Integrated research on psychotherapy and social work: A holonical approach to child abuse intervention in Japan

Integrated research on psychotherapy and social work: A holonical approach to child abuse intervention in Japan Professor Norifumi Senga from Kansai University discusses his research on effective intervention methods for child abuse. His work emphasises the Holonical Approach, which focuses on understanding the complex interactions within systems to enhance child protection strategies. Child abuse has become a serious social problem in Japan, and the number of abuse cases handled by child guidance centres is increasing rapidly. Since there are many complex factors involved in child abuse, it is not effective to deal with it in isolation, with psychotherapy dealing with the internal world and social work dealing with the external world. Although ensuring child safety is an intervention in the external environment, the process of a child internalising a sense of security involves internal themes. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a model of an integrated approach that combines psychological therapy and social work, such as psychological support from a social work perspective and social work from a psychological perspective.