I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I was a dance major in the drama department of Nihon University, College of Art. I studied drama scripts and the life of Oscar Wilde in my master of arts program at Nihon University Graduate School of Art. After I worked for the entertainment industry, I studied movement training for actors while earning my MA in Text and Performance at King’s College London and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, UK.
My interest in psychology and helping people heal through movement drove me to be a dance movement therapist. I obtained my Post Graduate Diploma in Dance Movement Therapy from London City University/Laban Centre London. My training in London was mainly in psychodynamic psychotherapy. My internship sites were schools and hospitals. I had my own psychoanalysis with a Freudian independent therapist.
After I went back to Japan, I was working at a psychiatric hospital as a dance movement therapist. Many of my clients were diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression and dementia. I moved to Honolulu, Hawaii and started my Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I chose educational psychology because my experience of traveling to Zambia and working in elementary schools in London taught me how important education is. I learned not only mainstream educational psychology but also culture and physiology through my PhD education.
I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area upon my graduation. I completed a doctoral re-specialization program in Clinical Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, San Francisco. My internship site was at a local community mental health clinic. My responsibilities included providing individual, group, and family therapy, acting as a mental health coordinator, offering crisis intervention in school-based settings (K-8), and performing psychological testing.