A Therapeutic Slice of Americana ：By Jewel

Every Friday during my senior year of college in America, I always found myself  humming an upbeat '80s tune and swinging my arms and legs around like a giddy little kid on his way to the candy store. Only in my case, the reason for my giddiness wasn't the candy store, but the fact that I was on my way to see my beloved therapist. I loved Fridays because it was the day I could finally sit down with my therapist, unravel, sort my head, and get the past week's mounting pressures off my chest.

In America, therapy isn't just for the mentally ill - it can be helpful for anyone who wants to get a better handle on life. I had never felt ashamed about seeing a therapist, because it is deemed socially acceptable in America. A couple of my girlfriends were also in therapy, and almost everyone I knew read self-help books.
The trend of mental health continues to boom in the U.S. When I returned to Japan last year, I asked my mother why the mental health trend hasn't caught on in Japan. My mother came up with the theory that Japanese fortune-tellers are the rough equivalent of American therapists. Like therapists, fortune tellers provide their clients with a sense of direction and hope for the future. And in the same way therapists fill up the yellow pages of every American phone book, fortune tellers seem to exist in every crack and cranny in Japan   (just look at Okaido!)

Since I'm not much of a fortune teller enthusiast, I continue to miss the American mental health culture. I miss the feeling of constantly trying to better myself through the nurturing of my psyche. I miss having late-night discussions with my friends about various socio-psychological theories. But most of all, I miss the giddy feeling I used to get every Friday as I skipped towards my therapist's. These days, I compensate for this emptiness by frequenting the tiny section in Kinokuniya featuring English self-help books. I encourage anyone interested in American culture to read one of these books -- not necessarily to enhance your mental wellness, but in order to get a taste of a very interesting slice of American life!

By Jewel

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