Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 124
Guide XIV-124

Reiyūkai ancestor-merit practice

Kubo Kakutarō, Kotani Kimi, Wakatsuki Chise1920Tokyo, Japan
A 36 · L 51 · M 1320 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Reiyūkai (霊友会, Tokyo headquarters) as it describes itself on its Japanese site ("About Reiyūkai" and "History" pages, membership data to 31 December 2024), with scholarly description from Kōmoto Mitsugi (Kokugakuin University) and Helen Hardacre (1979 article; 1984 monograph Lay Buddhism in Contemporary Japan: Reiyūkai Kyōdan, as summarised in two scholarly reviews). Hardacre's fieldwork describes branch life in the late 1970s; current branch practice may differ [uncertain]. [source: Reiyūkai profile; Reiyūkai history; Kōmoto; Hardacre 1979; Johnston review; Lai review]

Reiyūkai is a Japanese lay Buddhist organisation in the Lotus Sutra (Nichiren-influenced) tradition. It is an organisation and a religious practice, not a therapy. This guide describes the practice as Reiyūkai and scholars publish it, then sets out the psychotherapist's work with a client who belongs to Reiyūkai, has left it, or has a family member in it.

  • Founding. Kubo Kakutarō began Lotus Sutra study and ancestor practice in 1920, according to Reiyūkai. Kōmoto dates the founding of Reiyūkai to 1924, with Wakatsuki Chise, from whom Kubo later separated. Reiyūkai dates its formal inaugural meeting to 13 July 1930. Kotani Kimi, Kubo's sister-in-law, joined in 1925 and is named by Reiyūkai as its first president (初代会長). [source: Reiyūkai history; Kōmoto]
  • Core idea of change, as Reiyūkai states it. Ancestor veneration (先祖供養, senzo kuyō) is something any lay person can do personally. Honouring the wishes of parents and ancestors through one's own conduct is described as a lay bodhisattva practice. Chanting alone does not count: the member must also "reform oneself". Reiyūkai teaches that what is inherited from ancestors can be changed for the better through one's own conduct. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • Core idea, as scholars describe it. Kōmoto describes karma (因縁, innen) as the organising concept: misfortune such as illness, family discord, poverty and early death is read as a sign of ancestral suffering or karmic debt inherited from both sides of the family, and memorial rites are the remedy. Hardacre (1979) reports that in branch teaching poverty, sickness and domestic discord were interpreted as moral failings of the individual and/or the ancestors, rather than of society or other people. [source: Kōmoto; Hardacre 1979]
  • Evidence status (one line). That memorial rites prevent misfortune or bring this-worldly benefit is a religious claim; it has not been tested empirically [synthesis].
  • Related groups. Kōmoto lists many groups that separated from Reiyūkai before and after the war, including Risshō Kōsei-kai and Myōchikai; nearly all share ancestor rites with Lotus Sutra recitation. A client may describe a derived group in similar terms; check which organisation they belong to. [source: Kōmoto]

2. Framework

No source gives a therapy session count or format for this work. The framework below has two parts: (A) the member's path as Reiyūkai and scholars describe it, which the therapist needs to recognise; (B) the therapist's phases [synthesis].

A. The member's path (described, not delivered by the therapist)

  • Joining. A prospective member completes a membership card and gives it, with the fee, to the person who recommended them; the recommender takes responsibility for the new member's follow-up. Membership does not require leaving one's religion; Reiyūkai says it respects members' ancestral sects and family temples (菩提寺). [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • Setting up the ancestor practice. The member receives a sōkaimyō (総戒名), a collective posthumous name for the ancestors. Unmarried members honour their parents' lines; married members honour the ancestors of both spouses. Members gather the names of nearer and more distant ancestors, of mizuko (水子, children lost in pregnancy) and of deceased children and other related dead. Reiyūkai gives these Reiyūkai dharma names (法名, hōmyō) and records them in a register of the dead (過去帳, kakochō). [source: Reiyūkai profile] Kōmoto adds that the register can extend to acquaintances and has no fixed limit, and that ancestors keep their individual identities. [source: Kōmoto]
  • Daily practice. Each member recites the Aokyōkan (青経巻, "Blue Sutra"), an abridgement compiled by Kubo of the threefold Lotus Sutra, personally every day for the ancestors; Reiyūkai says it can be recited in about 30 minutes. Morning and evening recitation at the home altar is encouraged. [source: Reiyūkai profile; Kōmoto]
  • Gatherings. Reiyūkai describes hōza (法座) and tsudoi (つどい) as gatherings where people share their troubles and listen, regardless of status, occupation or wealth. [source: Reiyūkai history; Reiyūkai profile] Hardacre (1979) describes monthly circle meetings centred on members' testimonies (taiken), which novices were strongly encouraged to give, and leader-led consultation within oya–ko (parent–child) guidance lines. [source: Hardacre 1979; Lai review]
  • Guiding others. Hardacre (1979) describes proselytising (michibiki) as the final stage of taking on group norms, rewarded with approval and rank; in the branch she studied, advancement to branch leader was tied to a recruitment threshold. Current requirements are [uncertain: not verified]. [source: Hardacre 1979]
  • Training. Reiyūkai runs Miroku-san (弥勒山), a training centre in Higashi-Izu used for youth summer training, and pilgrimage training on Mt Shichimen. [source: Reiyūkai history] Kōmoto mentions a ritual called kyūju practised from about 1933; it is not described here. [source: Kōmoto]
  • Structure and costs. Reiyūkai reports 2,475,259 members including overseas and 5,390 branches (31 December 2024), with headquarters in Minato-ku, Tokyo. It gives the membership fee as ¥500 per month for those of middle-school age and over and states there are no offerings (お布施). The current president's name is [uncertain: not verified]. [source: Reiyūkai profile]

B. The therapist's phases [synthesis]

  1. Engagement and cultural assessment. Goal: understand the practice and its place in the client's life in their own words. Use the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) and its Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions module. Move on when the client's own account of the problem, its causes (including any ancestral or karmic account) and their supports is clear.
  2. Differential assessment. Goal: separate culturally normative belief and practice from guilt, grief, mood, anxiety, OCD, psychotic or abuse-related problems. Move on when a working formulation is agreed with the client.
  3. Formulation of the guilt and causation story. Goal: map how the client links misfortune, ancestors, their own conduct and blame, and which parts help or harm. Move on when the client can name what they want to keep and what distresses them.
  4. Focused work. Goal: address the presenting problem (grief, scrupulous guilt, relationship or safety issues, group pressure, leaving) while respecting the client's chosen level of involvement.
  5. Consolidation and referral. Goal: relapse planning, links to community supports the client chooses, and onward referral where needed.

Movement between phases is by clinical judgement, not session number. Return to phase 2 whenever risk, abuse or a new symptom appears.

3. Guiding principles

  • Describe, do not adjudicate. Ancestors, karma and merit are the client's religious terms; the therapist neither affirms nor disputes them. Practical meaning: reflect the client's words (senzo kuyō, innen) without correcting or endorsing them. [synthesis]
  • Lead with the client's own account. The CFI is a tool to support understanding, not the sole basis for diagnosis. Practical meaning: ask what the client and their family think caused the problem before offering your own formulation. [source: CFI]
  • Respect religious difference and know your limits. The APA Ethics Code (Principle E) asks psychologists to respect religious and cultural differences, and the Code asks for training, consultation, supervision or referral where religion is essential to effective services. Practical meaning: seek consultation if you do not understand Japanese ancestor practice. [source: APA Ethics Code]
  • Separate guilt that repairs from guilt that crushes. Reiyūkai teaches self-reform; scholarly fieldwork documents teaching that placed blame for family problems on the individual, especially wives. Practical meaning: support the client's wish to act well while examining self-blame that is disproportionate, punishing or used against them. [source: Reiyūkai profile; Hardacre 1979; synthesis]
  • Do not pathologise belief. Belief in ancestral influence is common and culturally normative in Japan. Practical meaning: diagnose only on distress, impairment or symptoms beyond the shared belief. The ICD-10-CM code Z65.8 includes "religious or spiritual problem" for problems that are not a mental disorder. [source: Unbound Medicine Z65.8; synthesis]
  • The therapist is not a ritual specialist. Practical meaning: do not perform, prescribe, reinterpret or sequence memorial rites, recitation or names; refer ritual questions to the client's branch, family temple or chosen religious adviser. [synthesis]
  • No dual roles. Standard 3.05 on multiple relationships. Practical meaning: a therapist who is a Reiyūkai member does not take on a client from their own branch or line, and does not recruit. [source: APA Ethics Code; synthesis]
  • Safety outranks harmony. Practical meaning: where teaching that misfortune is one's own fault is applied to partner abuse, child harm or medical problems, safety, medical care and safeguarding come first. [synthesis]
  • Client sets the level of involvement. Practical meaning: the goal is the client's chosen relationship to the practice, which may be deeper involvement, selective involvement or leaving. [synthesis]
  • Informed consent includes the cultural frame. Practical meaning: explain early that therapy will explore beliefs with respect, will not try to change faith, and may look at group or family pressures. [source: APA Ethics Code; synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A lists the organisation's own practices so the therapist can ask informed questions; the therapist does not lead, teach or perform any of them. Part B lists the therapist's interventions. All example language is illustrative and the therapist's own.

4A. Reiyūkai practices (recognise and explore; do not deliver)

A1. Sōkaimyō (collective posthumous name for both family lines)

  • Purpose (as published): to let a member honour both the husband's and the wife's ancestors, rather than only the husband's "house" as in older custom; unmarried members honour their parents' lines. [source: Reiyūkai profile] Kōmoto reports the shared name form for Reiyūkai and Myōchikai, and the rationale that a family needs both husband and wife. [source: Kōmoto]
  • What it involves (outline): the member receives the name through the organisation and keeps it at the home altar. [source: Reiyūkai profile; Hardacre 1979 on the altar as the centre of the home]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you honour both your own family and your husband's, what does that mean to you?"
  • Watch for: comfort and a sense of belonging (helpful); conflict with in-laws or a family temple over whose ancestors are honoured; distress when a spouse or relative objects. [synthesis]

A2. Ancestor register (kakochō) and dharma names (hōmyō)

  • Purpose (as published): to record the names and Reiyūkai dharma names of ancestors, mizuko (children lost in pregnancy), deceased children and other related dead, for daily honouring. [source: Reiyūkai profile] Kōmoto notes the register may extend to acquaintances and has no fixed limit. [source: Kōmoto]
  • What it involves (outline): the member collects names and posthumous names from the family; the organisation gives dharma names; the register is used in daily recitation. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Whose names are in your register? Is there anyone whose name was hard to add, or anyone missing?"
  • Watch for: the register as a map of the client's losses and family history (a clinical resource); unresolved grief for a pregnancy loss or a child; guilt about abortion or miscarriage linked to mizuko; a sense that the circle of dead one is responsible for keeps growing. [synthesis]

A3. Daily recitation of the Aokyōkan ("Blue Sutra")

  • Purpose (as published): to recite, for one's ancestors, an abridgement of the threefold Lotus Sutra compiled by Kubo Kakutarō. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • What it involves (outline): personal daily recitation, said to take about 30 minutes; morning and evening recitation encouraged; performed by lay people, not priests. [source: Reiyūkai profile; Kōmoto] The text itself is not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What is it like for you when you recite? How do you feel on days you miss it?"
  • Watch for: steadiness, structure and connection to family (helpful); recitation done to neutralise fear of harm, with repeating, checking or dread after a missed or "imperfect" recitation (possible scrupulosity: see B5); time conflicts with work, sleep or family. [synthesis]

A4. Self-reform and reflection

  • Purpose (as published): Reiyūkai teaches that ancestor veneration requires changing oneself, that understanding a parent's hardships changes one's attitude to parents, and that what is inherited can be changed for the better through one's conduct. [source: Reiyūkai profile] Kōmoto describes Reiyūkai's emphasis on "sweeping away" the soul's impurities and on filial piety extended into self-cultivation. [source: Kōmoto]
  • What it involves (outline): reflection on one's conduct and on ancestors' feelings; changed behaviour toward family. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What change in yourself are you working on? How do you tell the difference between growing and punishing yourself?"
  • Watch for: genuine repair and values-based action (helpful); global self-blame, self-punishment or tolerating mistreatment as "my karma" (see B3, B6). [synthesis]

A5. Gatherings, testimony and repentance

  • Purpose (as published): hōza and tsudoi as places to share troubles and listen. [source: Reiyūkai history; Reiyūkai profile]
  • What it involves (as scholars describe it): Hardacre (1979) describes monthly circle meetings built on testimonies (taiken), which novices were strongly encouraged to give and which earned applause and camaraderie; public repentance (sange) within testimony, with the member expected to repay their debt (on) through proselytising; and leader-led consultation in oya–ko lines in which a leader could withhold comfort to establish authority. [source: Hardacre 1979; Lai review]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What happens at your meetings? How do you feel after you have spoken?"
  • Watch for: support and reduced isolation (helpful); shame after public repentance; feeling unable to refuse a leader's advice; advice that conflicts with medical care or safety. [synthesis]

A6. Guiding others (michibiki)

  • Purpose (as published): the recommender of a new member takes responsibility for that member's follow-up. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • What it involves (as scholars describe it): in Hardacre's fieldwork, proselytising was rewarded with approval, friendship and rank, and branch leadership depended on recruitment numbers. [source: Hardacre 1979] Current practice [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How much of your time goes to bringing in or following up others? How do you feel about that?"
  • Watch for: strain on relationships with friends or colleagues approached; pressure to meet expectations; rank tied to recruitment. [synthesis]

A7. Training and pilgrimage

  • Purpose (as published): youth summer training at Miroku-san and mountain pilgrimage training on Mt Shichimen. [source: Reiyūkai history] Historical austerities of Kotani Kimi (cold-water ablutions, fasting, restricted diet) are reported by Kōmoto, and Lai notes Hardacre's account of women practising "cold water" austerity; no schedules are given here. [source: Kōmoto; Lai review]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What was the training like for you, physically and emotionally?"
  • Watch for: exhaustion, cold exposure or food restriction in clients with medical or eating problems; a young person's ability to decline. Route physical concerns to the client's physician. [synthesis]

4B. The therapist's interventions

Unless a source is given, the procedures below are clinical synthesis applied to this setting [synthesis].

B1. Cultural Formulation Interview with the Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions module

  • Purpose: to learn the client's own definition of the problem, their and their family's view of its cause, their supports and coping, and the place of Reiyūkai in daily life, before any formulation. Use at intake and whenever the meaning of a problem is unclear. [source: CFI; CFI Supplementary Modules]
  • Steps: (1) Explain that you ask everyone about culture and faith. (2) Work through the four CFI domains: cultural definition of the problem; perceived causes, context and supports; self-coping and past help-seeking; current help-seeking and concerns about the therapist. (3) Add Module 5 (Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions): affiliation and family background, role in daily life and decisions, private and communal practices and their importance, whether the tradition helps with the problem, and any faith-related stress or conflict. (4) Add Module 7 (Coping and Help-Seeking) if the client has sought help from leaders or other healers. (5) Record the client's terms verbatim. Paraphrase questions; the CFI may be used but not modified without APA permission. [source: CFI; CFI Supplementary Modules]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people understand their difficulties through their family's history or their faith. How do you, and the people at your branch, understand what has been happening?"
  • Watch for: whether the client names an ancestral or karmic cause, and whether it brings relief or dread; who in the group advised them; whether they fear the therapist will dismiss their faith. Working: the client volunteers religious material without defensiveness.

B2. Practice map

  • Purpose: to build a concrete picture of the client's involvement (A1–A7) and its costs and benefits.
  • Steps: (1) Ask how they joined and who recommended them. (2) Ask about the home altar, sōkaimyō and register, recitation routine, meetings, guiding others and training. (3) Ask about time, money (Reiyūkai states a ¥500 monthly fee and no offerings; ask about any other spending) and roles held. [source: Reiyūkai profile] (4) Ask what each part gives them and what it costs. (5) Summarise back in their words.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Can you walk me through an ordinary day and week of your practice? Which parts sustain you, and which feel heavy?"
  • Watch for: mismatch between the published fee and actual spending; hours that crowd out sleep or family; roles tied to recruiting. Working: a shared, non-judgemental map the client recognises.

B3. Mapping the causal story of misfortune (ancestral causation and guilt)

  • Purpose: to make explicit how the client links a problem (illness, a child's difficulty, a partner's behaviour, money trouble, a death) to ancestors, innen and their own conduct, and where blame lands. Scholars describe teaching in which misfortune is read as ancestral suffering or karmic debt and as moral failing of the individual or ancestors. [source: Kōmoto; Hardacre 1979]
  • Steps: (1) Choose one specific misfortune the client raises. (2) Ask what they believe caused it, who told them so and when. (3) Draw a simple chain with the client: event → explanation (ancestor, karma, own fault) → feelings (guilt, fear, relief, hope) → actions (recitation, apology, staying silent, avoiding care). (4) Ask what other causes the client also holds (medical, economic, another person's choices); Japanese clients often hold several frames at once. (5) Ask which parts of the chain help and which hurt. (6) Do not dispute the religious frame; work on the consequences: whether blame is proportionate, whether it blocks practical action, whether it excuses harm by others.
  • Example language (illustrative): "So you see your son's illness as linked to your family's karma, and you feel it is yours to put right. Alongside that, what have the doctors said? How do the two fit together for you?"
  • Watch for: guilt for events outside the client's control; belief that seeking medical or legal help shows lack of faith; blame transferred onto the client for another person's behaviour (Hardacre 1979 documents a wife being held responsible for her husband's infidelity). [source: Hardacre 1979] Working: the client can keep the religious meaning while also taking practical action and placing responsibility where it belongs.

B4. Differentiating repair guilt from excessive self-blame

  • Purpose: to separate guilt that motivates realistic amends (consistent with Reiyūkai's stated aim of self-reform) from pervasive, punishing self-blame that may signal depression, trauma or abuse. [source: Reiyūkai profile; synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask what the client feels guilty for and how much of each event they hold themselves responsible for (a 0–100 estimate). (2) Use a responsibility pie: list every contributing factor, including other people, chance, illness, money and history, then re-estimate. (3) Identify one concrete amend the client values (a call, a visit, a changed habit). (4) Contrast with self-punishment (sleeplessness, self-criticism, accepting mistreatment). (5) Screen for depression and suicidal thinking where guilt is pervasive.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your faith asks you to look at your own conduct. Looking at this honestly, which part is really yours, and which part belongs to others or to circumstance?"
  • Watch for: guilt that persists after amends; hopelessness; thoughts that one's death would end the family's karma (assess suicide risk with standard practice). Working: guilt becomes specific and actionable.

B5. Screening for scrupulosity and OCD

  • Purpose: to identify religious-themed OCD (fear that a missed or flawed recitation, an omitted name in the register or an "impure" thought will harm a family member) without labelling ordinary devotion.
  • Steps: (1) Ask about intrusive fears, urges to repeat or redo recitation, checking the altar or register, and reassurance-seeking from leaders. (2) Ask whether co-religionists see the same behaviour as excessive. (3) If OCD is likely, refer for or deliver exposure and response prevention with an OCD-experienced clinician; consider consulting a religious adviser the client trusts on what the practice actually requires. Clinical OCD resources (e.g. IOCDF) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do you ever feel you must recite again because it wasn't done right, even when you know it was? What do you fear would happen?"
  • Watch for: time consumed, distress, rituals spreading beyond what the group asks. Working: the client practises as their tradition intends, with less fear.

B6. Safety assessment where self-blame meets harm by others

  • Purpose: to ensure that teaching that places blame on the self (Hardacre 1979 describes wives being told to repent and yield over a husband's infidelity or gambling) does not mask domestic abuse, coercion or neglect. [source: Hardacre 1979; synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask privately about fear, control, violence, financial control and sexual coercion at home. (2) If present, follow your local domestic-abuse risk assessment and safety-planning procedures. (3) Name clearly that another person's violence is their responsibility, without disputing the client's faith. (4) Offer referral to specialist services; involve a leader only if the client wishes and it is safe.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've been told this is something for you to apologise for. Whatever the spiritual meaning, nobody deserves to be hurt or frightened at home. Are you safe?"
  • Watch for: minimisation, fear of disloyalty to the group. Working: the client has a safety plan and knows where help is.

B7. Grief, pregnancy loss and continuing bonds

  • Purpose: to use the client's ancestor practice, where they find it helpful, as a resource in bereavement, and to address guilt in pregnancy loss and child death (Reiyūkai includes mizuko and deceased children in the register). [source: Reiyūkai profile; synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask about each loss in the register that still hurts. (2) Invite the client to say what their recitation means for their relationship with the dead person. (3) Explore guilt ("was it my fault?") with B3/B4. (4) Assess for prolonged grief and depression. (5) Leave ritual choices (names, rites) to the client and their religious advisers.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you say your baby's name in your daily practice, what is that like?"
  • Watch for: comfort and connection (helpful) versus belief that the dead are suffering because of the client's failings; intrusive images; inability to function. Working: the bond with the dead feels more peaceful than accusatory.

B8. Assessing group pressure and leader relationships

  • Purpose: to assess, without presuming harm, the client's freedom within leader guidance, testimony and recruitment expectations. Hardacre (1979) describes leaders withholding comfort to establish authority, public repentance and rank tied to recruitment. [source: Hardacre 1979]
  • Steps: (1) Ask who guides them and how decisions are made. (2) Ask whether they can say no to advice, meetings or recruitment and what happens if they do. (3) Ask about isolation from non-members, time and money. (4) Ask about advice on medical care, work or marriage. (5) Note supports and freedoms as well as pressures. (6) Revisit over time; do not push the client to judge the group.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When your leader gives you advice you disagree with, what happens?"
  • Watch for: fear of consequences for leaving or disagreeing; advice that overrides medical, legal or safety needs; financial strain. Working: the client makes choices freely and knows they can.

B9. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose: to distinguish shared religious belief in ancestral influence from psychotic, mood, dissociative or trauma-related symptoms.
  • Steps: (1) Ask whether the client's experience matches what co-religionists hold (shared belief versus idiosyncratic). (2) Assess for hallucinations, fixed idiosyncratic beliefs, mania, severe depression, dissociation and PTSD in the usual way. (3) Note that hearing of ancestors' suffering through teaching is different from personally hearing voices. (4) Where no disorder is present but there is faith-related distress, consider ICD-10-CM Z65.8, which includes "religious or spiritual problem". [source: Unbound Medicine Z65.8]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do others in your branch see it the same way you do, or is this something that feels particular to you?"
  • Watch for: functional decline, new perceptual experiences, sleep loss. Working: an agreed formulation that the client does not experience as an attack on their faith.

B10. Family members' concerns and interfaith households

  • Purpose: to support a client whose spouse, parent or adult child is a member, or a member whose family objects, including conflict about whose ancestors are honoured or about the family temple.
  • Steps: (1) Clarify the client's specific worry (time, money, influence, health decisions, children). (2) Separate the relative's faith from specific behaviours of concern. (3) Coach respectful curiosity and clear limits. (4) Where children are involved, see B12.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What exactly worries you about your mother's involvement? Which of those things could you raise with her directly?"
  • Watch for: escalating ultimatums that drive the relative further in; genuine risk indicators. Working: contact maintained, concerns spoken.

B11. Leaving, reducing involvement and religious trauma

  • Purpose: to support a client who wants to step back or leave, or who carries religious trauma.
  • Steps: (1) Explore what they want to keep (ancestor remembrance can continue in family or temple form if they wish) and what to leave. (2) Address fear that stopping will harm family members through ancestral karma, using B3–B5. (3) Plan practicalities: telling the recommender or leader, managing relationships with members. (4) Work with grief for lost community and identity. (5) Treat trauma symptoms with a trauma-focused approach where indicated.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Part of you wants to stop, and part of you fears what might happen to your family if you do. Let's look at both."
  • Watch for: surges of guilt or fear after any misfortune following departure; isolation. Working: decisions feel like the client's own.

B12. Children and safeguarding

  • Purpose: to protect children where family or group teaching leads to blame of the child, delayed medical care, harsh discipline or a child unable to decline training.
  • Steps: (1) Ask how the child's problems are understood at home. (2) Check that medical and developmental needs are being assessed by professionals. (3) Seek the child's assent to religious activities that are physically demanding. (4) Follow local safeguarding procedures when there is risk. Never name or identify minors in records shared outside the service.
  • Example language (illustrative): "How does your family explain your daughter's difficulties? What help has she had from her doctor or school?"
  • Watch for: a child carrying guilt for family karma; missed medical care. Working: the child's needs are met by appropriate services.

B13. Collaboration, referral and community leaders

  • Purpose: to link the client to supports they choose, consistent with the APA Ethics Code (consult or refer where religious factors are essential). [source: APA Ethics Code]
  • Steps: (1) With written consent, and only if the client wishes, consult a branch leader, family-temple priest or other adviser on what the practice requires. (2) Refer for medical, psychiatric, domestic-abuse, OCD or trauma care as indicated. (3) Seek supervision from a clinician familiar with Japanese religious life. Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I spoke with someone you trust in your community, with your permission?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling handed over; confidentiality pressures. Working: coordinated support the client endorses.

5. Handling problems

The sources describe the organisation, not therapy; all guidance in this section is synthesis applied to the scholarly descriptions cited [synthesis].

  • Client asks the therapist whether the ancestors really caused the problem. Do not rule on it. Reflect the question back to its function: "What would it mean for you if they did, and if they didn't?" Then work on what the client can do in either case (B3).
  • Client asks the therapist to join a meeting, recite, or accept a referral to the group. Decline warmly; explain the therapist's role and the need to keep therapy separate (APA Standard 3.05). Respect the invitation as a sign of trust. [source: APA Ethics Code]
  • Stuck in global guilt ("everything is my karma"). Shift from "why" to "what now": pick one concrete amend and one act of self-care; use the responsibility pie (B4). If guilt is unshifting and accompanied by low mood, assess for depression and suicide risk using standard practice.
  • Fear of harming family by stopping or skipping practice. Assess for scrupulosity (B5). If not OCD, explore the client's own understanding of the teaching that inherited karma can be changed for the better by conduct, and how much they wish to practise. [source: Reiyūkai profile]
  • Resistance born of fear that therapy will attack faith. Name the stance explicitly at consent; invite the client to correct you when you misunderstand the practice; use their terms. [source: APA Ethics Code]
  • Overwhelm during grief or pregnancy-loss work. Slow down; ground in the present; allow the client to use their own practice as a comfort if they choose; return to the loss in smaller steps (B7).
  • Non-adherence to between-session tasks because of practice demands. Fit tasks around recitation and meetings rather than against them; ask what time is realistically free.
  • Rupture after a misreading of the client's faith. Acknowledge the error specifically, ask how it landed, and invite correction. Seek supervision or consultation if knowledge gaps recur. [source: APA Ethics Code]
  • Advice from a leader conflicts with medical or psychiatric care. Do not advise on medicines. Encourage the client to discuss concerns with their prescriber or physician, and explore whether the advice was as strict as they understood it; with consent, a conversation with the leader may clarify.
  • Disclosure of domestic abuse framed as the client's own fault. Prioritise safety (B6). Separate the spiritual meaning the client holds from responsibility for violence.
  • Client gives testimony about therapy at meetings, or recruits in the waiting room. Discuss confidentiality and boundaries plainly; agree what is and is not shared.
  • Family member wants the therapist to "get them out". The therapist's client is the person in the room; work on the family member's own goals and communication (B10). No covert persuasion.
  • Client is a member of a group derived from Reiyūkai. Check which organisation it is; practices and terms (for example the form of the collective posthumous name) differ between groups. [source: Kōmoto]
  • Therapist is a member of the same tradition. Disclose only if it serves the client; avoid treating someone from the same branch or guidance line; seek supervision (Standard 3.05). [source: APA Ethics Code]

Sources

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