Called Hikikomori, it is introduced from Japan and now well known to both the psychiatric community and general public. Hikokomori clients are mostly adolescent or young adult men who become recluses in their parents’ homes for months or years. They...
Called Hikikomori, it is introduced from Japan and now well known to both the psychiatric community and general public. Hikokomori clients are mostly adolescent or young adult men who become recluses in their parents’ homes for months or years. They withdraw from contact even with their family, rarely have friends, and do not attend school or hold a job. Over the past few years, the Hikikomori issue also has been a kind of prime concern of Korean society, but the treatment often includes milieu, family, and exposure therapy without solid evidence, concrete counseling methods nor substantive strategies.
This study, therefore, purposes to provide understanding of Hikikomori, to analyze an efficiency of Cyber-space from a counseling approaches perspective and to suggest the Christian Cyber-counseling method for the treatment of Hikikomori clients. For those purposes, this study will trace the origin of Hikokomoris' withdrawal from social activity and its social distancing from the psychological, sociocultural, biblical perspectives. Following this, it will carry out comparative analysis between conventional counseling methods and cyber-counseling methods to clarify appropriate counseling approaches for Hikikomori particularly by christian counselor. Lastly, it will also suggest applicable christian cyber-counseling approaches for Hikikomori by including case study of chosen model internet web site, which has provided cyber-counseling for those who want to recover from Hikikomori.