About Dr. Ishikawa
Welcome to Family Center Japan, the office of Ryuko Ishikawa, M.D.
As one of only a handful of psychiatrists with medical licenses to practice in both Japan and the United States, Dr. Ishikawa established the Family Center Psychiatric and liaison service center in Ginza in 2003, where she currently presides.
Extensive clinical experience in both Japan and overseas has provided Dr. Ishikawa with broad professional perspective and deep understanding of contemporary psychiatric issues. Fields of expertise include areas involving couples, individuals and family relationship conflicts such as parent-child difficulties, as well as issues in human relationships that arise between or within groups at small and large enterprises. As an expert in cross cultural human relations she helps joint venture corporate firms. Dr. Ishikawa assesses and diagnoses situations based on relevant emotional systems theory and helps the respective organization to run smoothly.
The Family Center is a very unique center providing emotional care for individuals and family for both the English and Japanese speaking communities in Japan, based upon prominent American theory. The center offers personalized counseling and psychotherapy services for individuals as well as interracial, foreign and Japanese couples. Dr. Ishikawa and her team also offer tailored corporate consulting services to meet the varied needs of organizational clients.
Career
Education and Professional Experience
Dr. Ishikawa was awarded a research fellowship in psychiatry from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (F.F.R.P.), with which she went on to study child psychiatry as Clinical Fellow in Child Psychiatry at the Langley Porter Neuro-Psychiatric Institute at the University of California at San Francisco.
On returning to Japan, she focused her efforts on medical staff coaching and research as chief psychiatrist at Tokyo Metropolitan Umegaoka Hospital, where she helped to create the first children's psychiatric department in Japan.
Afterwards, she returned to the United States where she completed advanced training in family psychiatry at Georgetown University's Family Center in Washington, D.C. Under the direct supervision of Professor Murray Bowen, M.D., the accomplished academic and internationally renowned clinician recognized for his "Family Systems Theory”, the intent was to further develop her clinical and theoretical understanding. Dr. Ishikawa was greatly influenced by Bowen’s work and she therefore uses Family Systems and Family Psychotherapy as her clinical tools. (Please see more about this in Theory)
Dr. Ishikawa completed her residency at Stanford University as pre-requisite training for the National Medical Practitioners Qualifying Examination in the United States, She passed and received her Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificates in California in 1986, and became chief psychiatrist at the San Mateo County Department of Mental Health. She left the position in 1992 to open her own practice in Los Angeles, and has focused primarily on working with clients on a private basis ever since.
Dr. Ishikawa still maintains close ties with the Bowen Center in Washington, D.C.