Dr. Brian Ogawa
Dr. Ogawa is an internationally recognized practitioner and award winning teacher of Morita Therapy. He was most recently a tenured Full Professor (2001-2018) in the Human Services Department at Washburn University, where he was the Department Chair from 2006-2015. Dr. Ogawa also directed the Higher Education Commission and Board of Regents approved Morita Therapy Certificate Program for undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, as well as professionals in psychology, social work, human services, education, and other helping professions. This program was the only higher education/academic certification in Morita Therapy ever in the United States. Certificate graduates are from across the USA and from Japan. Required 15-credit course work included Eastern Therapies in Intervention and Treatment, Morita Therapy Intensive Residential, Morita Methods in Counseling, Morita Research Seminar (Study Abroad), and Internship/Independent Project. Dr. Ogawa was the recipient of the 2014 Ned N. Fleming Excellence in Teaching Award. He taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in Human Development, Group Counseling, Legal Policy, Victimology, Victim/Survivor Services, Family Issues, Multicultural Issues in Human Services, Hate and Bias Crimes, and Internships. Dr. Ogawa was the Vice-President/President Elect of the Washburn Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the honor society for international scholars, and led numerous students on study abroad to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Dr. Ogawa's books [See READ) include the following: Desire for Life: The Practitioner's Introduction to Morita Therapy for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders (Xlibris/Pearson/Penguin); A River to Live By: The 12 Life Principles of Morita Therapy (Xlibris/Random House); Walking On Eggshells: Practical Counsel for Women in or Leaving an Abusive Relationship (Kendall Hunt); Color of Justice: Culturally Sensitive Treatment of Minority Crime Victims, 2nd Edition (Allyn & Bacon); and To Tell the Truth (Volcano Press; Children's Museum of Denver, Colorado). Dr. Ogawa has also contributed to many scholarly book chapters (e.g, Family Violence and Religion; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/DHHS Cultural Competency Series) and journal articles (e.g., International Bulletin of Morita Therapy; Journal of Religion and Abuse) as well as professional training manuals and practitioner guides (e.g., USDOJ New Directions from the Field: Victims’ Rights and Services for the 21st Century). Dr. Ogawa is currently completing a book about his Issei father’s Americanization through Moritist, cultural, historical, and political perspectives.
San Francisco Theological Seminary (“Princeton of the West,” the oldest seminary west of the Mississippi): Dr. Ogawa’s doctoral studies 1975-1980 with his dissertation on Morita Therapy (SFTS photo)
Dr. Ogawa received his doctoral education at San Francisco Theological Seminary in Advanced Pastoral Studies: Counseling (DMin), where he wrote his dissertation on Morita Therapy; Fuller Theological Seminary: Theology (MDiv); and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA): East Asian Cultural Geography (BA). Dr. Ogawa has been the national director of research, education, and training on crime victim issues and associate faculty in criminal justice at the University of North Texas; chief of the Texas Attorney General’s crime victims research and policy division; chief of the Maui County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney’s division responsible for forensic expert testimony (homicide and sexual assault of adults and children), witness protection, and victim counseling and services; UCLA and University of Hawaii mental health researcher (NIMH-funded “cultural and familial aspects of schizophrenia,” “cultural definitions of normal behavior,” and “cross-ethnic study on death, dying, and bereavement”); nationally certified trauma counselor; Los Angeles County deputy medical examiner coroner in behavioral analysis; and director of the Health Center Pacific, a private practice in Morita Therapy and Naikan Therapy. Dr. Ogawa is a frequent speaker, lecturer, and trainer internationally and throughout the United States.
Dr. Ogawa has been studying, practicing, and teaching Morita Therapy since the 1960s and is a member of the International Committee of Morita Therapy (Japanese Society for Morita Therapy). He has introduced Morita Therapy to tens of thousands of students and professionals. As written by Dr. Peg LeVine, Director and Founder of the Niche Psychotherapy/Classic Morita Therapy Centre of Melbourne, Australia, in the book, Classic Morita Therapy: "Across the globe, foremost, Brian Ogawa has been my visionary friend, colleague, and accomplice in safeguarding Morita's original therapy as other scholars reconfigure Morita Therapy for counseling practices."
The White House Oval Office: President Bill Clinton presenting Dr. Ogawa the 1995 National Crime Victims Service Award (Photo by White House Photographer)
In 1995, Dr. Ogawa received the prestigious National Crime Victims Service Award from President Bill Clinton at a ceremony in the White House Oval Office, followed by a reception in the Roosevelt Room hosted by Attorney General Janet Reno, for his work in post-trauma, cultural competency, and Morita Therapy.
Dr. Ogawa’s father was born and raised in Kochi in the Meiji Era, the same hometown prefecture and era as Dr. Morita. Dr. Ogawa therefore maintains an ancestral obligation and place identification, as well as professional integrity and personal commitment, to honor Dr. Morita’s memory and life work. Dr. Ogawa’s maternal grandparents emigrated from Obama City, Fukui Prefecture to Hawaii in the late 1800s to labor in the Waialua sugar cane fields. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and Executive Order 9066, Dr. Ogawa’s family was interned at Manzanar, California, where Dr. Ogawa was born.
Shimantogawa, Kochi, Shikoku (Global Waters photo): Japan’s cleanest and clearest river, and perhaps the inspiration for Dr. Morita’s favorite symbol of life as a freely flowing river. Coincidentally, the English translation of Ogawa is “little river.”
“[Morita Therapy] offers conclusive intervention and counseling across the humanscape of stressful events. Morita was not only a pioneer of psychiatric theory but also a compassionate educator of successful everyday living. His focus was not strictly a medical construct of psychopathology and narrow symptomatic changes achieved through psychotherapy…Morita modeled a holistic approach: the health of the whole person in every life circumstance. He summarized that optimal health results when the body, mind, and emotions are in their ‘natural flow.’ We live with the greatest energy and resilience when we do not obstruct this free and dependable course. The grace and power of a river thus became Morita’s principal life metaphor.” (A River to Live By, p. 11)