Living abroad provides families with many incredible opportunities -meeting friends from all corners of the earth, traveling to exotic destinations, and learning first-hand about other cultures, just to name a few. However, there is no rose without a thorn, and there are challenges to living outside your home country. Discovering that your child requires specialized care while living abroad can make you want to book the next flight home. But don’t panic, there are some qualified specialists here in Tokyo. Since it’s not as easy as cracking open the phone book for non-Japanese speakers, we’ve compiled a list of English speaking specialists in the Tokyo area.
Counseling:
American trained Ron Shumsky, Psy., D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist sees clients by appointment at the Bluff Clinic in Yokohama. He specializes in child development and developmental assessment of children.
Services
o Individual and Family Psychotherapy
o Neuropsychological Evaluation of Children’s Learning and
Development
o Specialized Remedial Reading Instruction
o School Consultation
For more information, contact The Bluff Clinic.
Website: www.bluffclinic.com
Email: thebluffclinic@mbj.ocn.ne.jp
Telephone: 045-641-6961
Speech and Language Pathologists:
The Tokyo Association of Foreign Speech and Language Pathologists offers their assistance to English speaking families in need of speech and language therapy in the Tokyo area. (Some families from outside of Tokyo have traveled to Tokyo for evaluation as well).
All referrals for the Tokyo Association of Foreign Speech and Language Pathologists are handled by Marsha Rosenberg, MA, CCC-SLP, Speech and Language Pathologist. Upon receiving a request, Ms. Rosenberg will contact the family to review the fee structure and process for moving forward. If the family agrees to the fees, Ms. Rosenberg will then gather pertinent information to place them with a therapist. (There may be a waitlist, depending on how many therapists are in Tokyo at the time of the request.) All therapists are qualified, or are in the process of completing their certification. (At times, therapists working with the Tokyo Association of Foreign Speech and Language Pathologists have completed their course work, but are still awaiting certification. Often insurance companies in the U.S. will not cover therapy provided by therapists who are not certified so this is important in the referral process.)
Fees are as follows: ¥6000 fee for the initial referral, ¥12,000 per hour for therapy plus any transportation cost for the therapist. Evaluations range from ¥20,000 to ¥60,000 depending on the extent of the testing and the type of report and recommendations the family would like.
For more information, contact Marsha Rosenberg.
Email: marshaslp@gol.com
Parent Support
The Exceptional Parents Group, part of the Tokyo English Life Line (TELL) Community Counseling Service offers an workshop series to support and provide information to parents of children with special needs.
Parents and professionals present the workshops on a wide variety of topics to address the various issues related to raising a child with special needs. Through these workshops, the attending parents also get the opportunity to meet and network with other parents of children with special needs.
The Exceptional Parents Group meets approximately once a month from September through May. Admission for the workshops is free. Meetings are held at TELL’s Conference Room in Omotesando.
Information on the upcoming workshops is sent out via email. Anyone interested in learning more about the Exceptional Parents Group can email Lily Matsubara, Director Special Needs Outreach Services, TELL Community Counseling Service.
Email: tellparentgroup@hotmail.com
Address: 5-4-22 Minami Aoyama Minato-ku , Tokyo 107-0062
Ear, Nose & Throat Specialists Hearing Tests
A new “foreigner friendly “ Ear, Nose & Throat Practice / Voice Clinic opened this year in Tokyo. The Hiro-yama Clinic is owned by Dr. Hiroya Yamaguchi. Dr. Yamaguchi is a medical doctor specializing in ear nose & throat disorders. Many of Dr. Yamaguchi’s patients are professional singers, but he also does general Ear, Nose & Throat work, such as hearing tests.
Joanna Lawson is an English Speech & Language Therapist, who practices at the Hiro-yama Clinic. She specializes in treating voice disorders. This includes working with adults and children who have hoarse voices or lose their voices regularly through too much shouting/singing/screaming / stress or throat diseases. Ms. Lawson works mostly in English, but can also work in German and, through an interpreter, in Japanese. In addition to Ms. Lawson, there is a Japanese voice therapist who works at the Clinic every other Saturday.
The clinic does not currently see children with speech and language delays.
For more information, contact the Hiro-yama Clinic.
Website: www.myclinic.ne.jp/hiro_yama .
Email: hiroyama@kb3.so-net.ne.jp
Address: Hiro-yama Clinic
2-5-1 Shibadaimon
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0012
Tel/fax: (+81) (0)3 3437 6376
Behavior Management
For parents seeking assistance with behavior management of their children, Amanda Leahy, R.N., works with children of all ages. Originally educated and trained as a nurse and midwife, after a number of years of nursing, Ms. Leahy went back to university and received her Masters Degree in Art Therapy. During the last few years she has worked with various aspects of child behavioral strategies. Ms. Leahy focuses on positive parenting and child behavioral management strategies with families in Tokyo, in their home-environment.
For more information, contact Ms. Leahy directly.
E-mail: aleahy@d06.itscom.net
Home Telephone: 03-5485-3198
Mobile Telephone: 090-4831 9442
Musical Therapy
Musical therapist Atsuko Matsuzaki is certified by the American Music Therapy Association, and is available for private practice in your home. Specializing in therapy for pople with special needs including ADHD and autism.
E-Mail: ikeikeatsuko@yahoo.co.jp
Phone: 03-3705-4848
Sleep Therapist
Melissa Symons is a registered nurse in Australia with paediatric experience at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. She is immunisation accredited and most importantly mother of two.
“Baby Gently”
For parents looking for a sleep clinic in Tokyo “Baby Gently” is a home based support service for mothers with unsettled babies and poor sleepers.
The consultation usually lasts 2 hours. It includes a sleep and medical history, identifying sleep issues, and then settling the child.
A report of the consultation is then emailed to the client. On day two a follow up phone call is made to ensure everything is on track.
Cost ¥15,000 (receipt provided)
Contact Melissa Symons
Email melissaandbruce@gol.com
Tel/fax 03 3445 7074
Shoko Sasaki - Bilingual U.S. Certified School Psychologist
Services include: Psycho-educational evaluations for school aged children to identify learning styles and differences, and psycho-developmental evaluations for children 3 to 5. Family therapy for child related issues is also available.
Sasaki Educational Consulting;
Yoyogi Terrace #216,
1-32-27 Tomigaya,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0063
Telephone: 03-3466-1481
Autism Spectrum Disorders
A Two Day Workshop Presented by Autism Partnership
September 17 -18, 2005
Topics: Identifying Effective Treatments for Autism, ABA in the Treatment of Autism, Behavior Management for Parents and Professionals, and Teaching Language Skills to Autistic Children
For further information, please contact:
Joli Knott, Japan Services Director
03-5423-0736
Thank you to Marsha Rosenberg, Caroline Aggerstam, Joanna Lawson, Lil Matsubara, Melissa Simmons, and Manisha Kisana for contributing information.