Below are instructions for making initial appointments with a psychiatrist. Please fill out the form only after carefully reading  the following instructions. 

The clinic places importance on a team approach and we require that every patient goes through  an initial appointment with the psychiatrist. Please note that a psychiatrist is a medical doctor and is different from a pscyhologist/psychotherapist. After the initial appointment with the psychiatrist, he will be able to provide an indication of whether the child would require continued medical follw ups. If it is decided that medical support is not required, only the initial appointment with the psychiatrist is required.  Appointments with the psychologist/ psychotherapist can be made concurrently and the timing of each appointment will depend on the aviailability of each staff. 

If the patient is already seeing another psychiatrist (M.D.) on a regular basis, only an initial appointment needs to be made at 1st STEP.  This will be considered a Second Opinion  Appointment and needs to be indicated on the form below. Japanese insurance cannot be used for Second Opinion Appointments.

Age range of patients:
Children up to the age of 19. (Up to High School aged students)
(We have an overwhelming number of requests and are currently unable to take on  patient above this age group.)

Appointment dates:
First time appointments  with the psychiatrist are on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 14:30~.
This may coiincide with school or work times but we have set this time slot to allocate enough time for first time appointments. We can only accept initial appointments during these time slots. Follow up appointments can be made at other times of the day. We appreciate your understanding. 

 Reservation Fee:
At 1st STEP Kokoro no Clinic, we ask for reservation fees in order for us to set aside sufficient time for each client. We believe that with adequate time for each session, it would help us to better understand each client and lead to more effective treatment. The time we have set for the initial appointment is 45-60 minutes and for subsequent appointments is 15-20 minutes. This is in contrast to much shorter sessions in the majority of Japanese psychiatric hospitals and clinics. The reservation fee has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Fees will include the reservation fee in addition to the fee covered by Japanese national insurance. 

※1　This includes patients who are Japanese but would potentially require the psychiatrsit to provide multicultrual support. This may refer to support for English speaking parents,  internatianl school teachears or school counselors. The fee will be required every follow up session. ※2 All prices are inclusive of tax.