Bridging East and West: Adapting Morita and Naikan Therapies for Western Clients
Sunday, June 8, 2025. This is for Mahua.
In an era where mindfulness has migrated from Zen monasteries to Silicon Valley boardrooms, it’s worth asking: what else from Eastern psychology might be valuable in a Western clinical setting—if only we could translate it without losing the soul of the practice?
Morita and Naikan therapy, two Japanese psychological traditions rooted in Buddhist philosophy, offer profoundly countercultural approaches to suffering and self-examination.
But can they work with a Western client steeped in self-esteem culture, therapeutic disclosure, and the pursuit of happiness?
Absolutely—but adaptation requires care, cultural sensitivity, and a deep understanding of the philosophical chasm between East and West.
What Are Morita and Naikan Therapies?
Morita Therapy: developed by Japanese psychiatrist Shoma Morita in the early 20th century, is a treatment originally designed for anxiety, especially shinkeishitsu (a form of obsessive neurosis).
It is grounded in Zen principles and accepts unpleasant emotions not as problems to be solved, but as natural parts of life to be observed, accepted, and moved through. Morita emphasizes arugamama—accepting things as they are—and acting in accordance with purpose, not mood.
Naikan Therapy: created by Yoshimoto Ishin, is a structured method of self-reflection rooted in Shin Buddhist ideas of gratitude and interdependence. Clients are invited to consider three questions in relation to important people in their lives:
What have I received from this person?
What have I given to this person?
What troubles or difficulties have I caused this person?
Naikan is not about catharsis or confession. It is a meditative, often humbling inventory that shifts focus from entitlement to appreciation.
Why These Approaches Challenge Western Norms
In most Western therapy, the goal is to “process feelings” and “find your truth.”
These are noble pursuits—but they are grounded in a cultural framework that elevates the individual self as a project to be refined, healed, and fulfilled.
Eastern psychologies like Morita and Naikan, in contrast, don’t ask how you feel about your mother—they ask how you acted toward her.
They are less concerned with internal consistency and more focused on behavioral integrity and relational gratitude.
To a Western client, this can be jarring. Where is the validation? Where is the trauma narrative? Where is the safe container for emotional release?
That’s precisely what makes these modalities so powerful. They sidestep the self-referential loop of "fixing your feelings" and redirect attention to what needs doing now and how we’ve shown up for others.
Adapting Morita for Western Clients
To make Morita Therapy accessible without diluting its essence, a therapist must guide clients away from emotional control and toward behavioral commitment. This includes:
Normalizing discomfort. Educate clients that anxiety, depression, and hesitation are natural and need not be eliminated to live meaningfully.
Replacing emotional literacy with action orientation.Rather than exploring why someone feels anxious, a therapist might say, “What’s the next useful thing you could do—anxious or not?”
Using journaling to observe without analysis. Encourage clients to write daily observations of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, not to interpret them but to notice patterns without judgment.
Some clients—particularly those steeped in cognitive-behavioral therapy or ACT—may find this shift surprisingly liberating.
Others may resist giving up the idea that they must feel better before they act. That resistance becomes material to observe, not a barrier to progress.
Adapting Naikan for Western Clients
Naikan’s structured reflection can be profound for clients who struggle with blame, resentment, or self-focus. Here’s how it can be introduced:
Frame it as a gratitude practice with teeth: Unlike vague gratitude journals, Naikan forces specificity. What exactly did your partner do for you this week? How many meals did they cook? What did you give back? Where did you cause trouble?
Adapt the format: Western clients might start with just one relationship—perhaps a parent or a spouse—and spend 20 minutes a day writing responses to the three Naikan questions. It can be done as a journaling exercise, or as part of therapy homework.
Include moments of resistance: Therapists should expect clients to balk at question #3.
That’s part of the medicine. The point isn’t guilt—it’s interdependence. Western therapy often seeks to free the individual from shame; Naikan seeks to free them from the illusion of separateness.
Cultural Translation, Not Cultural Appropriation
Adapting Eastern modalities for Western clients must go beyond cherry-picking techniques. It requires translating worldviews.
Western psychology tends to validate the primacy of the self: identity, expression, individuation.
Morita and Naikan challenge that.
They emphasize impermanence, humility, and duty. For clients ready to step outside the cultural box of “healing through self-focus,” these methods can be transformative.
But adaptation doesn’t mean softening the message.
Instead, therapists must carefully scaffold these practices—introducing them with cultural context, philosophical framing, and attunement to the client's readiness.
Final Thoughts
In a culture that often treats discomfort as pathology and self-expression as salvation, Morita and Naikan therapy offer a radical invitation: observe your feelings, act with purpose, and examine the quiet debts of daily life.
Not to erase your self, but to right-size it.
Not to invalidate your wounds, but to gently ask whether focusing on them endlessly leads to liberation.
Adapting these therapies for the West isn’t about trading Freud for Buddha—it’s about offering clients a wider frame for what it means to live meaningfully. Especially in a time when self-help feels increasingly like self-loop, these ancient approaches may feel like fresh air.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Krech, G. (2002). Naikan: Gratitude, grace, and the Japanese art of self-reflection. Stone Bridge Press.
Krech, G. (2000). The art of taking action: Lessons from Japanese psychology. Stone Bridge Press.
Morita, S. (1998). Morita Therapy and the True Nature of Anxiety-Based Disorders (Shinkeishitsu). (A. Kondo & C. Reynolds, Trans.). SUNY Press.
Suzuki, S. (2011). Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Shambhala Publications.
LeVine, R. A., & White, M. I. (Eds.). (1986). Human conditions: The cultural basis of educational development.Routledge.