What is "Ganjuu"?
“Ganjuu” is an Okinawan word meaning ‘good, well, strong, healthy’. In order to thrive in the OIST environment, it helps to have a certain level of Ganjuu! Many factors (for example, physical health, change, working environment, family and social relationships, life events, deadlines, skills and experience) can influence our wellbeing and ability to thrive. We aim to support and nurture Ganjuu in the whole of the OIST community so that together we can build opportunities from these challenges.
Who can access the service?
The Ganjuu Wellbeing Service is free and open to anyone who is part of the OIST community and living in Japan. This includes anyone who works (including part time and temp staff) or studies at OIST as well as their family members. (Family member is intended to be a partner, husband, wife or child living in the same household). Occasionally we will work with a family members outside of the family home provided they are living in Japan. We provide services to children and adults and can work with individuals, couples, families and groups.
We are developing a range of services in both English and Japanese. If other languages are required, there are helplines and fee-based counselling services available in Okinawa and mainland Japan that can accomodate other languages. For more information, please see Ganjuu Resources and/or the Graduate School webpage.
*Children under age of 12 needs to be accompanied to appointments
What kind of support do we provide?
We aim to:
- Support OIST to be a community which enhances the wellbeing of all of its members, by applying psychological knowledge and understanding across the organisation.
- Produce workshops to support development of skills which increase wellbeing and productivity.
- Offer consultation, advice and intervention in relation to range of problems that may impact on wellbeing within and outside of the workplace.
- Psychological therapy is always time limited. Duration of therapy will vary depending on the needs. The clinician or service user is able to end therapy at any time. Wherever possible the reasons for ending therapy should be discussed together with forward planning.
- As a small wellbeing service, we are providing psychological therapy and counselling for common challenges. There are limits to what we can provide. We do not have expertise in all areas and we may need to refer you to external services.
- Provide flexible, responsive services which could be in the form of a one-off meeting, developing workplace support, training or conciliation for teams or more traditional individual, couple, family or group sessions. We believe that it is better to get support early so that problems do not escalate and in order that everyone can get the most out of their experience at OIST and in Okinawa. We are always happy to meet informally if you want to discuss whether we are the right service.
- If a member of the OIST community would prefer to see a doctor, therapist or counsellor outside of OIST we can provide details of services in the community.
- Develop a range of resources including leaflets, online materials and other useful information aimed at supporting wellbeing.
We are very interested in benefiting from your insights and experience, and sharing your ideas for ways that we can help to build useful services. Please feel free to get in touch with us.
What to expect
The service is time limited (You and your clinician will agree to meet for a set number of sessions). Together you will agree on the focus area for your therapy.
Each session is typically 50 minutes, and are offered typically weekly or every two weeks. As part of the work, you may be asked to do in between sessions, such as additional readings.
How can I schedule an appointment?
Please submit the request form to Ganjuu center via email (we recommend password protecting the form for security), or alternatively place it in our secure mailbox outside the external office door. Once we have received the form you can currently expect a 2-3 week wait for an initial appointment to be offered.
- We do not provide emergency services. For emergency help and resources, please follow: Emergency.
- Our counseling service is time limited.
Confidentiality
Your confidentiality is of prime importance to us. Our Confidentiality Guidelines are available to everyone at the time of their initial assessment and via the link below. If you have any questions or concerns about the privacy of your information please do not hesitate to discuss this with us prior to making an appointment. Please see our 'Codes of Practice, Confidentiality and Data Protection Guidelines'.
*Email is not a secure or private means of communication. We understand that people may prefer to make some communications by email, but we would ask that you only do this after proper consideration of the risks. We will only use email to contact you with your permission, or in reply to a message that you send us, and we will not go into any detail about things we have discussed confidentially. Email communication will be printed and kept confidentially as part of your records.
Location
Ganjuu Wellbeing Service
Hillside 3/09, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa, Japan 904-0497 (Former President's House)
Accessibility
- Please park your cars in front of the Ganjuu's "RESERVED" parking slots.
- We have an accessible restroom. People with wheelchair can use our bathrooms. We also have a diaper chaging table in our accessible restroom.
- What it looks like inside (Ganjuu Waiting Area)
Opening Hours
9:00-17:00 Monday-Friday
(Closed on weekends and OIST holidays)
Contact
GanjuuWellbeing Center: 098-982-3327 ext. 23327 / ganjuu@oist.jp
OIST Health Center: 098-966-8945 ext. 18945