressure on the client from either side. Boundary blurring, if the minister is also a family member or an employer of the client. Signs it is working: the client feels supported by both helpers, not caught between them.

4.7 Routing health issues to the doctor

• Purpose: Visitors bring illness to prayer and to mediation; Headquarters lists illness among the things people pray about. When a client is relying on mediation for a physical or psychiatric illness, make sure they also get medical care. [source: How to Worship; Basic Precepts]
• Steps:
  1. Ask neutrally what care the client is receiving for any health problem they mention.
  2. Frame prayer and medical care as able to go together. Konkokyo's published materials do not say that medical care should be avoided. [source: Basic Precepts; synthesis]
  3. Encourage, and with consent arrange, contact with the client's doctor. The therapist gives no advice about medicines.
  4. If a client stops medical treatment because of advice they believe they received, explore what was actually said and what it meant. If the client wishes, they can ask the minister to clarify.
• Example language (illustrative): "Praying about this clearly matters to you. Alongside that, what has your doctor said, and would it help to check in with them?"
• Watch for: Delay in seeking medical care, and magical expectations of cure. Konkokyo's published materials do not promise these; Schneider reports that believers seek health, peace and happiness through the way of life that mediation teaches. Signs it is working: the client keeps up both faith and medical care.

4.8 Grief, ancestors and memorial practice

• Purpose: Konkokyo honours ancestors with memorial services, regards a memorial day as the spirit's "birthday" marking its return to Kami, and does not teach heaven and hell as places or reincarnation. A grieving client may find meaning and community support in these services. [source: Religious Beliefs; Services]
• Steps:
  1. Ask how the client's tradition understands the death and what rites have taken place or are planned.
  2. Invite the client to use memorial services and church community as supports if they wish.
  3. Work with grief within standard grief-focused therapy, using the client's own understanding of the deceased's return to Kami.
  4. Watch for complicated or prolonged grief and treat it in the usual way.
• Example language (illustrative): "How does your faith understand where your father is now? ... Has the memorial service been a comfort, or has it been hard?"
• Watch for: Pressure to feel only gratitude rather than grief; isolation if the client has withdrawn from the church. Signs it is working: the client's grief moves and they can draw on ritual support.

4.9 Scrupulosity and religious OCD

• Purpose: Practices of apology, gratitude, prayer and right-heartedness can become the focus of OCD: for example, compulsive apologising for possible unintended harm, repeated prayer, or reassurance-seeking through repeated visits to the minister. Use this when such behaviour is ego-dystonic, driven by fear and time-consuming. [source: IOCDF; synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Assess for OCD using standard methods. The IOCDF notes that OCD "latches onto" what matters most to the person, that it is ego-dystonic, and that healthy practice grows from values rather than fear.
  2. Explain that scrupulosity is treated as OCD, with ERP as first-line treatment. Medication questions go to the prescriber.
  3. Build exposures that do not require the client to oppose or disrespect their faith, as the IOCDF describes. Examples, chosen with the client: tolerating uncertainty about whether an unintended harm needs an apology; reducing repeated prayers to the client's normal practice; not seeking repeated reassurance.
  4. With consent, consult the client's minister about which practices are religiously required and which are OCD-driven. The IOCDF encourages collaboration between clinicians and faith leaders.
  5. Get consent for each exposure, agree a pace, and stop or step down if distress becomes unmanageable or risk rises.
• Example language (illustrative): "Your faith asks you to apologise when you've done wrong. OCD is asking for something different: apologies for things that might have happened, again and again. Let's look at which voice is which."
• Watch for: Reassurance-seeking moving into mediation visits (a pattern inferred clinically, not reported in sources) [synthesis]; the client fearing that ERP is sinful. Signs it is working: less time on compulsions, and religious practice that feels freer, which the IOCDF describes as a goal.

4.10 Supporting ministers, ministers' families and lay "mediators"

• Purpose: Konkokyo encourages every member to become a mediator by listening to others and praying for them. Ministers are always available during long church hours. These roles can carry carer strain, vicarious distress and boundary problems. [source: Religious Beliefs; Konkokyo in Japan; synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Explore the client's workload, rest, support and any distress they carry from what they hear.
  2. Apply standard approaches to burnout and vicarious trauma.
  3. Encourage the client to use the support structures within the organisation, such as fellow ministers, propagation centres or the church board, as appropriate to their role.
  4. Respect the religious confidentiality the client owes to the people they serve. Do not ask a minister to disclose what visitors have told them.
• Example language (illustrative): "You hold a lot of other people's troubles. Where do yours go?"
• Watch for: Hereditary role pressure (headship often passes within families, as the Headquarters history of successive Konko-sama shows), guilt about rest, and the therapist being drawn into hearing third parties' confidences. Signs it is working: the client has better boundaries and support. [source: Konkokyo History; synthesis]

4.11 Deference, dependence and group-dynamics awareness

• Purpose: Schneider notes that the mediator's explanations are heeded "as Kami's substitute", and that prayer is felt to be easier when directed to the mediator. Deference to a respected helper is normal in many religious settings. This intervention helps the therapist notice when deference becomes dependence or coercion, without labelling the community. [source: Schneider; synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Explore how the client makes major decisions and what part mediation plays in them.
  2. Support the client's agency within their faith. Many traditions, Konkokyo included, teach that the person's own heart matters. [source: Schneider; Basic Precepts]
  3. Screen for signs of coercive control in any group or relationship: isolation from outside contacts, financial exploitation, punishment for questioning, or control of medical decisions. Konkokyo states that no donation or membership fee is required, which can be a useful point of reference. [source: How to Worship; synthesis]
  4. If concerns arise, handle them as you would any coercive relationship: safety, choice, and referral or reporting where the law requires it.
• Example language (illustrative): "When the minister gives advice, how do you decide what to do with it? Are there times you've disagreed?"
• Watch for: Projecting stereotypes of "new religions" onto the client. Documented controversies or misconduct findings concerning present-day Konkokyo: none found in the sources consulted. The historical internal dispute of 1934–35 is recorded as a question of leadership and of who transmitted toritsugi. [source: Encyclopedia of Shinto]

4.12 Leaving, changing affiliation or religious distress

• Purpose: Support a client who is leaving Konkokyo, is in conflict with family members who belong, or feels religious guilt or loss.
• Steps:
  1. Explore losses: community, identity, family role and ancestral memorial practice.
  2. Validate ambivalence. The client chooses their path; the therapist does not steer it.
  3. Address any religious trauma symptoms with standard trauma-informed care.
  4. Plan how the client will handle family events such as memorial services and weddings.
• Example language (illustrative): "Stepping back from the church isn't only about belief. It touches family and memory too. What feels hardest to let go of?"
• Watch for: Isolation, and the therapist's own views on religion. Signs it is working: the client makes decisions with less guilt and keeps the relationships they value.

4.13 Referral and boundaries of role

• Purpose: Know when a question belongs with the minister, the doctor, or another clinician.
• Steps:
  1. Questions of doctrine, Kami's will, or what a mediation answer meant religiously: refer them, with the client's agreement, to the client's minister or another Konkokyo church. [synthesis]
  2. Medical questions go to the doctor (4.7). Risk to self or others: follow current standard risk assessment and safety planning.
  3. If the therapist shares the client's faith or belongs to the same church, consider whether a dual relationship makes referral advisable.
  4. Keep self-disclosure of the therapist's own beliefs minimal and only for the client's benefit.
• Example language (illustrative): "That's an important question about your faith, and your minister is better placed to answer it than I am. What we can look at here is how the question is affecting you."
• Watch for: The therapist taking on a quasi-religious role, and splitting between helpers. Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists have been set out in professional literature, for example Vieten et al. 2013 [uncertain: not verified].

5. Handling problems

Konkokyo sources do not address clinical problems. All guidance below is [synthesis] except where a source is named.

• The client wants the therapist to "mediate" or pray for them. Explain your role kindly. Toritsugi is given by ministers, and Konkokyo encourages members to pray for one another. [source: Religious Beliefs] Offer to help the client find their church or minister. Example (illustrative): "I'm not able to do what your minister does, but I can help you think about what you'd like to bring to them."
• Advice received in mediation appears to conflict with treatment (for example, about stopping medication or leaving a relationship). Find out exactly what was said and what the client understood. Avoid a contest of authority. With consent, the client or the therapist can ask the minister for clarification. Route medical matters to the doctor. If there is imminent risk, follow safety procedures whatever the advice was.
• Stuck client: "I just need to have a better heart." Konkokyo teaches that difficulties often come from a misguided heart and that hardship can become a blessing. [source: Basic Precepts] Respect this as the client's framework. Explore what a "better heart" would look like in concrete behaviour, and use that as the goal of the work. If the belief turns into self-blame for depression or trauma, work with the self-blame clinically without disputing the doctrine.
• Resistance to therapy as "unspiritual" or unnecessary. Acknowledge the client's faith resources. Frame therapy as working alongside them, and point out that Konkokyo itself values being heard by another person. [source: How to Worship; Nichi Bei] Do not push.
• Overwhelm (for example, a minister client hearing many people's distress, or a client in crisis). Use grounding and stabilisation, reduce the intensity of sessions, and treat safety first. Toritsugi is a conversational and prayer practice, not an intensive meditation retreat, so the research on contemplative adverse effects (for example Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica) applies only indirectly. If a client also practises intensive meditation or prayer absorption, screen for adverse effects as that literature describes. [uncertain: not verified]
• Spiritual experiences versus illness. If a client reports hearing Kami or experiencing divine presence, first establish what is normative in their tradition. The tradition holds that Kami speaks through the minister in mediation. [source: Religious Beliefs] Assess for psychosis, mania or dissociation only if there are features beyond the tradition's norms, such as functional decline, distress, beliefs the community does not share, or other symptoms. Coordinate with a psychiatrist where indicated. DSM-5-TR provides a code for a religious or spiritual problem that is not a mental disorder (Z65.8).
• Non-adherence to between-session tasks. Check whether the tasks clash with religious commitments or feel spiritually wrong. Re-negotiate in the client's own terms.
• Ruptures. Ruptures may follow a perceived dismissal of the faith, for example the therapist calling mediation "just counselling". Repair by naming it, apologising, and asking how the client sees it. Konkokyo itself values apology, so a genuine apology may be received well. [source: Basic Precepts for the teaching]
• Family conflict over faith or succession. Some clients face pressure to take on a hereditary ministerial role or to remain in the faith. Explore their values and options. Consider family sessions if the client wishes.
• Scrupulosity worsened by apology or prayer practice. See 4.9, and keep consultation with the minister as an option. [source: IOCDF]
• Concerns about misconduct by a helper. Treat any disclosure of exploitation or abuse by a minister, therapist or any other helper as a safeguarding matter. Name nobody beyond what the client and the law require. Follow reporting duties, and protect the client's choice where the law allows. If children are involved, follow local child-safeguarding procedures.
• Therapist's own reactions. A therapist from a strongly secular or a different religious background may feel curiosity, scepticism or discomfort. Use supervision. Seek consultation on Japanese religious culture where needed, and avoid relying on the client to educate you.

Sources

• Konkokyo – Our Foundation: History (Konkokyo Headquarters)
• Konkokyo – Religious Beliefs (Konkokyo Headquarters)
• Konkokyo – Basic Precepts (Konkokyo Headquarters)
• Konkokyo – How to Worship (Konkokyo Headquarters)
• Konkokyo – Services (Konkokyo Headquarters)
• Konkokyo – Organizations: Japan (Konkokyo Headquarters; churches, Konkokyo Seminary)
• Encyclopedia of Shinto: Konkokyō (Kokugakuin University; entry by Fukushima Shinkichi)
• Schneider, Delwin B. "Konkō-Kyō: A Religion of Mediation", Contemporary Religions in Japan 2(1) (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture repository)
• Pluralism Project: Konkokyo (Harvard University)
• Nichi Bei: Konko Church of San Francisco (news feature on a North American church)
• IOCDF – Living with OCD & Religious Traditions (International OCD Foundation)

Also cited [uncertain: not verified]: American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview; Vieten, C., et al. (2013), spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists; Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE, "Varieties of Contemplative Experience"; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, systematic review of meditation-related adverse effects. Konkokyo scriptures (Konkokyo Kyoten, 1983, Japanese; English publications from 1987) are referred to as Headquarters lists them; the scriptures themselves are [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

American Psychological Association, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, https://www.apa.org/ethics/code