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ABOUT YUKARI MAKINO

Somatic Psychotherapist from Japan

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About Yukari Makino

Dr. Yukari Makino is a licensed Clinical Psychologist (ID: 07628) with a Doctorate in Psychology, and has been offering trauma-informed psychotherapy since 1996 in Japan.

 

Dr. Yukari Makino is a certified EMDR therapist through the Japan EMDR Association (JEMDRA) and a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Her clinical training also includes Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Brainspotting, and the Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM), which she integrates with her own culturally grounded approaches to trauma work.

 

Drawing on both Western modalities and traditional Japanese perspectives, Yukari’s work gently supports the healing of collective, cultural, and embodied trauma. She practiced in mental health clinics and private settings in Tokyo for over two decades before relocating to Los Angeles, California in 2018, where she now serves a diverse and international clientele.

 

Yukari’s sessions offer a space where healing begins not through analysis alone, but through connection—connection to image, sensation, rhythm, and presence.

From the left brain to the right brain. From intellectual effort to playful exploration. From thinking into the world of the body, the senses, and imagination.

 

She warmly invites you to experience a different kind of therapy—one that values what is felt over what is explained, and what is embodied over what is performed.

Let us return to the quiet, inner wisdom that has always lived within you—rooted in the body, nourished by sensation, and remembered through play.

Yukari Makino Education and Experience:

1996-2003 Kokoro / mind & Body Clinical Center – Group psychotherapy facilitator

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1997-1999 Tokyo Minato City Educational Research and Training Center- Child, Parent, Family therapy

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2000-2018 Watanabe Mental Clinic – Clinical psychologist

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2009 – Makino Psychotherapy Lab. / Somatic Approach Japan

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2012-2018 Yokohama Soei University – Associate Professor

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2019-2022 March — Pepperdine Graduate School, Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy

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2021  Intern experience at Serenity Trauma Healing Center, Low Cost Community Counseling Center, and Southern California Counseling Center

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2022 July —  AMFT #134058, APCC#12036 / Super Visor : Rachel Cole (LCSW 24313)

Yukari Makino Training History

  • Jungian Psychotherapist Training at Sanno Institute of Psychology (1993-2001)

  • Art therapy, including Hakoniwa ( Sand Play Therapy)

  • Rorschach test training: Kataguchi system, which is oriented psychodynamics (1996)

  • Mindfulness (1996-)

  • Rorshach study group: Kataguchi system, which is oriented psychodynamic (2000-2018)

  • Psychotherapist Training at Kitayama psycho-analysis Institute (2000-2007)

  • Mindfulness (2008-)

  • EMDR (2009-)　Certified EMDR Therapist

  • Dohsa-hou (an integrated Japanese body-mind therapy, also called “motor action psychotherapy” / 2009-)

  • Somatic Experiencing (2009-) / Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner(SEP) (2011) /. 2012-2015 Somatic Experiencing® Kobe Training Organizer, Somatic Experiencing® Assistant, Somatic Experiencing® 1hour Presenter

  • Mental Support after a natural disaster ( I volunteered through the Japanese Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists at the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, and also volunteered thorough the Japan Society of Psychosomatic Medicine to provide free counseling to victims in Soma a city in Fukushima in 2011)

  • Holography Talk Therapist (2011-)

  • ​Trauma Approach Yoga teacher (2012-)

  • Restorative Yoga teacher (2013-)

  • Stephen Gilligan Trance Camp/ Generative Trance Training (2013-)

  • ​Positive Psychology Trainer ( Daniela Blickhan Training / 2014 -)

  • Brain Spotting Phase 1 + Phase 2 (2014)

  • Trainings for Trauma Therapists with Kathy L. Kain (2015)

  • NARM (Neuro Affective Relational Model) Practitioner(2017)

  • SEE FAR  CBT(2017)

  • Dancing Mindfulness Facilitator (2019)

  • ​Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 2(2020-2021)

  • Advanced Training in Complex Trauma and Dissociation with Dr. Janina Fisher (2020）

  • EMDR Flash Technique / Advanced Flash Technique (2020)

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy / Advanced Training in Complex Trauma and Dissociation with Dr. Janina Fisher (2020-2021)

  • Bessel van der Kolk / Trauma research Foundation’s Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies (2020-）

  • Comprehensive Resource Model®Basic Training, Obstacle Questions, Working with Paradox, Case Conceptualization and Treatment of DID and DDNOS, Core Self (2020-)

  • Kathy Kain / Somatic Resilience and Regulation ( As an Assistant 2022- ) 

  • EMDR-Child Specialist Intensive Certificate Program by Ana Gomez (2022)

  • Certified TIST Therapist (Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment) trained by Janina Fisher, PhD — Integrative Parts Work for Dissociation and Complex PTSD(2024-2025)

  • ​Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 3 Module 3 (2025)

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