The development of family therapy in Japanese psychosomatic medicine

It was in the mid-1980s that family therapy based on the system model began to catch attention in Japanese psychosomatic medicine. It began with the introduction of family therapy for eating disorders by Minuchin. In the 1990s, a full-scale practice of family therapy led by the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine in Kyushu University Hospital was begun. An effective outcome was seen not only in eating disorders, but also in various psychosomatic disorders. The most significant factor of the above practice is the development of a new medical family therapy model and the techniques based on it.