It’s hard to believe we’re already entering the last third of the year! 2021 has been a whirlwind for TELL’s Okinawa office! Read about new Bloom Rooms in the TELL Okinawa Offices below.

Here’s a little summary of what we’ve been up to. In March, we opened a second office location in Chatan! This has allowed us to add to the available hours we can offer to clients.

We expanded our team considerably to better meet our clients’ needs and improve our internal support systems for the clinicians so they can focus on providing even better quality care! We now have a solid administrative team of billing specialists and an intake coordinator. We’ve also been able to add clinicians to our team, including one therapist who specializes in art therapy! We now have a total of 15 clinicians, six of whom provide solely teletherapy!

The ongoing States of Emergency in Japan, combined with the additional restrictions set forth by the Status of Forces Agreement (under which the majority of our clinicians and clients fall as part of the U.S. military community stationed overseas), has made daily life more challenging. The number of referrals we receive has increased, as a result.

Earlier this year we returned to see more clients in person (in cases agreed upon by both client and clinician and when done so safely). However, we’ve also continued providing a large number of telehealth sessions. From January through the end of July, we provided over 3600 therapy sessions from the Okinawa office alone. Close to half of these were via teletherapy. We also have participated in community events such as a mental health resource fair held at Kadena Air Force Base, attended by our Intake Coordinator, Emily Embers. One of our clinicians, Kari, also recently presented to the staff at orientation for Okinawa Christian School International on recognizing depression in adolescents and assessing and responding to suicidal ideation among this population.

Beyond these staff and building expansions, providing ongoing therapy, and engaging in the community, we’ve focused greatly here on clinicians and clients alike practicing self-care. This includes anything that is done mindfully and intentionally every day in our best interest – maintain or create some type of structure and routine, keep up with social interaction even if it is all done through online means; moving our bodies regularly, getting outside to do so when possible, as well as interacting in some way with nature. As always we encourage everyone to follow these suggestions.

We are excited for what the future holds here in Okinawa! Make an appointment today to view the Bloom Rooms in TELL Okinawa Offices.