Background and Qualifications
Lil Wills
Psychotherapist, Counsellor
BA, DipCouns,Registered Member MBACP Accred. (No. 599444)
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Born and educated in the UK, I trained and practiced as a psychotherapist and counsellor and in child and family work in the UK before moving to Japan in 2009 and opening English Counselling Kansai. I have been based in the current premises in Kobe since 2011.
Qualifications and Experience
I am an accredited member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and registered on the BACP Register, a statutory register under the UK Health and Care Professions Council. I am also a associate clinical member of International Mental Health Professionals Japan (IMHPJ) and a former member of IMHPJ's Board of Directors. I work within the ethical frameworks/guidelines and annual re-accreditation requirements of all these organisations.
Education:
I qualified as a psychotherapist/counsellor for adults in the UK (Dip Couns, Braintree College), based on a grounding in a range of methods (psychodynamic, person-centred, CBT) followed by in depth study and supervised practice in a relational psychodynamic and attachment model. Since then I have undertaken further training to work with children and families (including play therapy and systemic family work techniques) and to deepen my skills in a wide range of areas, such as studying how current neuroscience can be applied in psychotherapy and counselling, particularly with regards to trauma and memory, and deepening my knowledge of inter-cultural issues in counselling and couples counselling. Most recently I have undertaken training in ACT, experiential psychotherapy (also known as Hakomi), mindfulness methods, and Internal Family Systems therapy.UK experience:
Alongside counselling in private practice with clients from all kinds of backgrounds suffering from depression, anxiety, life problems, relationship difficulties and so on, I worked for charities (NPOs) in the UK for nearly 10 years, primarily in child and family work and organisations offering therapy and other services for adult and child survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence and child abuse. In central London I worked extensively with refugees and migrants from all over the world, specialising in bi-cultural children and teenagers and supporting disadvantaged families to find solutions to child protection and other issues avoiding the need for social services intervention. I also worked to improve public and voluntary services as the representative of the voluntary sector on Westminster's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) steering board, inspired and organised a voluntary-statutory conference on child mental health ('Mind the Gap') and worked on the development of an open-access young people's counselling service in Westminster. In my then home town in Colchester I was a counsellor, trainer and director of the award-winning small charity CARA (Colchester Action on Rape and Abuse www.cara.org.uk), which I was involved with for 7 years.Japan experience:
I have been working mainly in private practice with individuals, couples and children since 2009, moving to my current premises in Kobe in 2011 where I have a busy practice. As well as mostly private individuals, I receive referrals from international schools and voluntary organisations (especially those working with migrants, domestic violence, and gender identity and sexuality). More recently I am employed part-time as a School Counsellor at Osaka YMCA International School (kinder, elementary and junior high). I have been on the Board of Directors of International Mental health Professionals Japan (IMHPJ) and remain an active member. Outside of counselling I occasionally work in translation, English publishing, and teaching.Specialisms
I have developed particular expertise with working with the traumatic effects of abuse, violence and difficult childhood circumstances, relationship difficulties, family/child-related issues, domestic violence, and issues related to sexuality, as well as cultural differences and issues linked to migration and bi-cultural families. I also have an interest not only in helping people navigate through immediate crises or severe issues but enabling people who feel stuck or frustrated to develop the full potential of their lives.
I specialise in relational and attachment-related therapy for which works well for adults who find themselves suffering from a range of difficulties, bringing in other techniques as required. However my philosophy is that there is no perfect one-size-fits-all therapy (whatever proponents of particular models may say) what is important is being able to recognise the needs of this particular client at this time and respond with the best possible therapeutic model for that person, adapting it to provide continuing development. Play therapy (using sandtray, art, etc) is used to work with children in a non-threatening way within their experiential frame, and can also be helpful with adults to help access more unconscious processes without the need for verbal explanation.
Cultural adjustment (in both directions) and international couple and family relationships relationships have been a specialism even before leaving the UK. Over 9 years in Japan I have become extremely familiar with patterns of relationships and common problems and solutions between western and Japanese partners, adapting my couples work considerably to fit the cultural context here in communication with both western and Japanese therapists. Fortunately my personal familiarity and respect for western and Japanese life and Japanese language ability enables me to have good understanding of both sides and I consciously aim to be aware of and deal with possible bias or power dynamics involved with intercultural couples and families.
I have also come to specialise in gender identity and sexuality, and believe I am the only western therapist currently focussing on this client group in Japan.
I am fairly fluent in Japanese (spoken and written) but do not actively offer counselling in Japanese as I believe that the level of understanding of nuances and ability to reflect internally while communicating with ease is difficult to achieve for second language speakers. However, where Japanese language is required in addition to English (for example to communicate with bilingual couples or bi-cultural families) I am happy to do my best.
Please see Counselling Approach, Therapeutic Play, and FAQs for more details of how I work and my specialities.
